Reddit is testing an Ethereum-powered points system for one of its online communities.
The pilot program will establish a new wallet as part of the Reddit app and store users’ “community points” as ERC-20 tokens, according to an informational video posted by a community manager for Unstoppable Domains, a startup creating blockchain-based domains.
A Reddit spokesperson confirmed the existence of the program to Decrypt.
“We continuously experiment with ways to support communities on Reddit. In this instance, we’re working with one community to test a feature that represents a user’s involvement in a community.
We value and seek out community feedback as we continue to explore features that engage our users and communities.”
Users will earn community points when their posts or comments are upvoted. The points will be publicly displayed. Users can then spend their points to purchase special memberships that unlock exclusive features on Reddit like badges, animated emojis and GIFS, according to the informational video. Spent points will be burned to increase the value of other community members’ holdings.
Since the points will be decentralized and stored on the Ethereum blockchain, Reddit moderators will not have any ability to interact with or change a user’s balance.
