The social media and discussion platform Reddit which used to accept Bitcoin payment for its upgraded membership program, Reddit Gold, has stopped accepting the cryptocurrency despite being an early adopter. The platform first began accepting Bitcoin payments for Reddit gold subscriptions in Feb. 2013, and since then users have had the choice of BTC as a payment option when purchasing premium membership.
A conversation two years ago in the “goldbenefits” sub-reddit conversation indicates that bitcoin was once a payment option.
Reddit gold, which is a premium membership program, is also a trinket that you can purchase yourself, or most often is gifted to you by another Redditor. Reddit gold grants members access to extra features to improve their Reddit experience.
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Redditors can pay $3.99/month or $29.99/year to get special features on the site, like no ads, custom themes and avatars, the ability to create Reddit “secret societies,” and “give gold” as a gift to other members whose posts or comments they like. A couple of weeks ago, a Reddit user was unable to use Bitcoin to gift another user a Reddit Gold subscription, which is a common way to show appreciation for a witty or informative post.
No bitcoin for Reddit Gold.
Since Feb. 2013, users have had the option of paying for Reddit Gold membership with bitcoin in addition to the usual credit card and PayPal choices when the cryptocurrency was trading at less than $25 as part of a partnership with Coinbase. As at now, users can only purchase Reddit Gold with PayPal and credit cards.
According to one of Reddit’s administrator “emoney04”, several factors led Reddit to disable Bitcoin payments, most notably is the Coinbase’s decision to discontinue their Merchant Tool product in an attempt to move to a new system called Coinbase Commerce, which will enable “merchants to accept multiple cryptocurrencies directly into a user-controlled wallet.”
The admin explained:
It was in mid-February that Coinbase announced its new commerce platform, which is said to resemble PayPal as clients will find a Coinbase Commerce button in the payment section, similar to the PayPal button. It was stated that the Canadian e-commerce major Shopify, which was previously accepting BTC would be one of the first merchants to use the new system.
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Furthermore, the admin also indicated that Reddit has not decided if it would reintroduce crypto payments after Coinbase implements its new Commerce service. He said Reddit will consider adding the option again depending on how Coinbase new Commerce service i.e. how Coinbase Commerce payment tool progresses.
The administrator said:
“We’re going to take a look at demand and watch the progression of Coinbase Commerce before making a decision on whether to reenable.”
Currently, Reddit users can only upgrade to Reddit Gold through PayPal and credit card payment options, although the feature may return to the social media platform in the future.
For more information on the cryptocurrency market, visit our Bitcoin category.