[trophycase]

"why not let customers pay with real money via Stripe or another payment API"

Because stripe takes a massive cut?

"the end-user UX is lightyears better so you'll probably sell a lot more skins"

for now

"This Instagram NFT shutdown demonstrates again that the mainstream has no appetite for crypto despite the breathless claims of the past ten years."

Everybody in the community already knew this. Like you've said, the UX isn't there yet. That's obvious to anyone that is in the space. Nobody was sitting here applauding Meta for their obvious bandwagoning onto the latest thing. Maybe if they actually wanted people to adopt NFTs they should work on improving the UX or build some fucking infrastructure instead of just leeching off the community trying to make a buck. If you want people to display their art as NFTs on instagram, then create an Oculus App that's a virtual art gallery, allow people to display their instagram NFTs in that gallery. Interface with other technologies that already exist in the space. Use your billions and billions of dollars to make the experience better for everyone. They didn't even fucking attempt to build anything.

[pavlov]

Stripe's cut is less than what the ETH-USD rate can move in a single day.

With crypto prices trending down, your game skin business is probably going to lose more money just to the crypto exchange rate than they'd pay out to Stripe... And meanwhile you didn't get any of the convenience of using Stripe, so your revenue is probably a lot smaller because your players just aren't using the feature.

[trophycase]

What you said about price action is basically completely wrong, but regardless it's not like you're forced to pay in ETH. Any asset can be represented digitally.

[srmarm]

I bought an NFT last year so I could understand how they worked in practice. It was an absolute ballache - it took me over an hour or so to get everything set up and I had to throw good money after bad to cover gas fees which were only revealed after I'd converted my real money into eth. In the end I think I spent a similar amount or even more on fees than the NFT itself cost. The gas fees certainly cost way more than normal card processing fees would have been for a transaction of that size.

[piaste]

> Because stripe takes a massive cut?

2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction, sure, but after that you have actual fiat money that you can use to pay salaries and suppliers.

Ethereum isn't free, either. You gas fees, withdrawal fees, and the volatility in selling. Probably comes out to a little less in total, but is a 0.5% saving worth adding all that attrition to your sales process?

[trophycase]

Ethereum isn't free, but L2s and L3s will cost cents or even fractions of cents. 2.9% + 30 cents per tx is a MASSIVE amount. Consider that a profit margin of 10% is considered good for a business.

[MomoXenosaga]

I'm old enough to remember Microsoft points for Xbox live.

People want to pay in their local currency with their local bank account not jump through shady hoops. I want to play videogames not chat with little girls in the Philippines.

[ascagnel_]

Microsoft Points were a dark pattern to obscure the actual cost of games and to leave customers with partially-depleted point counts. They're not a good thing to look back at. Microsoft wisely stopped their use about a decade ago, and Xbox purchases are done in fiat currency instead.

[trophycase]

Whatever man, you're gonna use it without knowing regardless. But feel free not to educate yourself now and miss all the opportunity.

[traveler01]

This is some boomer level commentary right here.

Shows complete lack of understanding of what you're talking about.