The “Front page of the Internet”, Reddit, will be once again allow users to purchase Reddit Gold with Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin.
Reddit previously utilized Bitcoin payments for its Reddit Gold program, which allows users to have access to premium features. Reddit CTO Chris Slowe said that they had stopped using Bitcoin payments because of “a combination of reasons, one is actually the fees on the Bitcoin network”. The other major reason had to do with their use “of Coinbase as one of [their] main processors” and that Reddit “didn’t have time to basically upgrade [their] current API integration”, but Coinbase is now upgrading their payment gateway.
In addition, Coinbase’s old merchant system that Reddit used did not provide access to the Ethereum and Litecoin exchanges, but Reddit will now have access with the relaunch. Slowe went on to discuss Reddit’s history of Bitcoin discussions along with the fact that “basically every coin in existence has a community on Reddit now.”
Preference for Using Internet Money
Reddit is no stranger to internet money not just because they previously accepted Bitcoin, but because they also allow users to gift Reddit Gold to other users, which then allows the receiver to access the premium features. Gifting Reddit Gold is not a cryptocurrency and just on Reddit’s servers, but it does demonstrate Reddit’s openness to an online accounting system that can be traded between users. Additionally, in a more independent move, Reddit users employ tipping bots to gift other users select cryptocurrencies. This is the market demonstrating the preferences of individuals. Ironically, many tips are given via Bitcoin Cash and other cryptocurrencies, which Reddit has not mentioned if they’ll be accepting or not.
Similarly, World of Warcraft offers their own online currency, not cryptocurrency, but it did recently make news for being worth more than the Venezuelan Bolivar. In these scenarios, consumers using internet money, cryptocurrency or non-cryptocurrency, does demonstrate that there is a market need for online internet money that can be exchanged between users cheaply, quickly, and securely because the current financial system does not provide those services. Unfortunately, Bitcoin has had periods of high transaction fees and long confirmation times preventing it from consistently satisfying consumers, which has encouraged them to look elsewhere for their online internet money services.
Dash aims to satisfy consumers
Dash has been able to consistently provide low transaction fees, fast confirmation times, and security for consumers looking to exchange goods and services online. Dash has been able to scale its network effectively so far and has plans to continue doing so in the future. Dash is providing the attributes that online users have demonstrated a preference towards. Some popular exchange website have chosen not to use Dash, but that has not slowed down the advance of Dash. Dash has launched 23 new partnerships in Q1 of 2018 alone with many of those being exchanges. In addition, more individuals are discovering Dash everyday as more merchants begin accepting Dash all over the world and Dash teams educate individuals about Dash.
The best part about the internet is that it allows users to find, use, and advocate their own preferences through free market mechanisms. Just as communities have sprung up in Reddit for nearly every cryptocurrency that exists, communities have sprung up, in both the online and offline world, of individuals that recognize the advantages of Dash.
