Community Points can be used for tipping, increasing voting power on polls, and snapping up items that are unique to each community. They also serve as a way of building a user's reputation.
Reddit has been dabbling in Ethereum-based tokens for some time.
In the r/Cryptocurrency subreddit, users who submit high-quality, attention-grabbing posts and comments are rewarded in Moons.
And over in r/FortniteBR, Bricks are on offer.
These Community Points can be used for tipping, increasing voting power on polls, and snapping up items that are unique to each community. They also serve as a way of building a user's reputation.
Reddit has been keen to roll this feature out further, but has been stymied by the high levels of congestion on the Ethereum blockchain. Until now.
The social network has unveiled a new site that confirms Community Points are being rolled out to other subreddits — and interested groups can now join a waitlist.
It's believed that this approach could greatly improve the quality of content on the site, all while being tailored to a community's exacting needs. Reddit said:
"Want to see more long-form text posts and comments? Reward this kind of content more. Want to see fewer low-effort memes? Give out fewer Points for them. (Or reward memes even more, it's up to you and your community!)"
Every subreddit can come together to decide which name their token should receive — and from here, it is given a symbol to match. The social network added:
"These tokens live on the blockchain, which means they are owned and controlled fully by the community."
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The Next Phase
This has been a long time coming for Reddit.
Back in the summer of 2020, the social network launched a competition to find an Ethereum scaling solution that would be able to cope with high levels of demand.
Arbitrum was ultimately chosen — seeing off competition from more than 20 other rivals, including the likes of Solana and Polygon. Unveiling its decision, Reddit said Arbitrum was "the most promising scaling technology for Community Points."
While based on Ethereum, Community Points are not designed to have cash value — and Reddit's policies specifically prohibit them from being sold or exchanged.
That hasn't stopped enterprising users from embarking on a convoluted process to turn their Community Points into cold hard cash — with one managing to pay their rent using Moons.
