WordPress CEO says: We have always been looking forward to Bitcoin

WordPress CEO Matt Mullenweg said that even though Bitcoin has disappeared from the payment page of his platform, his company has never chosen to give up.

Mullenweg told CoinDesk that the decision to cut bitcoin stemmed from resource constraints amid a push by the blogging company to simplify its payments system, which is only “ five years old” — and that it was not a radical change.

WordPress CEO Matt Mullenweg

“It’s just a matter of resource development, especially as we try to keep up with the trends,” he said, indicating that his team remains committed to digital currencies.

It’s unclear whether Bitcoin will function the same as before, but until Bitcoin is phased out, bloggers who wish to extend their annual subscriptions will be able to access free resources.

The idea was first announced yesterday in the comments section of Bitcoin News Resource, with Mullenweg telling one user: “Happy to offer you another year of extended subscription for free, but it will take a lot of time for us to complete this.”

Low capacity

The competition between the massive spending and the growth of the business mechanism has become a hot topic on the blog. The efforts to improve the mobile experience of the platform and find a "cash cow" to rely on for the future have meant that resources are becoming increasingly tight.

Unlike PayPal and credit cards, Bitcoin is not a priority for the company, which requires high-end upgrades, which account for 80% of its multi-billion dollar revenue.

“It’s been declining since it was launched. In 2014 , it was used just twice a week compared to other payment methods we offer.”

However, Bitcoin believers emphasize that their support for the digital currency is often more of a philosophical than a business decision.

Indeed, the company spoke highly of Bitcoin on its blog in 2012 , praising it as a way for bloggers to meet the needs of users in various countries, such as those on the US economic sanctions list.

For Mullenweg, three years on, his passion for an alternative, borderless financial instrument has never faded.

He said: “I… personally own Bitcoin, I am an advisor to Stellar.org , and my friends often joke with me that I am ‘raising’ Bitcoin and the blockchain.”

But as Bitcoin wanes, doesn’t the CEO worry that countries where PayPal is restricted will be excluded from the platform?

“Of course, the reality is that the usage is lower than we thought, and there are other payment methods,” Mullenweg added. “As I raised in your comments section, I would be happy to offer people an extra year of subscription.”

Future Test

In an article in Forbes, Mullenweg described Automattic — the blog's parent company — as a "giant experiment" designed to prove whether a completely open-source company could take on the likes of Google or Facebook.

Compared to Bitcoin, the technology for a fully open source network model is much clearer.

So far, Bitcoin is still available in many places, such as the WP admin page. Mullenweg believes this is due to the old coding patterns used in these interfaces. Before being phased out, Bitcoin users will be able to maintain it for a while if they still want to renew their subscriptions.

But what does Mullenweg think about the currency's prospects?

“I think transaction fees should follow Moore’s Law, and that’s not going to happen if we have centralized gateways that account for the vast majority of traffic.”

He added:

“I believe that in the future, Bitcoin or some other blockchain-based system will be the basis for most financial transactions, whether it is a small remittance or a multi-billion dollar corporate merger.”