Minecraft’s Bitcoin Play-to-Earn Feature Removed After Mojang’s Demand
Minecraft, the popular sandbox video game, has removed a play-to-earn feature that rewarded players with Bitcoin following a demand from Mojang, its creator. The feature allowed Minecraft players to accumulate and withdraw small amounts of Bitcoin while playing the game. However, in a recent Discord post, an administrator for the Satlantis Minecraft server revealed that Mojang, which is owned by Microsoft, requested the removal of this functionality.
The play-to-earn feature on the Satlantis server allowed players to earn satoshis, the smallest denomination of Bitcoin, and withdraw them. According to the server administrator, the functionality will be removed on Monday, and players are advised to withdraw their earnings before then. However, the creators of the server have stated that they plan to bring back the concept in another game, although the specific game has yet to be decided.
Despite the disappointment of having to remove the play-to-earn feature, the Satlantis team remains optimistic about the future. They believe that the concept of a game that shares its profits with players works well and will be ported to a new platform that encourages innovation instead of stifling it. Satlantis has also assured players that they will continue to honor Bitcoin withdrawals outside of the game, even after the feature is disabled.
Mojang’s request to remove the play-to-earn feature is in line with Minecraft’s updated usage guidelines, which now prohibit play-to-earn features in user-operated servers. The guidelines also include a ban on NFT functionality. It is unclear when these changes were instituted, but Mojang appears to be cracking down on features that involve real-world value within the game.
The situation involving Satlantis mirrors a previous incident with NFT Worlds, a project that sold tokenized land plots for a Minecraft fan server. Similar to Satlantis, NFT Worlds had to reconsider its approach when Mojang announced its ban on token-gated features. NFT Worlds eventually rebranded to Hytopia and created its own Minecraft-like game engine.
It’s worth noting that Minecraft is not the only game to ban NFTs and cryptocurrency from its fan servers. In November 2022, Rockstar Games announced a ban on both NFTs and cryptocurrency in its popular game, Grand Theft Auto V, after an increase in servers offering NFTs for in-game items.
Mojang’s decision to ban play-to-earn features and NFT functionality in Minecraft reflects a broader trend in the gaming industry. While some players may be disappointed by these restrictions, it is clear that game developers are taking steps to regulate and control the use of real-world value within their virtual worlds.
