It is a moment of happiness for blockchain enthusiasts globally as world’s leading social news and discussion website Reddit announced yesterday that it had introduced a new tool called ‘community point,’ which will represent the ownership of subreddits. As per an update on Reddit’s Android App, the new tool uses the same underlying technology as Bitcoin, to ensure only the owners of the subreddits are allowed to own and control their points. The further app states,
Community Points are stored as standard ERC-20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. This makes them interoperable with existing blockchain tools. Ethereum is a public blockchain that Reddit does not control. This means your Community Points can be seen and used independently of Reddit, without having to get Reddit’s permission to use them. Points are owned pseudonymously. Nothing on the Ethereum network connects to your real name or real identity.
Ethereum chief Vitalik Buterin tweeted on Friday, stating that the integration with Reddit was originally an idea proposed by Virgil Griffith, one of the core members of the network.
My favorite proposal for a simple meaningful ethereum integration @reddit could do was one of @virgilgr's ideas: they should allow subreddits to set an arbitrary smart contract address as their moderator
This would allow unbounded experimentation in DAO-like moderation policies.
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) April 10, 2020
Reddit is one of the most credible and most visited websites present on the internet, with more than a mammoth 330 million monthly active users, with more than 42% of internet users between the age group of 18-24 using the forum. As per an estimate, there are about 138,000 active subreddits on Reddit out of a total of 1.2 million.
The integration with such a giant platform opens the door of massive opportunities for Ethereum, which itself is inarguably the best in the industry. Nischal Shetty, CEO of India’s leading crypto exchange WazirX, is excited about the development as hundreds of thousands of Indians use Reddit, making India the 2nd largest user of Reddit, only behind the US. In a tweet on Saturday, Shetty stated that it was an exciting development.
Day 527
Reddit, one of the most visited websites in the world plans to integrate a blockchain based point system
This will be an ERC20 token on Ethereum Blockchain
It’s exciting! Millions of users will be onboarded to Crypto, including Indians#IndiaWantsCrypto pic.twitter.com/I9ymHGpbcS
— Nischal (Shardeum) 🔼 (@NischalShetty) April 11, 2020