Reddit is beta testing two Ethereum-based tokens for users to earn rewards for contributing content to subreddits /r/Cryptocurrency and /r/FortniteBR
Reddit, the popular online forum, is beta testing two Ethereum-based tokens for users to earn rewards for contributing content, The Block has learned.
Context & Ripple Effects
This beta test is the second act in a decade-long Reddit effort to give users a financial stake in the site. Back in 2014 it tried distributing equity to active users by lottery through 'reddit notes', a plan that never became the template — so the company is now experimenting at the application layer instead, issuing two Ethereum-based tokens that reward content contributions in /r/Cryptocurrency and /r/FortniteBR.
The experiment matters because it previews where Reddit's contributor incentives ended up: the Community Points system was later moved onto Ethereum Layer 2 Arbitrum Nova via Reddit's partnership with Arbitrum, and by 2023 the company had layered a cash-based Contributor Program paying verified users monthly for karma and gold. The 2020 token beta is the earliest on-chain step in that progression.
First-order effects
- Users active in /r/Cryptocurrency and /r/FortniteBR can now earn Ethereum-based tokens directly for contributing content, making those two communities the first places where Reddit participation carries an on-chain balance.
Second-order effects
- If the beta holds up, moderators of other large subreddits gain a case for requesting their own community tokens — the same moderator-driven incentive logic that later surfaced in Predictions Tournaments funded with 1K tokens per participant.
Third-order effects
- The pattern across the corpus points toward Reddit systematically converting user labor into financial claims — from the 2014 reddit notes lottery, through these tokens, to the 2023 cash Contributor Program and the plan to let top users and moderators buy shares in its IPO — with each iteration testing how much ownership contributors should hold.
The trend: Consumer platforms are steadily converting unpaid user contributions into financial stakes, with Reddit cycling through equity, blockchain tokens, and cash payouts as it searches for a durable model.