Reddit is releasing a sequence of limited-edition blockchain-based avatars made by impartial artists – however is stopping in need of calling them non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Introduced on Thursday, Collectible Avatars will likely be launched within the coming weeks on the Polygon blockchain, which the social community mentioned was chosen for its low transaction prices and sustainability commitments.
In a weblog submit, Reddit emphasised a number of occasions that the gathering would solely be purchasable with government-issued fiat currencies, not cryptocurrencies. Moreover, they won’t be put up for public sale and can as a substitute be offered for a hard and fast quantity.
“Sooner or later, we see blockchain as one technique to carry extra empowerment and independence to communities on Reddit. Reddit has at all times been a mannequin for what decentralization may seem like on-line; our communities are self-built and run, and as a part of our mission to raised empower our communities, we’re exploring instruments to assist them be much more self-sustaining and self-governed. Blockchain-backed Collectible Avatars are one of many early steps we’re taking to check out the potential advantages of this idea on Reddit,” mentioned the corporate.
Reddit’s reluctance to model the brand new product as an NFT is probably shocking. Whereas it is common to see Chinese language tech firms seek advice from blockchain-based collections as “digital collectibles,” Reddit had no such qualms when it introduced out its CryptoSnoo NFT assortment final yr on OpenSea.
The transfer is the newest in a sequence of web3 rollouts and experiments for Reddit. It has additionally experimented with permitting customers to have NFTs as avatars, and permitting tokenized Group Factors for its communities.
