As a result of the cooperation, users of Reddit will be able to utilize FTX Pay to make payments for the gas costs associated with Community Points activities. In the year 2020, Reddit introduced blockchain-based Community Points coins as a way to reward members for consistently producing high-quality content on the network. Tokens based on the ERC-20 protocol are used as a gauge of repute and contributions made to various Reddit groups.
Reddit selected Arbitrum as their scaling partner in July 2021 in order to extend the platform to millions of subreddits. In a news statement dated August 9, Offchain Labs, the creator of Arbitrum, announced the launch of its new blockchain, Arbitrum Nova, which is geared for gameplay and social apps. The Reddit Community Points solution will be the chain’s first big rollout. The Arbitrum Nova blockchain claims to be low-cost and secure.
After collecting enough points, users have a number of options, including voting in elections, buying premium memberships, and sending gifts. Such transactions on the blockchain incur gas expenses. FTX claimed in a blog post that customers may use their debit or credit card to buy Ethereum (ETH) using FTX Pay if they don’t have enough funds for network costs.
Reddit Staff Software Engineer Niraj Sheth released the following comment on the company’s plans to use blockchain technology: “We’re always trying to empower communities and create new ways to utilize Reddit. Working with FTX allows us to achieve this on a large scale.”
By moving Reddit’s Community Points to the Arbitrum Nova blockchain, new use cases, like gaming ecosystems that accept Community Points as payment, may become possible. Reddit has experimented for a long time with the concept of using blockchain to give its members greater ownership and autonomy. Reddit introduced its digital Collectible Avatars in July 2022, and they are held on the Ethereum Layer 2 solution Polygon like non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The collectibles were intended to allow artists to get compensation for their work, including commissions on secondary sales, while granting purchasers the right of ownership.
Director of consumer and product relations Tim Rathschmidt emailed CryptoSlate, “Reddit has always been a paradigm of what decentralization may look like online; our communities are self-built and operated, and as part of our commitment to further empower our communities, we are investigating solutions to enable them be even more self-sustaining and self-governed.”