10 ms·

Reddit Plans Cryptocurrency to Give Back to Its Users After $50M Raise

233 points by banderon 12y ago

darkstar999 12y ago
so "Thinking about" == "plans to"? Nice journalism.
- Someone1234 12y ago
  Except they have a specific plan and have even ran that plan past a lawyer to check its broad legality. I'd say they're doing both, thinking about AND plan[ning to.
- IkmoIkmo 12y ago
  It's definitely a plan? There's no certainty the plan will work or even be executed, but yes, it's a plan... Semantically I see no issue.
- Igglyboo 12y ago
  "The investors have explicitly agreed to this in their investment terms." So the investors have it in their contract and the actually talked to an ex-SEC lawyer, pretty sure that constitutes intent.
  - darkstar999 12y ago
    They have agreed to give up 10%, not to do the crypto thing. "We are thinking about creating a cryptocurrency"
swanson 12y ago
"as well as individual investors like ... Calvin Broadus Jr. AKA Snoop Dog [sic] (also randomly)" Snoop Dogg is actually a pretty active reddit user: http://reddit.com/u/Here_Comes_The_King http://reddit.com/u/Here_Comes_The_King - especially in a certain..err.."plant-based" subreddit. He's done several AMAs that are actually amazingly fun to read. In some ways, AMAs can provide a better "celeb-to-fan" interaction than Twitter so I can see why they got a few celebs in this round.
- diydsp 12y ago
  I dislike being cynical, but I don't see many posts by Snoop that aren't in an article without his name in the title... or that aren't promoting one of his products. I'm smelling good PR work here, not an authentic interest in reddit.
  - hnha 12y ago
    It is depressingly rare nowadays to see AMAs of celebrities that are not purely for advertising $upcomingthing and low on content.
    - embolalia 12y ago
      I haven't looked too deep in that sub, but maybe there are some going on that just don't make the front page? There are some weird ones occasionally, mostly people who've had some sort of surgery or health problem, from what I've seen. But really, can we just focus on Rampart?
slg 12y ago
This seems like an interesting but risky experiment if Reddit really does tie something like this to user contributions. First it seems like a massive regulatory headache. From Reddit's perspective, are they going to send out 1099s to their users? Will they require them to have real names and addresses on file? From a user perspective, will I need to worry about my Reddit activity when filling out my tax returns. It is also a gamble for Reddit as there is a psychological principle know as the overjustification effect [1] that is at play here. Once a person is paid for a habit they previously only did for enjoyment, the habit will generally become less enjoyable. Reddit turns from a hobby to a job. Finally there is the issue of "circle jerking". Reddit is already notorious for its annoying and dangerous group think. Can you imagine if people could actually turn their karma into straight cash? The incentive will be even higher to simply echo back to the group what you think it wants to hear. [1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overjustification_effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overjustification_effect
- Karunamon 12y ago
  I have to ask, how notorious? Is this a documented effect (on Reddit, not in general) or just the noise that people on the site are repeating much like any other meme? Most accusations of "circle jerking" I hear there consist of shock and horror that certain communities seem to have certain beliefs/thoughts/ideas in common and that they were dared to be disagreed with. (I.e, you really should not be all that surprised when you try to float progressive ideas in /r/republican, or vice versa, and find your comments downvoted) It's to the point where I almost reflexively downvote anyone on Reddit who brings it up, since 99 out of 100 times, it's a complaint that they were disagreed with, rather than anything that adds to the discussion at hand. (Which, IMO, is the explicit purpose of downvotes)
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - dubfan 12y ago
    Right, so you end up with these subreddits full of people reaffirming each other's viewpoints. Nobody wants to hear anything challenging their views, but at the same time they stomp their feet and whine without a hint of irony, "why doesn't the other side just get it?" This also leads to schisms resulting in vicious infighting. It's pretty much the complete opposite of an environment conducive to intellectual development.
mandlar 12y ago
Well, that explains why they were looking for a Cryptocurrency Engineer. http://www.reddit.com/r/redditjobs/comments/2c9d61/cryptocurrency_engineer_redditcom_san_francisco/ http://www.reddit.com/r/redditjobs/comments/2c9d61/cryptocur...
- wehadfun 12y ago
  That is a neat profession
BrainInAJar 12y ago
Dogecoin is already the cryptocurrency of Reddit... why not just buy a bunch of Doge?
- vertex-four 12y ago
  The point is that this cryptocurrency will be exchangeable for (backed by) shares of reddit, which is rather unlike current cryptocurrencies.
  - arenaninja 12y ago
    The fun thing is that as soon as I saw the plans to distribute ownership earlier today, I figured why not use their own cryptocurrency? I guess I'm starting to predict the future, albeit only a few hours in advance
    - oafitupa 12y ago
      Because it's stupid? Why peg millions of dollars to a currency with no security?
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - michaelchisari 12y ago
    They can create their own crypto-currency on top of an existing one, using dogeparty or counterparty. This is most likely their best bet, because they won't fall into a lot of the security/hashrate traps with a lot of new coins.
- oafitupa 12y ago
  Why are you trying to spread that falsehood? How is dogecoin "already the cryptocurrency of Reddit"? It wasn't created by Reddit, no one in Reddit is using it (except r/dogecoin and related subs), and it's supposed to be a joke. I don't think Reddit wants its shares to be a joke too.
AndrewKemendo 12y ago
What will happen to reddit gold?
jared314 12y ago
That is an interesting move to empower users with a feeling of ownership. Although, it would be more interesting, to me, if they tried to push towards a distributed autonomous corporation instead. The type and amount of operations that could be fully automated is up for debate, but the attempt would be very interesting.
Igglyboo 12y ago
As long as they don't tie this to imaginary internet points I can't see a problem. If karma is involved they better have a pretty advanced anti-gaming algorithm.
CephalopodMD 12y ago
So, what kind of crypto currency would this be? Does anyone know if there are plans for a mining operation like bit/lite/doge coin that one could participate in, or is it just a block chain that is allocated to reddit "shareholders" by some other means? (all of this is assuming that "considering a cryptocurrency" == "planning to implement a cryptocurrency")
- wmf 12y ago
  It sounds more like a "cryptosecurity" than a currency.
mappum 12y ago
They will probably be using colored coins (assets issued and exchanged on the Bitcoin blockchain), not their own blockchain/altcoin. Otherwise, they would have to worry about keeping enough miners to make their blockchain secure. Colored coins also offer some cool features, such as trustless trading. It's possible to construct a transaction that sends Alice's Reddit shares to Bob, and also send's Bob's Bitcoins to Alice. Since they are in the same transaction, either both sides of the trade happens, or neither do.
- wmf 12y ago
  Or you could just not use a blockchain. I think some guy named Chaum is rolling in his grave.
  - mappum 12y ago
    In favor of Reddit managing the ledger centrally? That doesn't allow for the public transparency that they would like, and it would probably be much harder legally (they would be stuck doing a bunch of KYC/AML stuff, which doesn't really make sense for a company like Reddit to need to deal with).
    - wmf 12y ago
      I thought blockchain transparency is a bug and anonymity is a feature; it's hard to keep this stuff straight. If you need KYC, a blockchain doesn't provide that anyway so you can either add hacks or just admit that it's not the right solution.
      - mappum 12y ago
        By transparency, I mean for example Reddit manipulating the ledger if it was on a central database. They could take away someone's shares, or give someone extra shares, and the community would have no way of knowing. If they issued someone more shares on the blockchain, everyone could see it happening and prove it. Anonymity isn't a factor here. The point I was making on KYC is that with blockchain-based shares the government doesn't even have an idea of how to regulate it yet, and Reddit can probably sidestep the KYC entirely. Anyway it's not them managing the books, it's the Bitcoin network doing it for them.
drcode 12y ago
I find it very unlikely this will happen, for legal reasons- They want to link their currency to shares in reddit corp and the SEC isn't going to be happy about that. (Though if they can pull it off that would be positive development in my book.)
dimitrideag 12y ago
I´ts interesting, however the idea of Reddit to allocate 10% of their shares back to the Reddit community for me it´s more than something "cool" as Sam Altman said, and beyond the "a new way to think about community ownership". From another perspective, It´s just a good strategy to do your own IPO (go public) without the legal/bureaucratic way. It´s creating your own NY Stock Exchange with the idea to increase your value based on what your users are doing now (because it will be possible to buy, sell and trade between users). So, beyond the message that it´s for “giving back to the community”, Is it more a clever strategy to increase the company value, and even more the stockholders value? or I´m incorrect?
- exelius 12y ago
  Everything you said is totally true, which is why the SEC will block it. The most they could do is set aside 10% of the shares and let users proxy vote them, but I don't think that using them to back a cryptocurrency is going to fly with the SEC. I know a lot of people like Bitcoin because it's magical internet money with no rules, but financial markets are regulated for a reason. I don't think the SEC would have a problem with the method (using a cryptocurrency) but rather the reason (using a cryptocurrency to avoid SEC IPO/ownership rules). If Reddit were public, I don't see a problem with using their stock to back a cryptocurrency. But it's a loophole big enough to drive a truck through, so the SEC needs to close it before the con men descend.
6thSigma 12y ago
If reddit figures out how to get past the legal and technical hurdles this brings, I'm very excited to see what comes of it and if other online communities will do something similar. Communities which produce a lot of content/value for free such as open source developers can begin getting equity in the companies they are helping.
spolu 12y ago
Hope they use existing systems to issue their currency and don't try to create a new currency. Stellar could do the job perfectly IMHO!
- oafitupa 12y ago
  Stellar? What kind of joke is this? Why go with some small, centralized currency created by a private company (and owned by it to some degree), instead of going with the most adopted, most secure, most serious of all, and decentralized: Bitcoin.
  - spolu 12y ago
    Cause bitcoin does not let you issue your own currency + Stellar is a not for profit.
    - bitsweet 12y ago
      Not true. https://coins.assembly.com https://coins.assembly.com
    - oafitupa 12y ago
      Seems like you don't know what Counterparty is.
bond 12y ago
Maybe they can use an existing coin like Karma... http://karmacoin.me/ http://karmacoin.me/
subdane 12y ago
I wonder if they've been planning this for a while? https://twitter.com/redditcoin/status/428947176002056192 https://twitter.com/redditcoin/status/428947176002056192
eordano 12y ago
They shouldn't use a new cryptocurrency, instead, https://medium.com/@barisser/an-open-letter-to-reddit-why-you-should-build-on-bitcoin-e52705bc87c5 https://medium.com/@barisser/an-open-letter-to-reddit-why-yo...
dipso 12y ago
Seeing as the Dogecoin community is so active on Reddit, this could be an interesting use case for Dogeparty. Dogeparty is an crypto-token (e.g. securities) application layer built on top of the Dogecoin blockchain. Now that Dogecoin is merged with Litecoin's asic hashrate, the network is pretty secure against attack. There are other options built on top of Bitcoin (such as Mastercoin, Colored Coins & Counterparty), but certain Bitcoiners have been worried about blockchain bloat, so Dogeparty could be a decent shout on top of another secure blockchain. Other options exist on new blockchains, but I think these are too unproven this point. Dogeparty: http://www.dogeparty.io http://www.dogeparty.io Web wallet: https://wallet.dogeparty.io https://wallet.dogeparty.io (note: I do not endorse this, it's beta and as with anything in cryptocurrency be careful!)
- oafitupa 12y ago
  So you just copy/pasted Counterparty's code too? Do you have any plans on providing something of value, or only copycats?
jmount 12y ago
I'll be "that guy." My guess: Reddit releases a small fraction of a new crypto currency (likely a simple BitCoin clone) to its users. Reddit recipient interest in the currency then supports a large price for what Reddit retains and Reddit ends up net-profiting from the transaction.
Throwaway12830 12y ago
This seems incredibly strange. Personally, I don't see how it's going to add value to Reddit and help build the community. Mixing money into the site is going to complicate things, bring forward a lot of challenges, and it's going to be a large time sink. I think Reddit has more important things to focus on, and I don't find this to be a good use of resources. Reddit is also slow to roll out changes, so if this has a negative impact, it'll take them a long time to pivot back on track. Perhaps it's going to be a minor feature that the majority of users never know exists, and things will continue as they do now. If it's a major feature, I think it'll be a flop, and open up room for competition. Edit: To expand a little more, what's the best case scenario they're hoping for here? They think the community is going to grow and more people will flock to the site because of this change? Reddit is anti-corporate, the community likes to feel small, even though it's one of the largest communities on the internet. When they associate money with the site, people will look at it as more of a business, and I think that'll drive more people away than it brings in. Why doesn't Reddit just launch an image hosting platform? Why do they send all this traffic to imgur and gfycat, when they could roll out their own solution for the community? They can spin it off into a separate service to attract non-Redditors, and with all the incoming visitors from other sources, they can refer more people back to Reddit. To me, this seems like a no-brainer, since a large portion of their site revolves around images, and they're giving that traffic and monetization away to third parties at the moment.
- vijayboyapati 12y ago
  Not to mention it sort of defeats one of the main value propositions of cryptocurrencies - their decentralized nature. If reddit created such a currency you would need to trust reddit to trust its value. And if it's backed by reddit shares, then it seems like a proxy for allowing public trading of the shares of a private company. I wonder what the SEC would think of that.
- cheapsteak 12y ago
  Perhaps they're hoping the cryptocurrency would become widely adopted It certainly has a large enough audience in the right demographics to pull something like this off
- 12y ago
SushiMon 12y ago
Just what we need! Another Cryptocurrency!
toasted 12y ago
The last person who tried a bitcoin based IPO outside of established legal frameworks and existing stock exchanges ended up having to renounce his citizenship, move to panama and was fined by the SEC http://www.satoshidice.com http://www.satoshidice.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Voorhees http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Voorhees https://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2014/33-9592.pdf https://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2014/33-9592.pdf
tomelders 12y ago
I was hoping Reddit would create some sort of Reddit Trust that would re-invest it's earnings based on what the Reddit community thought best. That is of course not without it's own problems, but still, I prefer my idea.
squids 12y ago
If they don't call them creddits they've missed a trick.
mkr-hn 12y ago
ITT: Rich people finding ways to avoid giving money to people directly. I'd love some extra money. I would use it to fix up the emissions system on my car so I don't spend twice as much as I have to on gas. Then I'd use that to drive to where the jobs are and get one. I might write fewer comments on Reddit once gainfully employed, but is that such a bad thing? It seems like half the problems on Reddit are from people having too much free time to troll and make low-effort comments.
adrianwaj 12y ago
I think it's a great idea. I think redditcoin failed because of copyright issues. Myself I had the idea for "hoinz" but never really pursued it, although I'd like to. "Embracing the new spirit of cryptocurrency. Obtain hoinz from your reputations and contributions on various websites. Because you owe it to yourself." http://www.reddit.com/r/hoinz http://www.reddit.com/r/hoinz (nothing there) Things like moderation tasks can be paid in hoinz.

233 points by banderon 12y ago

darkstar999 12y ago

so "Thinking about" == "plans to"? Nice journalism.

Someone1234 12y ago
Except they have a specific plan and have even ran that plan past a lawyer to check its broad legality. I'd say they're doing both, thinking about AND plan[ning to.
IkmoIkmo 12y ago
It's definitely a plan? There's no certainty the plan will work or even be executed, but yes, it's a plan... Semantically I see no issue.
Igglyboo 12y ago
"The investors have explicitly agreed to this in their investment terms." So the investors have it in their contract and the actually talked to an ex-SEC lawyer, pretty sure that constitutes intent.
- darkstar999 12y ago
  They have agreed to give up 10%, not to do the crypto thing. "We are thinking about creating a cryptocurrency"

swanson 12y ago

"as well as individual investors like ... Calvin Broadus Jr. AKA Snoop Dog [sic] (also randomly)" Snoop Dogg is actually a pretty active reddit user: http://reddit.com/u/Here_Comes_The_King http://reddit.com/u/Here_Comes_The_King - especially in a certain..err.."plant-based" subreddit. He's done several AMAs that are actually amazingly fun to read. In some ways, AMAs can provide a better "celeb-to-fan" interaction than Twitter so I can see why they got a few celebs in this round.

diydsp 12y ago
I dislike being cynical, but I don't see many posts by Snoop that aren't in an article without his name in the title... or that aren't promoting one of his products. I'm smelling good PR work here, not an authentic interest in reddit.
- hnha 12y ago
  It is depressingly rare nowadays to see AMAs of celebrities that are not purely for advertising $upcomingthing and low on content.
  - embolalia 12y ago
    I haven't looked too deep in that sub, but maybe there are some going on that just don't make the front page? There are some weird ones occasionally, mostly people who've had some sort of surgery or health problem, from what I've seen. But really, can we just focus on Rampart?

slg 12y ago

This seems like an interesting but risky experiment if Reddit really does tie something like this to user contributions. First it seems like a massive regulatory headache. From Reddit's perspective, are they going to send out 1099s to their users? Will they require them to have real names and addresses on file? From a user perspective, will I need to worry about my Reddit activity when filling out my tax returns. It is also a gamble for Reddit as there is a psychological principle know as the overjustification effect [1] that is at play here. Once a person is paid for a habit they previously only did for enjoyment, the habit will generally become less enjoyable. Reddit turns from a hobby to a job. Finally there is the issue of "circle jerking". Reddit is already notorious for its annoying and dangerous group think. Can you imagine if people could actually turn their karma into straight cash? The incentive will be even higher to simply echo back to the group what you think it wants to hear. [1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overjustification_effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overjustification_effect

Karunamon 12y ago
I have to ask, how notorious? Is this a documented effect (on Reddit, not in general) or just the noise that people on the site are repeating much like any other meme? Most accusations of "circle jerking" I hear there consist of shock and horror that certain communities seem to have certain beliefs/thoughts/ideas in common and that they were dared to be disagreed with. (I.e, you really should not be all that surprised when you try to float progressive ideas in /r/republican, or vice versa, and find your comments downvoted) It's to the point where I almost reflexively downvote anyone on Reddit who brings it up, since 99 out of 100 times, it's a complaint that they were disagreed with, rather than anything that adds to the discussion at hand. (Which, IMO, is the explicit purpose of downvotes)
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- dubfan 12y ago
  Right, so you end up with these subreddits full of people reaffirming each other's viewpoints. Nobody wants to hear anything challenging their views, but at the same time they stomp their feet and whine without a hint of irony, "why doesn't the other side just get it?" This also leads to schisms resulting in vicious infighting. It's pretty much the complete opposite of an environment conducive to intellectual development.

mandlar 12y ago

Well, that explains why they were looking for a Cryptocurrency Engineer. http://www.reddit.com/r/redditjobs/comments/2c9d61/cryptocurrency_engineer_redditcom_san_francisco/ http://www.reddit.com/r/redditjobs/comments/2c9d61/cryptocur...

wehadfun 12y ago
That is a neat profession

BrainInAJar 12y ago

Dogecoin is already the cryptocurrency of Reddit... why not just buy a bunch of Doge?

vertex-four 12y ago
The point is that this cryptocurrency will be exchangeable for (backed by) shares of reddit, which is rather unlike current cryptocurrencies.
- arenaninja 12y ago
  The fun thing is that as soon as I saw the plans to distribute ownership earlier today, I figured why not use their own cryptocurrency? I guess I'm starting to predict the future, albeit only a few hours in advance
  - oafitupa 12y ago
    Because it's stupid? Why peg millions of dollars to a currency with no security?
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- michaelchisari 12y ago
  They can create their own crypto-currency on top of an existing one, using dogeparty or counterparty. This is most likely their best bet, because they won't fall into a lot of the security/hashrate traps with a lot of new coins.
oafitupa 12y ago
Why are you trying to spread that falsehood? How is dogecoin "already the cryptocurrency of Reddit"? It wasn't created by Reddit, no one in Reddit is using it (except r/dogecoin and related subs), and it's supposed to be a joke. I don't think Reddit wants its shares to be a joke too.

AndrewKemendo 12y ago

What will happen to reddit gold?

jared314 12y ago

That is an interesting move to empower users with a feeling of ownership. Although, it would be more interesting, to me, if they tried to push towards a distributed autonomous corporation instead. The type and amount of operations that could be fully automated is up for debate, but the attempt would be very interesting.

Igglyboo 12y ago

As long as they don't tie this to imaginary internet points I can't see a problem. If karma is involved they better have a pretty advanced anti-gaming algorithm.

CephalopodMD 12y ago

So, what kind of crypto currency would this be? Does anyone know if there are plans for a mining operation like bit/lite/doge coin that one could participate in, or is it just a block chain that is allocated to reddit "shareholders" by some other means? (all of this is assuming that "considering a cryptocurrency" == "planning to implement a cryptocurrency")

wmf 12y ago
It sounds more like a "cryptosecurity" than a currency.

mappum 12y ago

They will probably be using colored coins (assets issued and exchanged on the Bitcoin blockchain), not their own blockchain/altcoin. Otherwise, they would have to worry about keeping enough miners to make their blockchain secure. Colored coins also offer some cool features, such as trustless trading. It's possible to construct a transaction that sends Alice's Reddit shares to Bob, and also send's Bob's Bitcoins to Alice. Since they are in the same transaction, either both sides of the trade happens, or neither do.

wmf 12y ago
Or you could just not use a blockchain. I think some guy named Chaum is rolling in his grave.
- mappum 12y ago
  In favor of Reddit managing the ledger centrally? That doesn't allow for the public transparency that they would like, and it would probably be much harder legally (they would be stuck doing a bunch of KYC/AML stuff, which doesn't really make sense for a company like Reddit to need to deal with).
  - wmf 12y ago
    I thought blockchain transparency is a bug and anonymity is a feature; it's hard to keep this stuff straight. If you need KYC, a blockchain doesn't provide that anyway so you can either add hacks or just admit that it's not the right solution.
    - mappum 12y ago
      By transparency, I mean for example Reddit manipulating the ledger if it was on a central database. They could take away someone's shares, or give someone extra shares, and the community would have no way of knowing. If they issued someone more shares on the blockchain, everyone could see it happening and prove it. Anonymity isn't a factor here. The point I was making on KYC is that with blockchain-based shares the government doesn't even have an idea of how to regulate it yet, and Reddit can probably sidestep the KYC entirely. Anyway it's not them managing the books, it's the Bitcoin network doing it for them.

drcode 12y ago

I find it very unlikely this will happen, for legal reasons- They want to link their currency to shares in reddit corp and the SEC isn't going to be happy about that. (Though if they can pull it off that would be positive development in my book.)

dimitrideag 12y ago

I´ts interesting, however the idea of Reddit to allocate 10% of their shares back to the Reddit community for me it´s more than something "cool" as Sam Altman said, and beyond the "a new way to think about community ownership". From another perspective, It´s just a good strategy to do your own IPO (go public) without the legal/bureaucratic way. It´s creating your own NY Stock Exchange with the idea to increase your value based on what your users are doing now (because it will be possible to buy, sell and trade between users). So, beyond the message that it´s for “giving back to the community”, Is it more a clever strategy to increase the company value, and even more the stockholders value? or I´m incorrect?

exelius 12y ago
Everything you said is totally true, which is why the SEC will block it. The most they could do is set aside 10% of the shares and let users proxy vote them, but I don't think that using them to back a cryptocurrency is going to fly with the SEC. I know a lot of people like Bitcoin because it's magical internet money with no rules, but financial markets are regulated for a reason. I don't think the SEC would have a problem with the method (using a cryptocurrency) but rather the reason (using a cryptocurrency to avoid SEC IPO/ownership rules). If Reddit were public, I don't see a problem with using their stock to back a cryptocurrency. But it's a loophole big enough to drive a truck through, so the SEC needs to close it before the con men descend.

6thSigma 12y ago

If reddit figures out how to get past the legal and technical hurdles this brings, I'm very excited to see what comes of it and if other online communities will do something similar. Communities which produce a lot of content/value for free such as open source developers can begin getting equity in the companies they are helping.

spolu 12y ago

Hope they use existing systems to issue their currency and don't try to create a new currency. Stellar could do the job perfectly IMHO!

oafitupa 12y ago
Stellar? What kind of joke is this? Why go with some small, centralized currency created by a private company (and owned by it to some degree), instead of going with the most adopted, most secure, most serious of all, and decentralized: Bitcoin.
- spolu 12y ago
  Cause bitcoin does not let you issue your own currency + Stellar is a not for profit.
  - bitsweet 12y ago
    Not true. https://coins.assembly.com https://coins.assembly.com
  - oafitupa 12y ago
    Seems like you don't know what Counterparty is.

bond 12y ago

Maybe they can use an existing coin like Karma... http://karmacoin.me/ http://karmacoin.me/

subdane 12y ago

I wonder if they've been planning this for a while? https://twitter.com/redditcoin/status/428947176002056192 https://twitter.com/redditcoin/status/428947176002056192

eordano 12y ago

They shouldn't use a new cryptocurrency, instead, https://medium.com/@barisser/an-open-letter-to-reddit-why-you-should-build-on-bitcoin-e52705bc87c5 https://medium.com/@barisser/an-open-letter-to-reddit-why-yo...

dipso 12y ago

Seeing as the Dogecoin community is so active on Reddit, this could be an interesting use case for Dogeparty. Dogeparty is an crypto-token (e.g. securities) application layer built on top of the Dogecoin blockchain. Now that Dogecoin is merged with Litecoin's asic hashrate, the network is pretty secure against attack. There are other options built on top of Bitcoin (such as Mastercoin, Colored Coins & Counterparty), but certain Bitcoiners have been worried about blockchain bloat, so Dogeparty could be a decent shout on top of another secure blockchain. Other options exist on new blockchains, but I think these are too unproven this point. Dogeparty: http://www.dogeparty.io http://www.dogeparty.io Web wallet: https://wallet.dogeparty.io https://wallet.dogeparty.io (note: I do not endorse this, it's beta and as with anything in cryptocurrency be careful!)

oafitupa 12y ago
So you just copy/pasted Counterparty's code too? Do you have any plans on providing something of value, or only copycats?

jmount 12y ago

I'll be "that guy." My guess: Reddit releases a small fraction of a new crypto currency (likely a simple BitCoin clone) to its users. Reddit recipient interest in the currency then supports a large price for what Reddit retains and Reddit ends up net-profiting from the transaction.

Throwaway12830 12y ago

This seems incredibly strange. Personally, I don't see how it's going to add value to Reddit and help build the community. Mixing money into the site is going to complicate things, bring forward a lot of challenges, and it's going to be a large time sink. I think Reddit has more important things to focus on, and I don't find this to be a good use of resources. Reddit is also slow to roll out changes, so if this has a negative impact, it'll take them a long time to pivot back on track. Perhaps it's going to be a minor feature that the majority of users never know exists, and things will continue as they do now. If it's a major feature, I think it'll be a flop, and open up room for competition. Edit: To expand a little more, what's the best case scenario they're hoping for here? They think the community is going to grow and more people will flock to the site because of this change? Reddit is anti-corporate, the community likes to feel small, even though it's one of the largest communities on the internet. When they associate money with the site, people will look at it as more of a business, and I think that'll drive more people away than it brings in. Why doesn't Reddit just launch an image hosting platform? Why do they send all this traffic to imgur and gfycat, when they could roll out their own solution for the community? They can spin it off into a separate service to attract non-Redditors, and with all the incoming visitors from other sources, they can refer more people back to Reddit. To me, this seems like a no-brainer, since a large portion of their site revolves around images, and they're giving that traffic and monetization away to third parties at the moment.

vijayboyapati 12y ago
Not to mention it sort of defeats one of the main value propositions of cryptocurrencies - their decentralized nature. If reddit created such a currency you would need to trust reddit to trust its value. And if it's backed by reddit shares, then it seems like a proxy for allowing public trading of the shares of a private company. I wonder what the SEC would think of that.
cheapsteak 12y ago
Perhaps they're hoping the cryptocurrency would become widely adopted It certainly has a large enough audience in the right demographics to pull something like this off
12y ago

SushiMon 12y ago

Just what we need! Another Cryptocurrency!

toasted 12y ago

The last person who tried a bitcoin based IPO outside of established legal frameworks and existing stock exchanges ended up having to renounce his citizenship, move to panama and was fined by the SEC http://www.satoshidice.com http://www.satoshidice.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Voorhees http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Voorhees https://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2014/33-9592.pdf https://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2014/33-9592.pdf

tomelders 12y ago

I was hoping Reddit would create some sort of Reddit Trust that would re-invest it's earnings based on what the Reddit community thought best. That is of course not without it's own problems, but still, I prefer my idea.

squids 12y ago

If they don't call them creddits they've missed a trick.

mkr-hn 12y ago

ITT: Rich people finding ways to avoid giving money to people directly. I'd love some extra money. I would use it to fix up the emissions system on my car so I don't spend twice as much as I have to on gas. Then I'd use that to drive to where the jobs are and get one. I might write fewer comments on Reddit once gainfully employed, but is that such a bad thing? It seems like half the problems on Reddit are from people having too much free time to troll and make low-effort comments.

adrianwaj 12y ago

I think it's a great idea. I think redditcoin failed because of copyright issues. Myself I had the idea for "hoinz" but never really pursued it, although I'd like to. "Embracing the new spirit of cryptocurrency. Obtain hoinz from your reputations and contributions on various websites. Because you owe it to yourself." http://www.reddit.com/r/hoinz http://www.reddit.com/r/hoinz (nothing there) Things like moderation tasks can be paid in hoinz.