Reddit to Discontinue Community Points Reward System Due to Blockchain Scalability Constraints
Date: 2023-10-18 Author: Dima Zakharov Categories: BLOCKCHAIN
Reddit Shuts Down Community Points Service: End of the Crypto Rewards Era on the Platform
Reddit, one of the world's largest forums and social networks, has announced the conclusion of its experiment with crypto rewards known as Community Points. This move, driven by blockchain scalability constraints, signifies the end of crypto rewards for millions of users.
Community Points were introduced by Reddit in 2020 as a means to incentivize user activity and interaction in various subreddits - communities dedicated to different topics. Users could earn these points for high-quality comments and posts, and then use them to acquire privileges like emojis and badges. Unfortunately, despite initial success, the Community Points program encountered scalability issues.
Reddit has stated that blockchain scalability limitations have made it challenging to support Community Points
In the official announcement of the program's closure, Reddit acknowledged that, despite the efforts of moderators and active communities, the service can no longer effectively scale to accommodate the growing number of users and activity. Instead of continuing to develop Community Points, Reddit is focusing on more scalable products that can benefit a larger audience.
This decision means that Community Points will cease operation by November 8th. All points earned by users will become invalid, and users will no longer be able to use them to gain privileges or for any other purpose. While this move may disappoint many users, it underscores the challenges of implementing crypto rewards in large-scale social networks.
Community Points were built on the Ethereum blockchain and transitioned to the Layer 2 solution Arbitrum Nova in August 2022 to reduce transaction costs and improve scalability. However, even with these enhancements, Reddit was unable to overcome scalability limitations, leading to the decision to conclude the program.
Users who invested time and effort into earning Community Points are now faced with the prospect of losing their crypto rewards. This also raises questions about the future of crypto rewards on major social network platforms and the need for the development of more scalable solutions.
Although Reddit is closing its experiment with Community Points, the world of cryptocurrencies and blockchain continues to evolve. Blockchain technologies remain significant in various domains, and the future may bring new opportunities for crypto rewards and decentralization in online communities.
