In what’s been regarded by many as a controversial move, earlier this week WordPress.com removed the option for users to pay by Bitcoin when signing up to the service. WordPress has long been an advocate for the currency, ever since it began accepting Bitcoin in November 2012, so what caused the abrupt change?
Yesterday, Matt Mullenweg took to his blog to discuss the changes, explaining:
‘…it is simply a matter of development resources, which are especially scarce for us right now as we’re trying to keep up with growth.
The volume has been dropping since launch, in 2014 it was only used about twice a week, which is vanishingly small compared to other methods of payment we offer. We supported Bitcoin for philosophical reasons, not commercial ones.’
So it looks as though lack of demand was one of the driving factors behind the removal of Bitcoin, though Mullenweg hopes to see it return in the future, stating:
‘We’re big fans of Bitcoin and hope to support it again in the future, for all of the reasons that we originally supported it in 2012, which you can read about here:
http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2012/11/15/pay-another-way-bitcoin/.’
So, what do you think about WordPress’ latest change? Are you keeping your fingers crossed for a triumphant return by Bitcoin?