Peer to peer exchange of goods and services backed by reputations established in Subreddits sounds like it has potential worth exploring to me. A similar model has worked out very well for Facebook.

Also, please note Reddit is already another social network so that train has left the station.

As for crypto, well I am a big fan of crypto currencies and I see a compelling use case here. Perhaps you disagree? Fine, ignore the crypto suggestion and comment on my others.

Their Secret Santa program is a great example of a successful peer to peer marketplace already. Reddit Gold’s success is a good indicator of the potential for virtual currencies, stable coins, traditional payment systems, or yes even crypto.

Their desperation to monetize through Ads alone is a dangerous strategy. It leaves the site vulnerable because it separates the needs of the Advertiser (Reddit’s real customer) from the community (Reddit’s users) when ever a company decouples users from customers it makes it easy to compromise the user in favor of the business model and customer.

In the short run the metrics go up. In the long run you end up with another Digg.