Reddit has partnered with the Ethereum Foundation with the goal of scaling its cryptocurrency based Community Points program, according to a post made on June 19.
The highly detailed post highlights a deepening interest on Reddit’s part for implementing cryptocurrencies, calling for Ethereum scaling technology that can handle Reddit’s approximately 430 million users. Regarding the goal of the collaboration with the Ethereum Foundation, the post says,
In conjunction with the Ethereum Foundation, Reddit is inviting Ethereum scaling projects to show the community how your scaling solution can be used to bring Community Points to mainnet. Our goal is to find a solution that will support hundreds of thousands of Community Points users on mainnet today, and can eventually scale to all of Reddit (430 million monthly users).
The demos that prove that it can handle Reddit’s userbase are required to handle Community Points usage for at least 100,000 users and must include a live proof-of-concept. Additionally, it must be fully decentralized and not be dependent on a third party provider.
One of the most significant requirements is that it must be free to use for users or at a cost that Reddit can pay on their behalf. The post notes the cost involved for the program,
Community Points distributions have cost an order of magnitude more gas than all other operations combined, primarily due to on-chain storage costs associated with onboarding new users.
Security too, is a prominent consideration, as noted by the users responding to the post. The assets must be completely owned by users - a solution a separate blockchain could provide.
To help address these issues, Reddit has called for scaling experts in the community to pitch in and submit demos by July 31, 2020. Updates on the submitted solutions will be provided in September.
Reddit launched its cryptocurrency-based rewards program Community Points on May 14, featuring two tokens, MOONS and BRICKS, for the cryptocurrency and ForNiteBR subreddits respectively. They stated that with this communities could become stronger by allowing them to "reclaim rightful ownership of their frontiers" and build more independent communities that are free from censorship. The end result of this is that the program is expected to encourage better content, foster better engagement and support content creators for original content.
At the time, Reddit officials said that it would cover the gas fees temporarily - and the latest post indicates that in order to move forward new solutions that mitigate this cost will be required.
As further indication that Reddit is pushing into cryptocurrency, Reddit’s co-founder Alexis Ohanian has said that the cryptocurrency market is in the midst of a “crypto spring.”
