Reddit Experiences Store Outages As It Launches Third Generation NFTs
Social media site Reddit saw its store experience down during the launch of its third-generation collectibles, according to April 11 statements.
High demand leads to store closures
Reddit launched its GEN 3 series of Collectible Avatars – a limited series of non-fungible tokens on the Polygon blockchain – on April 11.
However, the platform’s NFT store went offline due to high volumes, and it appears that many items were purchased by bots rather than individual users. One project, Pastel Alpha, admitted to buy a “good amount” of goods through the use of robots.
The outage resulted in backlash as community members chastised Reddit for failing to impose CAPTCHAs to restrict purchases. Others suggested that Reddit host future offerings through established NFT marketplaces such as OpenSea.
Reddit has not announced a full fix for the store breach, nor has it explicitly admitted that bot purchases led to overwhelming demand.
At 20:47 UTC, Reddit stated that it would restore store features for iOS and Android users. Items in the NFT store can also be viewed in standard browsers, but any attempt to purchase or acquire an NFT in the browser will result in an error message.
Reddit is moving into cryptocurrency
Reddit originally launched Collectible Avatars in July 2022. Each series includes designs from commissioned artists, and according to recent announcements, the latest item includes contributions from more than 100 artists.
In February, a survey estimated that Reddit avatars had a market value of $35 million. Direct data suggests that the collection has a market value of $27 million as of April 11.
Reddit has also made various other forays into crypto. The platform hosts community points on the Arbitrum Nova blockchain layer, and the /r/cryptocurrency and /r/fortnite subreddits each have their own dedicated cryptocurrency tokens.
Meanwhile, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian runs a venture capital firm called 776 Management, which has made significant investments in blockchain and web3.
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