By
Tolu Ajiboye
March 22nd, 2024
Cryptocurrencies are said to come back to Reddit platform. This time not only BTC but also ETH and LTC payments will be available for users.
It has been revealed that cryptocurrencies will be back on Reddit. Reddit is a popular news and discussion platform that represents itself a community where cryptocurrency enthusiasts have an opportunity to discuss the latest developments and prospects of the technology. The platform’s Bitcoin subreddit unites 816 thousand subscribers, while the number of its Cryptocurrency subreddit amounts to 663 thousand.
In 2013 the platform began accepting Bitcoin payments for purchasing Reddit Gold membership, the premium ad-free version of the site. Nevertheless, in March Reddit team took a decision to disable Bitcoin as a payment method. It was done without prior notice and its customers were left with option to conduct payments using their credit cards or via PayPal only.
But after the first users had faced with problems in making Bitcoin payments, a Reddit admin published a post on Bitcoin subreddit, explaining the reasons. “Yup that’s right. The upcoming Coinbase change, combined with some bugs around the Bitcoin payment option that were affecting purchases for certain users, led us to remove Bitcoin as a payment option,” the post reads.
Coinbase had changed the requirements that merchants should meet with a view to continue accepting Bitcoin payments, as a result merchants needed to conduct a serious upgrade to access Coinbase’s API. Reddit did not feel like upgrading their platform due to the company’s focus on their new design. As a result, they needed to cease accepting Bitcoin as a payment method.
In the recent interview, Christopher Slowe, the CTO of Reddit also named issues related to bitcoin’s transaction fees as a factor to disable Bitcoin payments in March. But today, according to Slowe, their team is actively working on bringing back Bitcoin payments on their platform.
Reddit also intends to accept some other cryptocurrencies. “We are looking at Ethereum and Litecoin that are provided by Coinbase as well”, said Slowe.
.@Reddit, which hosts communities for every single cryptocurrency in the world, is hoping to bring back crypto payments to the platform, this time with Ethereum and Litecoin in addition to Bitcoin, according to CTO @KeyserSosa. pic.twitter.com/wkUniMvhex
— Cheddar News (@cheddar) May 2, 2018
So, after cryptocurrency payments are back on the platform, users will have an opportunity to use not only Bitcoin but also Ethereum and Litecoin to purchase Reddit Gold. Nevertheless, there is no information about the exact timeline and integration plan.
Not only Reddit current team believes in cryptocurrencies. Alexis Ohanian, Reddit co-founder, who left his position some months ago, having decided to focus on investing in tech startups including blockchain projects, believes that this year we will see further growth of cryptocurrencies prices.
Though according to Ohanian, Bitcoin will go “to the moon” and return to the mark of around $20,000, his predictions about Ethereum price growth rates are much more positive. In Reddit co-founder’s opinion, by the end of this year Ethereum will be traded at $15,000. He explains it by the fact that people have started using Ethereum for developing ‘Web 3.0’ which significantly influences the demand for it.