Reddit has discontinued its Community Points program, a blockchain-based rewards system. The move comes as the platform shifts its focus towards more scalable incentives for its users. Tim Rathschmidt, Reddit’s director of consumer and product communications, confirmed that the scaling demands and regulatory environment have made it increasingly impractical to continue the program. Launched in 2020, Community Points were initially seen as a revolutionary way for Redditors to earn value for positive engagement in select communities.
Transition to more scalable systems
Additionally, the platform aims to prioritize other initiatives that offer easier scaling options. Rathschmidt clarified that the decision wasn’t taken to make room for the newly introduced Contributor Program but to focus on scalable programs that benefit a wider user base. Moreover, Reddit has already rolled out several incentives like the moderator rewards and the Contributor Program, which are simpler for users to understand and adopt.
Once celebrated as an innovative venture, Community Points rewarded users with Ethereum tokens for positive contributions within specific subreddits. These tokens were stored in Reddit’s Vault, a crypto wallet only the user could access. Users could then spend these points on unique features like memberships, badges, and animated emojis. Once spent, these points were “burned,” removed from circulation.
The point system also served as a reputation marker, displaying next to usernames to identify key contributors within the community. However, these advantages came with scalability challenges. Initially using Ethereum for transactions, the platform soon found that its high fees and limited bandwidth could not cater to Reddit’s vast user base. Consequently, Reddit transitioned to Arbitrum Nova in 2022, which promised lower-cost transactions while maintaining strong security features.
Despite the switch, the program remained a difficult project to maintain at scale. Hence, Reddit is letting go of Community Points, shifting its attention to other reward programs, such as the Contributor Program. This program allowed users to convert their Reddit gold and karma into actual cash. Specifically, users who earn at least 10 gold within a month can make a monthly withdrawal, while those with over 5,000 karma can earn $1 per gold.
Reddit’s decision to phase out Community Points is part of a broader reevaluation of its rewards programs. Earlier this year, Reddit also terminated its coin system following widespread user protests against changes to the platform’s API. That program allowed users to purchase and award Gold and other currencies and was ended after a sitewide blackout protest involving over 8,000 subreddits.
In the coming days, beta participants in the Community Points program will find their Vaults emptied and will cease earning new points in their respective communities. Tim Rathschmidt expressed his commitment to continue working on ways to improve community governance and empower contributions.
