ZapChain, the Bitcoin-based content sharing and tipping platform is soon going to shut down. The Reddit like social media platform focused on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency technology has announced its impending demise on its user’s timelines.
The notification on states,
“ZapChain will be shutting down on, or shortly after August 31, 2016.Please withdraw your balance.”
Founded by Adam McKenna and Matt Schlicht, the platform became popular with the Bitcoin community after it offered an efficient way to monetize the content. Soon, few artists also considered using ZapChain to sell their works. One rapper from Brooklyn, New York — Talib Kweli even launched one of his albums titled “INDIE 500” on the platform where users could buy the whole album by paying $12 worth of bitcoins.
However, ZapChain seems to have lost traction over time, with the number of new signups and interactions falling way below expectations. Lack of further funding is also attributed to the platform’s decision to shut down its operations. Last year, ZapChain raised $350,000 from prominent investors in the space including Adam Draper, Boost VC and Tim Draper. After the initial seed round, the company was unable to garner investors’ interest in the venture.
With the announcement of closure, ZapChain will enter the long list of Bitcoin startups that had to make the hard decision due to a number of circumstances. There are a number of cryptocurrency based content monetization platforms that are coming up these days. Steemit and Yours are two such platforms that are currently basking in the glory.
ChangeTip was another Bitcoin startup that brought cryptocurrency based content monetization to the limelight. The platform allowed people to tip content creators with small amounts of bitcoin. Unfortunately, it couldn’t sustain itself for long either. With most of the ChangeTip team moving to Airbnb, the platform is now planning to sell its intellectual properties to interested buyers.
There are speculations about Adam McKenna’s plans to create yet another content monetization and sharing platform. The new platform may be powered by some of the elements from the original ZapChain platform. There is no concrete information available in this regard yet.
Ref & Image: ZapChain
