After moving away from Bitcoin (BTC) payments years ago, online forum Reddit now appears to be closer to embracing cryptocurrency payments through a new partnership with exchange FTX.
Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange FTX and Reddit announced in a joint statement Tuesday that the platform intends to integrate Reddit’s Community Points in the United States, the European Union, Australia and other markets.
The partnership features the integration of FTX Pay as a crypto exchange and payment solution to unlock new crypto-enabled benefits for Reddit Community Points. Introduced in May 2020, Reddit Community Points are a measure of reputation across communities or subreddits, allowing users to own a portion of their favorite communities.
“As a unit of ownership, points capture some of the value of your community. They can be spent on premium features and used as a measure of reputation in the community”said Reddit when it launched Community Points two years ago. Reddit Community Points is based on Arbitrum, one of the most widely used Ethereum scaling solutions.
With the new integration, users will be able to purchase Ether (ETH) from supported Reddit apps through the FTX Pay exchange and payment infrastructure platform. Cryptocurrency can be used to pay for blockchain gas fees, or network fees for your Community Points on-chain transactions.
“We are always working to empower communities and introduce new ways to use Reddit, and decentralized and self-sustaining blockchain technology allows us to do this. By working with FTX, we are able to do this at scale”said Reddit staff software engineer Niraj Sheth.
Bankman-Fried noted that the partnership with Reddit marks FTX’s commitment to empowering online communities to harness the power of blockchain. “FTX Pay’s exchange and payment infrastructure integrates with Reddit’s Community Points, making the customer experience a more seamless process,” she added.
LThe news comes amid the launch by Arbitrum developer Offchain Labs of the Arbitrum Nova chain on Tuesday. Arbitrum Nova, the second string launched in the Arbitrum ecosystem, is designed to serve as the premier solution for Web3 gaming and social applications. In addition to Reddit and FTX, other companies such as Google Cloud, Consensys, P2P, and QuickNode participated in the launch by becoming inaugural members of Nova’s “Data Availability Committee.”
Reddit, one of the most popular websites in the United States, has been heavily involved in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry for many years. The discussion platform is known for once allowing users to pay for their premium membership in Bitcoin, but removing the opportunity in 2018.
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian has been extensively involved in crypto, launching a $100 million Web3 investment fund last year. Ohanian subsequently launched another $200 million Web3 and social media fund in collaboration with Ethereum’s scaling solution Polygon.
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