Kickstarter Revised Its Crypto Ambitions After Customer Backlash

Kickstarter revised its crypto ambitions after the heavy customer backlash as we can see further in our latest cryptocurrency news today.

Kickstarter revised its crypto plans to transition to blockchain technology after receiving customer backlash from a part of its segment base. Last month, the platform announced that it was creating a new blockchain-based version of the platform, as the founder Perry Chen and CEO Aziz Hasan noted:

“We think bringing all that we’ve learned about crowdfunding since 2009 to inform the development of a decentralized protocol will open up exciting new opportunities for creative projects to come to life.”

Kickstarter even wrote in a blog post dubbed “We Won’t Make changes to Kickstarter without You” where it said:

“Since our announcement, we’ve had thousands of conversations with our community over emails, support tickets, social posts, and Zoom calls to understand your concerns about these technologies. The environmental issues, scams, speculation, and risks are real, and we share these concerns.”

We won't make changes to Kickstarter without you. Read our development update for our decentralized crowdfunding protocol here. https://t.co/wDjKQz6OBe

— Kickstarter (@Kickstarter) February 17, 2022

Other than declaring Kickstarter won’t make any changes without listening to the customer feedback, the crowdfunding platform made a few commitments like saying it will not move onto its decentralized protocol unless it is tested first:

“We’re not going to force this on creators and communities for whom Kickstarter is already working well. We’re not going to automatically shift all of Kickstarter to a new infrastructure.”

The crowdfunding platform will establish an advisory council composed of a diverse range of users that is designed to inform the company’s next steps. Kickstarter also said the new organization envisioned to be put in place to create the company’s decentralized protocol which will be the Public Benefit Corporation. Public Benefit Corporations are corporate entities that exist for profit but with a positive public impact on the mind. Kickstarter said it will hold its new protocol to the same environmental standards as it strives for a wider company:

“We will not build the protocol on a carbon-intensive blockchain.”

This is not the first time a company faced heavy backlash on plans to move into the crypto space. The Wikimedia Foundation also was asked to stop accepting crypto donations on behalf of Wikipedia due to concerns over the industry’s carbon footprint. The news followed Mozzila facing a similar backlash after it started accepting crypto donations. As the criticism enhanced, the company announced a pause on crypto donations to review how the technology fits with the Mozzila climate goals.