Discord walks back NFT and cryptocurrency plans
Discord has walked back its plans for NFT and cryptocurrency integration, according to its CEO and founder Jason Citron.
"Thanks for all the perspectives everyone," he tweeted. "We have no current plans to ship this internal concept. For now we're focused on protecting users from spam, scams and fraud. Web3 has lots of good but also lots of problems and we need to work through at our scale. More soon."
Rumors about the integration plans began cooking earlier this week when an old survey sent to Discord users regarding NFTs resurfaced online. This was followed by Citron tweeting a screenshot showing an unreleased integration for two different cryptocurrency wallet apps. According to an official statement made to TechCrunch, these features were part of a regular company-wide "hack week," and were not in active development.
Neither the survey nor the screenshot were received very well, with Discord's subreddit littered with pleas to dump the plans and numerous people across social media encouraging users to cancel their Discord Nitro subscriptions.
"We’re excited about the potential for web3 technology and the positive ways these communities are coming together on Discord, especially those organized around environmentally friendly, creator-focused projects," Discord told TechCrunch. "However, we also recognize there are some problems we need to work through."
Some current Discord employees took to Twitter to express their frustration in the wake of Citron's tweets, suggesting that cryptocurrency integration was not supported by everyone at the company. "I hope leaders can humbly listen to the chorus of vehement moral disgust this teaser has already invited,'' another employee wrote. "This sincerely does not have to happen."
I hope leaders can humbly listen the chorus of vehement moral disgust this teaser has already invited. this sincerely does not have to happen. https://t.co/JZZBI2npVsNovember 9, 2021
if discord fires me for this i hope ill be the first person to get fired for calling their ceo cringe on twitterNovember 8, 2021
just got my heart broken and the last thing I need is people DMing me threats regarding any NFT-related content. I have nothing to do with any of that. leave me aloneNovember 9, 2021
Sounds like while Discord isn't going through with the wallet integration just yet, there's still a very real chance NFTs and crypto will hit the service at some point in the future. It's unclear exactly what the tipping point was for it making the u-turn, though it's unlikely the Nitro boycott and backlash from its own staff went unnoticed.
Gaming companies like Ubisoft, EA, Zynga, and Square Enix have recently started to talk about their approach to NFTs and blockchain games. The reactions to the news have been controversial given the amount of uncertainty in the space. Last month, a game based on Netflix's Squid Game show ended with its creators scamming early adopters out of $3.4 million.