Reddit is finally adding cryptocurrency, screenshots show

By Tim Copeland

Discussion forum Reddit appears to be building a points system that runs on a blockchain, according to a video posted by one Redditor.

Redditor MagoCrypto, who according to his profile is a community manager at Unstoppable Domains—which builds censorship resistant websites—uploaded the video yesterday. It appears to show a beta implementation of the system.

Screenshots show a wallet, which comes with a blockchain address. Image: Reddit.

"I opened my app yesterday morning and saw the 'wallet' menu option. Went through it, saw 'blockchain' and got super excited to share with rest of y'all," MagoCrypto wrote on Reddit.

A Reddit spokesperson told Decrypt that it is testing a blockchain-based feature but only for one community.

"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,”  the spokesperson said.

According to the screenshots, the main feature is a cryptocurrency wallet where the user can collect points. But each user will have their own blockchain address where they will be able to see their points.

The FAQ gives some more clues as to what's coming. Image: Reddit.

It appears that these points will have some value. In the frequently asked questions, there is a section called "Tipping and Transfers." This suggests that the points can be sent to other Redditors and will have value, probably as cryptocurrency. It is unclear whether these points can be sent outside of the Reddit app.

It is possible the points will have futher functionalities in the Reddit ecosystem. Other questions involve memberships and voting, implying that they could be used to contribute to Reddit's development.

Reddit has long been a popular source of information for cryptocurrency projects. It is home to many crypto communities, with r/Bitcoin boasting 1.4 million members and r/Cryptocurrency with 994,000. But so far, it has held off on implementing a blockchain-based system. Maybe the crypto-loving Redditors have good karma after all.

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