By
Bhushan Akolkar
April 26th, 2024
While Reddit remains the platform of choice for most crypto investors, ‘crypto’ was the hot topic on the site. Last year, Arbitrum technology was chosen as a layer-2 rollup to scale Reddit’s community points.
One of the world’s most popular crypto exchanges, FTX, has come up with another idea that has made it to the headlines among crypto news. FTX has been on a buying spree as a consequence of the bear market blues and has struck a new deal with Reddit.
With the much-liked social media handle for crypto users, Reddit will now allow its users to purchase Ethereum straightaway from their social media platforms.
FTX Pay, which is the result of this new collaboration, is a crypto-to-fiat exchange platform embedded in Reddit and Arbitrum, that enables users to settle the gas fees on Reddit’s ‘community points’ tokens using fiat. Community Points, which were launched 2 years ago, are Reddit’s blockchain-based tokens that permit people on the platform to share rewards and engage on social media.
Statistics have always been proof of the fame crypto has garnered on social media. While Reddit remains the platform of choice for most crypto investors, ‘crypto’ was the hot topic on the site. Last year, Arbitrum technology was chosen as a layer-2 rollup to scale Reddit’s community points.
The latest collaboration is one small unit of a bigger plan to integrate Reddit with Blockchain Technology like crypto or Non-Fungible Tokens. In 2020, when community points were first launched, users in two subreddits were able to earn blockchain rewards for posting comments of good standards. Such points were then used to build a reputation for the user as they would be presented right next to their names. The essence of all this lay in the fact that community points thrived because they were completely validated and offered by other users.
FTX wants to reach out to as many non-crypto users as possible. Initially, users would have to pay a gas fee to networks for any exchange of money using crypto tokens. This can get very tricky and complex for someone who is not well-versed with the workings of the crypto universe. However, with the help of FTX and Reddit collaboration, customers can purchase cryptocurrency via the already-existing ‘community points’. This prevents unnecessary complexity and allows regular Reddit user to dip their toes into the realm of cryptocurrency. Hence, the integration is a win-win for both Reddit and FTX.
At present, Reddit enjoys the active participation of over four hundred million users which has made it one of the largest user enterprises on Web3. According to Amy Wu, head of FTX Ventures, the consequences of this expansion and integration with the community points program will be a great success for the entire crypto world.