If the tweets between Monero’s core team member, Riccardo Spagni, and others are any indication, there was no partnership between the cryptocurrency and Epic games. There are also enough doubts whether any such alliance can happen in the near future. The member thinks that the situation is quite hostile for any big merchant given the pulls and pressures faced from other major digital coins.
Payment Enabled
Founder of Epic Games, Tim Sweeney, tweeted that Fortnite’s brief entry into digital currency was an accidental one. In short, there were no connections between the retailer and the Epic to accept digital currencies. He said:
“We worked with a partner to open a merchandise store, and somewhere along the way Monero payment was enabled.”
While Spagni responded that he did not, the comment was termed as a misleading one. This came on the back of the official Fortnite Merchant Store was accepting Monero as a payment option exclusively.
This was part of the Coral Reef project that half-funded by Monero community and GloBee. While Spagni clarified that Epic Games was not a merchant, there was a question as to who worked with Project Coral Reef and the reasons behind the back out. Similarly, questions were raised as to how Epic failed to approve the payment. Monero core team member felt ignorance of any plug being pulled and pointed out that Tim’s tweet indicated that there was no partnership with the digital coin.
Epic is Not Keen on Re-enabling Monero Payment options
A tweet from cryptochangements said that there was no payment option for Monero/Globee. In another tweet, Spagni said that Epic is not keen on re-enabling payment options at least for the time being. He said,
“The big problem is people made a VERY big deal about this; journalists claimed a partnership, people threatened to file Suspicious Activity Reports, & altcoins complained about not being accepted.”
His response suggested there was much more than the blocking of payment option.
Had a meeting, Epic don’t want the merchant to re-enable crypto payments for now. The big problem is people made a VERY big deal about this; journalists claimed a partnership, people threatened to file Suspicious Activity Reports, & altcoins complained about not being accepted.
— Riccardo Spagni (@fluffypony) January 9, 2019
This is also evident from another tweet of Spagni wherein he thinks that the environment is hostile for any big merchant. For instance, if they start accepting altcoins, bitcoiners are threatening to stop their businesses. Similarly, if the merchants accept the leading virtual asset, Ripple ‘army’ calls the CEO. Therefore, Monero core team member thinks that it is tough to win under the current environment.
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