MailChimp Just Shot Itself in the Foot
Or maybe in the hand, since, you know, monkeys’ hands and feet look the same…
I digress.
Popular email marketing service MailChimp took the blockchain world by surprise last week when it altered the language in their acceptable use policy to include sweeping prohibitions on cryptocurrency-related uses:
[W]e cannot allow businesses involved in any aspect of the sale, transaction, exchange, storage, marketing or production of cryptocurrencies, virtual currencies, and any digital assets related to an Initial Coin Offering, to use MailChimp to facilitate or support any of those activities.
According to MailChimp, the ban affects anyone using their service for newsletters or email campaigns promoting ICOs or cryptocurrencies in general. It should be noted that this is not, at least officially, a total censorship campaign on crypto-related topics. In a recent Gizmodo article, a company spokesperson offered some additional clarification on the policy change, claiming that “journalists and publications may send cryptocurrency-related information as long as they’re not involved in the production, sale, exchange, storage, or marketing of cryptocurrencies.” .
Despite the caveats that journalists and those merely using the service to discuss cryptocurrencies would be exempt, such customers are receiving notices that their accounts will be shut down as well:
A quick visit to Week in Ethereum will reveal that it is not marketing ICOs at all— it’s a minimalist news aggregate website that merely keeps readers informed on what is happening in the Ethereum world. Much of the links are to development stories filled with technical jargon that is indecipherable to anyone who is not a developer. But apparently none of that matters to MailChimp, which plans to terminate their account in less than a month.
This decision fits into a larger trend of tech companies cracking down on cryptocurrency advertising, marketing and promotion, although MailChimp’s new policy goes further than those of any other company so far.
Let’s be honest here— there are a lot of stupid projects and scam ICOs out there, and there have been a lot of investors who got burned. It’s unfortunate, and to some extent, to be expected when a new industry opens up and an exciting new technology is still in its Wild West infancy days. Anyone who invests, especially in new technologies and new industries, needs to do their due diligence.
But the general attack on cryptocurrencies and ICOs by established tech companies— of which MailChimp’s is the latest and most egregious— is an overreaction. There are no laws or regulations compelling MailChimp to do this. Whether it is because of some kind of philosophical dislike of decentralized technology or a desire to be seen as tough on potential scammers, MailChimp is hurting a lot of people and websites that don’t deserve to be hurt, and as of the time of this writing, they don’t really seem to care.
MailChimp’s decision is vindication for those who have warned for years about the excessive power held by centralized organizations, especially in the tech sector. If they can do this to Week in Ethereum, they can do it to you or anyone else too. It doesn’t matter if you’ve spent years building a loyal following. If you do, say or write something they don’t like, they shut you down.
If you are a customer of a centralized platform, they can can lord their TOS over you, change it at will, interpret as they see fit, and act as judge, jury and executioner in any dispute.
You might respond to this by saying “it’s their platform, and they can make whatever rules they want”. Fair enough. But it’s also their customers’ right to vote with their feet and move on to more enlightened competitors that deal with them in a less arbitrary and heavy-handed manner.
I don’t hate MailChimp. It’s a reliable, user friendly platform which I have used myself. It’s free option for smaller lists has made it a go-to option for business owners who just want a simple newsletter to stay in touch with their customers. But MailChimp has essentially declared itself openly hostile to not just ICOs, but the cryptocurrency world as a whole with the way they are enforcing their new policy.
I’ve got some news for them: crypto isn’t going away, despite price drops in recent months. Everyone knew it was a bubble, and everyone knew it was going to go down again. That doesn’t prove any naysayer’s points.
People were skeptical of the internet in 1993, and dismissed social media as a fad in 2006. Right now, too many large companies and prominent individuals are dismissing and even outright attacking cryptocurrencies, perhaps because they perceive decentralized tech as an inherent threat to the economic paradigm they are comfortable operating in.
History has not been kind to those who refused to see the writing on the wall. 2017 was the year the mainstream finally started paying attention to crypto, but most are only dimly aware of the changes that are coming. Bill Clinton once compared trying to stop the internet to nailing jello to a wall. Trying to stop cryptocurrencies will prove equally as futile.
The old, centralized, “our way or the high way” paradigm is coming to an end. Soon, customers across many industries will not have to “just deal with it” any more.
Companies that embrace cryptocurrencies and find a way to protect against scammers while still treating their customers with respect have a bright future in this new world, and companies that don’t will need to do some soul-searching if they want to remain relevant, let alone competitive.
