Kickstarter is experimenting with blockchain, and the company’s CEO said the move is to eliminate some of its challenges.
Kickstarter, a publicly-listed crowdfunding platform, recently named Everette Talyor as its CEO. The CEO told Techcrunch in a recent interview that the company is exploring the opportunities provided by blockchain technology.
He stated that since he assumed office, most of the feedback he has received was regarding the company’s plans with blockchain technology. He stated that;
“The most common feedback is about our blockchain plans. I think there’s a lot of misinformation out there. People think that we’re turning Kickstarter into a web3 blockchain company. We’ve started a protocol as a separate entity. We’re exploring the opportunities that’s there in the blockchain to alleviate some of the challenges that we face as a centralized crowdfunding company. That’s it. We’re not committed to moving Kickstarter to the blockchain or doing anything specific there.”
Taylor added that the decentralised play by the company is targeted towards improving and helping to solve some of the headaches and problems that they face in crowdfunding.
Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum use blockchain technology to tackle some of the problems present in the traditional financial ecosystem.
Regarding the comments the company has received regarding its blockchain exploration, Taylor added that;
“I think it’s involving our community first and getting feedback from our community. It’s really important for a company, to listen to its community, and get feedback. I think we would have probably better understood the ramifications of making that announcement.
We had only good intentions, but we didn’t communicate that well. We could have communicated that better and gotten our community involved in some of the feedback on what we were working on.”
Kickstarter, like many companies in the United States, has been affected by the current tough economic conditions. The company laid off 40% of its staff a few months ago.
However, Taylor revealed is a healthy business financially at the moment, and there would be no layoffs for the foreseeable future.