{"id":511768,"date":"2023-10-18T14:41:09","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T12:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=511768"},"modified":"2023-10-18T14:57:14","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T12:57:14","slug":"reddit-shutting-down-crypto-points-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cryptocurrency\/511768-reddit-shutting-down-crypto-points-system.html","title":{"rendered":"Reddit shutting down crypto points system"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reddit will be phasing out its blockchain-based Internet points programme Community Points by early November 2023, TechCrunch reports<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The platform launched Community Points in 2020<\/strong><\/a>, allowing users to reward positive engagement in certain subreddits like r\/CryptoCurrency with interchangeable tokens.<\/p>\n

These tokens were stored in Reddit’s vault, which acted as a wallet. Once awarded to a user, they could be used for buying items like unique badges and animated emojis.<\/p>\n

Reddit’s director of consumer and product communications, Tim Rathschmidt, told TechCrunch although there were future opportunities for the system, the resourcing required was too high to justify.<\/p>\n

“The regulatory environment has since added to that effort,” Rathschmidt said.<\/p>\n

“Though the moderators and communities that supported Community Points have been incredible partners \u2014 as it’s evolved, the product is no longer set up to scale.”<\/p>\n

The system originally ran on the Ethereum network, which carried high transaction fees and was limited in terms of bandwidth.<\/p>\n

To try and address this, it was transferred to Arbitrum Nova, a blockchain that runs as a scaling layer on top of Ethereum.<\/p>\n

Even so, Rathschmidt explained that making it available to all Reddit users would be “prohibitively” expensive.<\/p>\n

Reddit has also launched alternative rewards programmes since it first started experimenting with blockchain, which includes the ability to earn fiat money for contributions.<\/p>\n

Rathschmidt said the shutdown would have a minimal impact, with the number of subreddits impacted countable on one hand “with a finger or two left over”.<\/p>\n

\n

Now read: Visa and crypto exchange VALR announce South African partnership<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reddit says that scaling the system to all subreddits would be “prohibitively” expensive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":495965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44696],"tags":[38499,90104,191,42124,8045,4536,90106],"class_list":["post-511768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency","tag-blockchain","tag-community-points","tag-cryptocurrency","tag-ethereum","tag-reddit","tag-techcrunch","tag-tim-rathschmidt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511768"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511768"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":511808,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511768\/revisions\/511808"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}