After weeks of disappointing performances in price charts, the community of Ethereum finally had something to cheer on. The largest altcoin in space currently valued at $158 was the center of the discussion as reports suggested that Reddit is testing an Ethereum-based community point system for its online users.
According to a video released by a Redditor MagoCrypto, the social media platform would be releasing a list of members and their karma every month, and these members would be able to propose changes, which will allow them to claim Community Points.
It was believed these Community points will be Ethereum based ERC-20 tokens that would enable Redditors to access certain parts of the community. A statement from the Reddit feature Mago, indicated,
“Community points are fully controlled by the people who own them. They live on the Ethereum blockchain, which is the same technology as Bitcoin to guarantee property rights and control. Even Reddit cannot take them away.”
However, a media outlet reached out to a Reddit Spokesperson and the person involved confirmed that Reddit was experimenting with a blockchain-based system. However, Ethereum wasn’t mentioned in his statement. He said,
“We continuously experiment with ways to support communities on Reddit. In this instance, we’re working with one community to test a feature that represents a user’s involvement in a community. We value and seek out community feedback as we continue to explore features that engage our users and communities.”
Silver Lining for Ethereum?
Assuming the reports are accurate and Ehtereum has been taken under consideration for the new community points system, it will be largely positive for Ethereum’s adoption over the long-term.
Reddit reported an active user base of over 430 million in early 2019 which can only be expected to increase over the past 12 months.
If such a large userbase is exposed to ETH on Reddit, it could be hugely beneficial for the growth of DeFi. As mentioned above, ERC-20 tokens would be considered as community points. ERC-20 tokens are DeFi compatible and needless to say, it will create an influx of users into Decentralized Finance.
With over 350 million active users on Reddit, a migration of a mere 10 percent of the total users into DeFi will facilitate a 10,000 percent growth in the DeFi space.
Considering Ethereum holds an edge over Bitcoin due to its compatibility nature, which is the ability to combine different systems within a single blockchain, it may allow ETH to outperform BTC over the few years.
However, Ethereum continues to deal with its long-term scalability issue, and according to various analysts, the interoperability aspect of DeFi requires further development as well.
The liquidity in DeFi is also limited to an extent that would be solved if more assets can be used as collateral on the DeFi platform.
Overall, the announcement is fairly positive for Ethereum’s space, as its asset has struggled to attain a bullish rally since the market collapse of 13th March.