Social media giant Reddit is unveiling a new marketplace for crypto-based collectible avatars on a popular Ethereum (ETH) layer-2 blockchain.
According to a new company blog post, the social news aggregator is launching its Collectible Avatars storefront on Polygon (MATIC) two years after setting up its proprietary avatar builder for users.
“About two years ago, we launched a new and improved Avatar Builder, allowing anyone to generate and customize their own personal avatar – a unique way to display identity on Reddit…
Seeing avatars take off got us thinking – what would happen if we gave artists on Reddit license to make any style of avatar they wanted? And what if we could help these artists showcase their art to the entire Reddit community and make it easy for them to earn money for their work? Our new Collectible Avatars storefront does just that…
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 says the avatars will be available for purchase to all users “in the coming weeks,” with storage and management availability in Vault, an Ethereum-compatible crypto wallet.
“Collectible Avatars will be available to everyone in the coming weeks, but today we’re allowing first-look early access to a limited number of Redditors who join the CollectibleAvatars community… To store and manage Collectible Avatars, Redditors will use their Vault – a blockchain-powered wallet on Reddit.”
According to the post, users who buy the avatars will have the right to use them on and off of Reddit.
“Collectible Avatars are backed by blockchain technology, giving purchasers rights (a license) to use the art – on and off Reddit.”
