14 DAY TRIAL // Since crypto currencies are so popular these days, Reddit may end up creating its own. After announcing that following a $50 million (€39.55 million) funding round, the company also said that it was going to give back 10 percent of the investors’ shares to the community.
There were no additional details in the original announcement, but Yishan Wong, the company’s CEO, offered some more information in the comments section about how this could take place.
“We are thinking about creating a cryptocurrency and making it exchangeable (backed) by those shared of reddit, and then distributing the currency to the community. The investors have explicitly agreed to this in their investment terms,” Wong said, creating quite a few waves.
He continued saying that nothing like this has ever been done before, which means they have to nail down how to do each step correctly from several points of view, including technically, legally and financially.
A discussion with an ex SEC lawyer proved to be quite encouraging for Reddit’s execs because it seems that the plan contains nothing illegal.
“Nevertheless, there are something like 30 different things we have to pull off to make this work, so we’re going to try,” Wong added.
Basically, Wong isn’t saying that the cryptocurrency plan is the one they’re ultimately going to go with unless every step of the process is perfect and well-thought through.
Reddit is on the look-out for a cryptocurrency engineer
The company has been looking for a cryptocurrency engineer, however, as the Daily Dot noted last month. Reddit wants to hire someone with a background in math or computer science that could help the company explore new technology applications and infrastructure involving the blockchain and cryptocurrency.
This individual could end up creating the system that allows the community users to gift coins to one another by using comments or personal messages. He or she could also hammer down the details of how the shares are turned into cryptocurrency and how people from the community are rewarded for their activity.
“An investment like this doesn't mean we're rich or successful. A couple days after we closed the financing, Sam came to our office and handed me a genuine 100 trillion dollar Zimbabwean note, as a reminder to us of the difference between money and value. Money can become worthless very quickly, value is something that is built over time through hard work. We have been entrusted with capital by patient, long-term investors who support our views on difficult issues. We believe in free speech, self-governing communities, and the power of voting. We find that this freedom yields more good than bad, and we have chosen investors based on this belief,” Wong wrote in yesterday’s announcement.
The list of investors contains Sam Altman, the president of Y Combinator, the incubator that originally helped with the site’s launch, Peter Thiel, as well as Oscar-winning actor and musician Jared Leto and rapper Snoop Dogg.