Reddit recently announced that it will be shutting down its blockchain-based rewards service, “Community Points.” The decision was made due to scalability concerns, with the platform stating that there is no viable path to scale the service broadly across the entire platform. The Community Points service, including its special membership feature, will be terminated on November 8th. This means that users will no longer see Points in their Reddit Vault or earn any more Points in their communities.
Community Points was first launched in May 2020 and aimed to incentivize higher-quality content on the platform by rewarding users with points for positive engagement in certain subreddits. These points were Ethereum-based ERC-20 tokens stored in Reddit’s in-house crypto wallet service, known as the “Reddit Vault.” Initially launched on the Ethereum network, the service later migrated to the layer-2 scaling solution Arbitrum for increased scalability. Each subreddit had its own token, with Moons (MOON) being the native crypto asset of the r/CryptoCurrency board and Bricks (BRICK) for the r/FortNiteBR subreddit. Users could spend these points on badges and exclusive items for their avatars.
The announcement of the shutdown sparked disappointment and anger from Reddit users and crypto enthusiasts. Many expressed their frustration with the decision, as the value of the Reddit tokens MOON and BRICK plummeted following the news. Pseudonymous trader Byzantine General took to Twitter to criticize Reddit, stating that they had essentially “rugged” their community. He shared a screenshot of MOON’s price, which had fallen by around 90%.
In response to the original statement, the r/CryptoCurrency moderator “CryptoMods” expressed their disappointment and stated that they had only just learned of the decision. They clarified that users’ Moons are still theirs and won’t be burned. The transfer functionality in the smart contract will remain active, and Reddit is removing its control over the contract.
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One Reddit user, u/Bunker_Beans, voiced their anger and frustration, stating that Reddit had essentially betrayed its users, leading them to cancel their special membership and vowing never to use the platform again. The decision to shut down the Community Points service has clearly created a negative sentiment among the Reddit community.
It is important to note that this move by Reddit does not mean the end of community rewards and tokenization on the platform. The company’s announcement acknowledged the future opportunities for Community Points but cited scalability concerns as the reason for discontinuing the service. It remains to be seen whether Reddit will explore alternative solutions or partnerships to introduce a new rewards system that can scale effectively across the platform.
Overall, Reddit’s decision to shut down its blockchain-based rewards service, Community Points, has sparked disappointment and anger among its users and crypto enthusiasts. This move highlights the challenges and complexities faced by platforms when implementing blockchain-based solutions and the need to address scalability concerns. While this particular service may be coming to an end, the potential for community rewards and tokenization on Reddit and other platforms remains an exciting possibility for the future.
