Discord CEO Jason Citron says the service has no plans to add crypto and NFT tools, following a backlash to an internal concept he shared on Twitter

Discord founder and CEO Jason Citron sought to reassure users Wednesday that the company doesn't have impending plans to shift its business toward NFTs. Source: @jasoncitron .

TechCrunch 2021-11-12 Taylor Hatmaker

Context & Ripple Effects

Discord had already framed subscriptions rather than advertising as its business focus in a 2020 revenue and subscription strategy report. Citron's reassurance preserves that direction after users objected to a crypto-related concept.

The stance matters because Discord would nevertheless become a major gathering place for crypto and Web3 communities, where spam, phishing, scams, and malware created a distinct safety burden without requiring native NFT tools.

First-order effects

Discord users receive an immediate commitment that the service will not imminently add the crypto and NFT features suggested by Citron's concept.
Citron and Discord must absorb the backlash as a product-trust issue while keeping the platform's near-term business focus away from native NFT tooling.

Second-order effects

Crypto and Web3 groups can continue using Discord as a community venue, but lack a native Discord NFT layer to build around.
Discord's moderation and safety teams face pressure from crypto-community abuse independently of whether the company ships crypto features, as later coverage of phishing and malware in those communities illustrates.

Third-order effects

Community platforms may increasingly separate hosting crypto communities from embedding crypto transaction or identity features, because the latter exposes core product trust to sharper user resistance.
For Discord, subscription-led monetization offers a path that does not depend on crypto features, reinforcing a broader choice between community utility and ecosystem-specific monetization.

The trend: Online community services are balancing the reach of crypto-native user groups against the trust and safety costs of making crypto tools part of the core product.

Discussion

@jasoncitron Jason Citron on x
@packyM ... Thanks for all the perspectives everyone. 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 we need to work through at our scale. More soon.
@jasoncitron Jason Citron on x
@packyM ... probably nothing https://twitter.com/...
@packym Packy McCormick on x
Imagine a place... - Built for gamers - Home to everyone playing the Great Online Game - Has 150 million MAUs - Generates $130 million in revenue - Is a web3 sleeper @mariogabriele & I teamed up on @discord. We imagine the possibilities... https://www.notboring.co/...
@ricburton @ricburton on x
The CEO of Discord announced that they are exploring an integration with Ethereum The woke mob came for him saying it is “bad for the environment” and “NFTs are a Ponzi scheme” He then says it was just “internal concept” and that web3 has “lots of problems” We need better chat ht…
@coinerstakingls @coinerstakingls on x
Discord's CEO got thousands of comments about concerns over his NFT decision. Instead of responding to anything critical he liked this one horrible take and logged off. https://twitter.com/...
@joewintergreen Joe Wintergreen on x
Discord touching crypto shit is a piss-off by itself but more fundamentally, I haaaate the way companies like that try to Expand for no fuckin' reason. You made a good bit of software. People like it. They don't even mind you charging for banners and shit. Just leave it! Stop!
@asilbwrites Amanda Silberling on x
ok this story from @tayhatmaker is kind of wild tbh! i am always pleasantly surprised when companies listen to passionate user bases but also i still feel like these conversations would be less volatile if we all actually knew what crypto buzzwords mean https://techcrunch.com/...
@tayhatmaker Taylor Hatmaker on x
Discord is walking back earlier hints that it might integrate crypto wallets (and potentially NFTs) The company was only beginning to explore ~web3~ possibilities but after a backlash it's hitting the pause button on that work and reassuring its community https://techcrunch.com/.…
@balajis Balaji Srinivasan on x
Amazing. Discord already has the global community, and the internal economy, now they just need to issue the currency. v1 doesn't need to be much more complicated than that. https://twitter.com/...
@doodlemancyart @doodlemancyart on x
so this is the discord CEO teasing some sort of crypto integration. make sure to let him and discord know how much you hate this both on twitter, and here: https://feedback.discord.com/ go there. make a thread. yell. tell your friends to do the same. nfts & crypto belong in the t…
@panley01 Panley on x
I don't like to use my platform for big statements often, but discord recently had a WIP blog post on a partnership with Axie, a community that exploits people in an MLM structure, indebting new users & making people share personal data. This is the antithesis of trust & safety. …
@ithayla @ithayla on x
unsourced info in the thread claims nitro cancellations were so severe discord went from 3 years secured funding to 8 months. I'd love for that to be true, keep hammering the fuckers. this weak ass damage control isn't even committing to no nfts, didn't even consult his team. htt…
@danisylvini Dani Sylvini on x
This is a fancy way of saying “We're waiting until the heat dies down.” I say, keep the heat on. If anyone dropped Nitro over this, keep it withheld. If you don't have Nitro yet but object to this, hold off. https://twitter.com/...
@gempaw18 @gempaw18 on x
cancel nitro and keep using discord for now. force them to deal with increased traffic with decreased profits. god i fucking hate this nothing is sacred https://twitter.com/...
@dclblogger Matty on x
Discord integrating blockchain wallets/NFTs. I cannot think of a social platform more perfect for this integration than discord. This will be massive. 🔥 https://twitter.com/...
@cazlone Steven on x
I don't like doing quote tweets but today's main character is the CEO of Discord getting his ass beat for talking about crypto integration and I would feel remiss if I did not get in there and say “nah dude. Bad move.” https://twitter.com/...
@cdixon Chris Dixon on x
web3 🤝 discord https://twitter.com/...
@tomwarren Tom Warren on x
Discord crypto integration? no thanks. https://t.co/uGLOEmptyS
@antumbral Katelyn Gadd on x
it's so funny that after catching so much heat for this, he follows up with a very late mediocre half-retraction that acknowledges Discord is completely incapable of dealing with fraud and account takeovers https://twitter.com/...
@flofluoro Flo P. on x
Discord can't keep your account safe from being hijacked with a single phishing URL, but at least I can link my shitcoin wallet so that can get stolen too https://twitter.com/...
@mdudas Mike Daodas on x
why web3 is desperately needed in just 2 tweets! https://twitter.com/...
@fluffysmolcloud @fluffysmolcloud on x
discord is a communications app, not a web3 app. we are not giving you our subscription money until you make a clear statement about disintegrating nfts with your app. please reconsider and continue hearing our side of the argument. https://twitter.com/...
@haydenzadams Hayden.Eth on x
Some of the replies to this are pretty surreal, and a good reminder of how early in web3 we are PoS + L2s will fully address environmental concerns over the next year imo, but the misunderstanding and fear will be around much longer https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@toadsanime Ryan Brown on x
Discord is pausing its NFT plans after a huge backlash, which included a wave of users cancelling paid subs. I was told the server made of Discord staff & big game studio reps erupted over this, with many threats to take communities elsewhere. Hard to progress facing that. https:…
@froggyfrogster SwagtimusPrime.eth on x
The ultimate irony in this is that if Discord were a decentralized, forkable protocol, its users wouldn't have to fear any top-down decisions forced down their throats. They could come to decisions via social consensus, coin votes, forks, etc. https://twitter.com/...
@lukellios @lukellios on x
Yeah don't resubscribe yet, keep cancelling, make it known you want definite denial of any plans to ever integrate NFTs https://twitter.com/...

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