Reddit Launches New ETH-Based Community Points Rewards Program

After picking Arbitrum to scale its Community Points program available currently on only two subreddits, Reddit is now looking to add Community Points to even more subreddits.

After its valuation shot up earlier this year, Reddit intends to expand its Community Points beta, allowing any subreddit to request the ability to create its own token. Reddit released a waitlist for subreddits who wish to do so and has provided additional information regarding its Community Points on its website.

Subreddits Can Have Own Points, Name, Symbol and Token

Reddit Community Points are handed out as rewards for active users in the community and can be given based on the number of upvotes a member receives within a subreddit, whether for a post they had made themselves or a post made on somebody else’s. The expanded Community Points programs will allow each subreddit to have its own Community Points, with a custom name, symbol and token.

Points can have value too and may be sold for other cryptos. The crypto points have value within each respective community/subreddit and can be used to purchase features or engage in community governance. Additionally, the points can also potentially be swapped for other cryptos or tokens at exchanges, or used for external purposes.

Tokens Retain Community Ownership

Reddit adds: “Community Points are the first step towards a different future for online communities … these tokens live on the blockchain, which means they are truly owned by the community. Over time, your community will benefit from even greater control and independence -on and off of Reddit.”

Currently, Community Points run on a test net version of Ethereum, but Reddit is working with Ethereum layer two scaling solution Arbitrum to see if it can run a version of that instead. As it stands, Reddit offers Community Points in the r/Cryptocurrency subreddit, called Moons, and in the r/Fortnite subreddit, called Bricks.

Reddit adds that the goal of introducing tokens to Reddit is that they can be used to incentivise good behaviour or content creation without a specific community. Community Points can also potentially be used in the future to run a community itself – a theme that some users are not entirely happy with.

Reddit Makes More Moves in Crypto

The news of tokens to additional subreddits comes during a welcome time as Reddit busies itself in the crypto world. In October, Reddit fuelled speculation it was getting into the non-fungible token (NFT) craze. A new job posting for a senior back-end engineer even had many wondering whether the social media giant might be building its very own NFT platform.