Bitpay, one of the most popular bitcoin payment processors recently updated its terms of use, but by doing so, they have been accused of taking a discriminatory position that is juxtaposed to bitcoin ideals.
The company based in Atlanta, Georgia, updated its terms of use agreement on February 2nd. In the new terms update, the digital asset service provider reveals that it will not tolerate the use of its services to extensive list activities. According to the new terms of use, starting April 25, 2018, Bitpay will suspend all the accounts associated with pornographic content distribution. Bitpay also informed it would not allow accounts that deal with other prohibited activities like sales of firearms, narcotics, and fireworks.
After changing the terms, the digital currency payments platform said it would give a 2 month timeframe for users to start moving its funds to other payment processor services to avoid losses.
According to the new terms of service the list extends to financial instruments such as derivatives and ponzi schemes:
“transactions that support pyramid, Ponzi, or other “get rich quick” schemes; transactions that are related to cloud-mining; provide credit repair or debt settlement services; any services which compete with BitPay; Explicit sexual content; Sales of Kratom or Nootropics.“
While Bitpay’s decision might have come as a surprise the whole industry, the decision has caaused a clamour on social media. A lot of criticism to the company’s decision has been based around the argument that it is seen as contrary to the original ideology of bitcoin.
A user posted the information on Twitter after he received a notification from Bitpay that specifies new updates regarding the terms and conditions. The notification stated:
“Due to a recent update in our Terms of Use, we will soon no longer be processing payments for merchants which provide sexually explicit content. We understand that switching payments processors can be a costly change for any business. You will have two months to find an alternative payments provider before your Bitpay accounts is disabled. Your account will be disabled on April 25, 2018.”
Right after the new payment terms update, many Bitpay users started to move their funds onto other platforms while an intense discussion is still growing within the bitcoin community. According to the current legislation, Bitpay is a private company that can reserve its rights to choose who can use their services or not, however, many members of the community find the attitude of the company to be against everything that Satoshi envisioned for Bitcoin.
