Kickstarter delays plans to transition to blockchain

The crowdfunding platform Kickstarter has re-evaluated its plans to transition to a blockchain protocol and move into the crypto space following a negative community reaction.

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

In December, the team announced the development of an open-source solution to run the platform in a decentralized environment.

\”We think that applying a decentralized protocol to everything we have learned about crowdfunding since 2009 will open up exciting possibilities for delivering creative projects,\” wrote then-CEO Aziz Hasan and co-founder Perry Chen.

In a new blog post under the headline \”We won’t make changes to Kickstarter without you\” the team stated:

\”Since our announcement, we have held thousands of conversations with the community via email, support tickets, social media outreach, and Zoom conferences to understand your concerns. Environmental issues, fraud, speculation and other risks are real—we share these concerns.\”

The platform’s team did not abandon the idea of using decentralized technologies, but took on a number of commitments, including:

• Not to move Kickstarter to the new protocol without adequate testing;
• To establish an advisory council of users and participants to inform the next steps;
• Not to use energy-intensive blockchain technologies to minimize the carbon footprint.

Kickstarter noted that the new protocol will be developed by an independent organization — a specially formed Public Benefit Corporation.

\”We believe the new toolkit will help address long-standing problems in crowdfunding, but we’re only at the beginning of the journey. Each creative community has different needs, and we will need your help to identify the problems and develop solutions for them,\” the platform’s team said.

In January, the Mozilla Foundation, the nonprofit behind the Firefox browser, paused accepting donations in Bitcoin after user criticism.