NFTs, Minting Applications, Credit Card Payments

Will NFT Pay Be “The One”? Fingers Crossed on My Latest CC Payment Processor Integration

Trying yet another CC processor (my third one!).

I sometimes write about various integrations I work on in the NFT space, esp. with respect to credit card processors for NFT purchasing. As I’ve said before, I feel like offering a solid CC option is generally good for the web3 space. But the key word there is “solid” — meaning, finding a company that will be around for a good long time.

Why is this important if a set can mint out in like 15 mintues? Well, it relates back to that old saying in crypto, which is “not your keys, not your crypto.” If you offer CC purchases on your NFT mint, that generally presumes that the buyer does not have an ETH wallet. And that means that the buyer’s NFTs will probably be stored in a custodial wallet held by the CC processor.

And that begs the question: If something happens to the CC processing company (like they go out of business or they pivot to something else) and that company has the keys to the custodial wallets they’ve made on behalf of CC minters … well, what happens? And furthermore, who’s responsible if something goes sideways in a scenario like that?

I think each CC company would have to answer that question, but it’s also of course a good idea to ask when you’re vetting a CC processor in the NFT space. The last thing any NFT team wants is for a CC processing company to vaporize with no ongoing access to NFTs. And yet, you also kind of can’t expect any company to stay in business forever.

That’s the difference here… If you’d had your own wallet and your own keys and you’d been fortunate enough to grab some free Punks back in 2017 … well, they’d still be there today if you’d walked away and came back. But what if you CC mint the next big thing today and you wallk away until 2030. Will you still be able to get it back?

So I think what NFT teams should do is this: Offer the CC purchase option but, just out of caution and responsibility, actively encourage your holders who’ve done this to get up to speed on MetaMask and/or maybe even cold storage. And once they are, encourage them to transfer their…