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Popular Video Game Fortnite Enables Monero Payments in its Official Merch Store
With over 200 million registered users, Fortnite is one of the most popular video games in the world right now – and probably in history as well. According to various reports, in any given moment there are millions of users from all corners of the globe playing the game, whilst it has hit an astounding record of 8.3 million players online in November, 2018.
And with that kind of almost unfathomable popularity, Fortnite now jumps on the crypto train too – well, sort of.
While there hasn’t been any official announcement by Fortnite or its creator, Epic Games, it is now possible to make purchases in Fortnite’s official merch store in cryptocurrency, Monero (XMR) – but only in Monero. The news came to light in the Twitter account of Monero after fans have first published the crypto tidings on Reddit.
The official Fortnite Merch Store is now exclusively accepting #Monero as a cryptocurrency payment option! https://t.co/NWmHhzE6Kg
— Monero || #xmr (@monero) January 1, 2019
On the Reddit page, fans have been understandably wondering why just Monero is selected as a cryptocurrency payment option, and not Bitcoin, which is by far the largest cryptocurrency by both market capitalization and volume. According to some users and Monero’s top developer, Riccardo Spagni (commonly known as “fluffypony”), the reason is based on privacy concerns that other cryptocurrencies raise while Monero doesn’t.
They want to give users an alternative that is privacy preserving. They have no desire to provide an alternative that is the most tamper resistent, because that is not a concern.
— Riccardo Spagni (@fluffypony) January 2, 2019
Indeed, Monero offers more intrinsic privacy possibilities than other digital coins – and it is more likely than not that Fortnite has chosen to add only Monero as an exclusive cryptocurrency payment option precisely for that reason.
Monero has privacy embedded in its protocol. Where Bitcoin and other coins offer privacy features as an option, Monero is one of few cryptocurrencies where privacy is both default and required.
The Fortnite merch store (AKA “Retail Row”) utilizes the services of the global cryptocurrency payment provider GloBee, which generally offers the following cryptocurrencies as a payment option: Bitcoin(BTC)trade, Monero (XMR), Litecoin (LTC)trade, Dogecoin (DOGE), Decred (DCR), Ethereum (ETH)trade and Ripple (XRP)trade. So theoretically at least, if and when Fortnite would decide to implement other cryptocurrencies, it would be quite easy and immediate to execute.
