Looking for a Bored Ape but don’t have any crypto? No problem… fiat currency is gladly accepted. OpenSea, one of the biggest and most popular NFT marketplaces, will soon let you buy and sell your NFTs with credit cards, debit cards, or Apple Pay. MoonPay, a fintech infrastructure company, will provide the tech.
Soooo… crypto schmypto. For those keeping score, accepting fiat currency through a payment gateway is about as centralized a strategy as one can imagine. Welcome to OpenSea: a pure Web2 platform. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, except… it is the farthest thing from the “spirit of crypto” and there’s no clear path to Web3. Will anyone care?
The upside: OpenSea just expanded its potential customer base to anyone with a credit or debit card. The downside: Um… there is no downside.
Author’s note: This is not a sponsored post. I am the author of this article and it expresses my own opinions. I am not, nor is my company, receiving compensation for it.
About Shelly Palmer
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with AI strategy, implementation and governance, as well as technology, media and marketing. Named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Technology, he is a bestselling author, covers tech and business for Fox 5’s Good Day New York, is a regular commentator on CNN, and writes the popular daily business blog Think About This. Follow @shellypalmer or visit shellypalmer.com.