Reddit is on a steady, downward slide as they continue to reverse more and more of the things that made the website previously great (or, at least, good.)
Censorship was once the reason people went TO Reddit. It was an open marketplace of ideas that generally adhered to no particular set of morals or national laws beyond those of common internet sense. This persisted for several years, as the users who had migrated (mostly from Digg) were attempt to escape heavy-handed moderation and censorship.
Then, rather quickly, it wasn't.
Of course, not unlike all good things, this was destined to come to an end. And indeed, it did come to an end, quite some time ago. However, this has not stopped Reddit's clueless administration and executives from putting the pedal to the medal in destroying the online platform they have never had the slightest inkling how to monetize (a fatal flaw that will eventually destroy them.)
Their gradual plan over time seems to have been to engender a reputation for being a user-driven, mostly uncensored website and then to slowly back in to giving corporate (and other nefarious) interests almost complete control of content and speech rights on an individual-subreddit level. I don't think it has worked out the way they hoped it would.
Just a day or two's worth of organized admin abuse, blatant double standards, propaganda and censorship.
Over the last 2 years Reddit has aggressively turned into a propaganda site aligned mostly with faux-gressive fake liberals and social justice warriors. The news and politics section push a skewed, totally partisan collection of lies and the entire website contorted greatly in an attempt to elect Hillary Clinton, perhaps the least qualified presidential candidate in history, given her status as a career serial-felon.
Reddit didn't stop there. They censor any marketplace Reddit that facilitates unregulated commerce, they run a large anti-alt-coin, pro-Bitcoin-shill propaganda operation out of r/bitcoin (see my above link, or just google Theymos, a most accomplished thief). They attack any viewpoint that doesn't tow the mainstream party line by shutting down and censoring pretty much any Reddit they deem to be guilty of wrong-think, then often replacing it with a puppet-subreddit that few casual observers will notice the difference in. This is a particularly common practice in alt-coin subreddits, which tend to be ruthlessly positive echo-chambers (and coincidentally moderated by the operators of said coin projects.)
Now after all that ranting...Reddit probably didn't remove the Bitcoin payment option for any sinister reason. u/i_gotta_say has the scoop over at Reddit:
Ah, Coinbase. Spotted (part of) the problem.
Sorry, it's just not likely there's a more interesting explanation than this one. The volume of Reddit Gold bought with Bitcoin, given recent transaction fees, must be next to nothing. It's just not worth updating support for the new paradigm.
Reddit Inc., you are an abject failure, but perhaps this one is not on you.
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Sources: Google, Reddit, u/i_gotta_say
Copyright: SmartSteem, PALNet, SPL, Reddit, https://penetrate.blogspot.com/2015/05/in-honor-of-reddit-censorship-best.html