Reddit, the Content aggregation, ranking, and discussion website, declared a new blockchain-backed avatar system on Thursday. Though no official date was exposed, the company recommended that the avatars will be available to the general public in the next few weeks. For now, Reddit is providing first-look early access to a limited number of people who join the r/CollectibleAvatars community.
The company said that the project is set to utilize the Polygon (MATIC) blockchain for decentralized trading and third-party sales.
Collectible Avatars are a set of limited-edition artworks created by autonomous artists who are also users of the Reddit website. The new avatars can be acquired with local currencies; however, the declaration stated the artwork is stored on the Polygon (MATIC) blockchain. Additionally, management of the Collectible Avatars is handled through Vault, Reddit’s blockchain-powered wallet that functions on Ethereum-compatible chains.
The new collection will be available where Reddit users usually build their avatars on the website. Once a Collectible Avatar has been acquired, it can be used as an avatar on Reddit. Owners of the Collectible Avatars will be entitled to receive unique benefits and Collectible Avatar creators will receive a percentage of forthcoming secondary sales.
From Thursday’s statement, “Collectible Avatars are currently stored on Polygon, a general-purpose, Ethereum-compatible blockchain. We chose Polygon for its low-cost transactions and sustainability commitments.”
Reddit also said that the avatars aren’t proper NFTs, and cryptocurrencies aren’t part of the process of buying or selling them for now but specified that, “Blockchain-backed Collectible Avatars are one of the early steps we’re taking to test out the potential benefits of this concept on Reddit.”
Reddit also stated upcoming visions of the company in regards to the concept’s related features:
“In the future, we see blockchain as one way to bring more empowerment and independence to communities on Reddit. Reddit has always been a model for what decentralization could look like online; our communities are self-built and run, and as part of our mission to better empower our communities, we are exploring tools to help them be even more self-sustaining and self-governed.”
Though this isn’t Reddit’s first foray into NFTs, the company released Cryptosnoos back in February of this year. Amidst the crypto crash of 2022, some companies are choosing to build. Further recent NFT developments consist of a new DappRadar report showing that there could be NFT platform wars ahead, and the Lamborghini-backed GT racing team’s decision to confirm car parts using NFTs. Whereas art-based tokens have been very popular over the last few years, some have started looking at failing copyrights as the next potential NFT gold rush.
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