Itch is trying to solve the problem of payment processors effectively censoring content, but is unwilling to consider #crypto, such as #Bitcoin or #Monero for the task.

Why? I usually don't talk about money, much less #cryptocurrency, but isn't it an obvious solution?

Maybe leave a comment.

https://itch.io/post/13520502

Reply to this note

Please Login to reply.

Discussion

Payment processors do not censor government does lets clear up the misunderstanding here.

No, this is a bad take.

I wasn't talking about governmental censorship. Governments (plural because there is more than one) do censor, but so can private parties. I was talking about corporate censorship.

Incidentally, corporate censorship is also the problem addressed by Nostr.

Nostr isn't resistant to governmental censorship, on its own, but it's resistant to corporate censorship, which is a worthwhile goal on its own.

Payment processors absolutely do censor.

I think the problem is who manages the payment?

"When using Stripe, the buyer will be redirected to a payment page on itch.io where they can enter their credit card. itch.io never sees or stores credit card numbers. Payment information is securely sent to Stripe via the buyer's browser session."

The problem is that Mastercard and Visa are imposing arbitrary restrictions, which Stripe and PayPal have to follow. In turn, Stripe and PayPal impose those restrictions on Itch.

If they used cryptocurrencies, they would bypass Visa and Mastercard, as well as PayPal and Stripe, altogether.

Furthermore, the current situation shows the risk of relying on payment processors. Having alternative ones is better, but it doesn't necessarily remove the risk, especially if they need to cooperate in some way.