Reddit is discontinuing its blockchain-based rewards system, “Community Points,” due to scalability issues. A Reddit team member announced this in the r/CryptoCurrency subreddit on October 17, stating that while they saw potential for Community Points, they couldn’t scale it broadly across the platform.
The shutdown of Community Points, along with the special membership feature, will take effect on November 8. Users will no longer see Points in their Reddit Vault or earn more Points in their communities.
Community Points were introduced in May 2020 to reward users for positive engagement in specific subreddits, with the aim of incentivizing higher-quality content. These Ethereum-based ERC-20 tokens were stored in Reddit’s in-house crypto wallet service, known as the “Reddit Vault.”
Initially launched on the Ethereum network, the service later moved to the layer-2 scaling solution Arbitrum for improved scalability. Each subreddit had its own token, such as Moons (MOON) for r/CryptoCurrency and Bricks (BRICK) for r/FortNiteBR. Users could use these tokens to purchase badges and exclusive items for their avatars.
In response to the announcement, a Reddit moderator expressed disappointment in the decision but reassured users that their Moons would not be lost. Transfer functionality in the smart contract would remain, and Reddit was relinquishing control over the contract.
Following the news, the value of Reddit tokens MOON and BRICK declined, leading to frustration and anger among Reddit users and the crypto community. Some users criticized Reddit for the decision, with one even canceling their special membership and vowing not to use the platform again.
