Kickstarter is perhaps the largest of the crowdfunding platforms, so it’s no wonder they’ve come under criticism for their interest in blockchain…

Back in December last year, Kickstarter announced that it was moving its platform to blockchain technology. To do this, the company chose Celo, a carbon-negative public chain, so in theory, it has no emissions, which sounds good on paper, but in practice, who knows? At the end of the year, it was also said that the technology shift would not affect the site’s functionality and features, but users will benefit from the protocol’s evolution.

The internet did not receive this announcement very well, so Kickstarter responded with a new statement. Environmental impacts, scams, speculation and risks were mentioned. The company considers all of these to be real and has listed the next steps of the Kickstarter so that at least there is transparency in this area.

Kickstarter will not move to the new protocol without testing. This is to avoid the scenario of forcing the change on creators seeking community funding who do not want to be involved. “We’ll make sure there’s a proof of concept with the creators who want to use it. We’ll look to integrate the pieces that offer value to the larger community down the line, but not without your input shaping the direction,” the post says.

An advisory committee will also be set up. This will include Kickstarter users, and they will be informed about the next steps. Priority will be given to improvements to features that users have long requested of the site and possible new solutions. Kickstarter will implement the blockchain element through a separate public benefit corporation, Kickstarter PBC.

So they won’t back down, although we have seen similar examples in the games industry more than once (GSC Game World with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2; Team17; but Electronic Arts is also considering it). We’ll see how successful they are with the change, as it’s too early to say.

Source: Gamesindustry