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Comment by alexis | Hacker News Reader

Not sure where the author got "redditcoin" but here's what we're actually doing with redditnotes (I said the same thing to fortune when this rumor first arose):

We will be issuing redditnotes.

Our research leads us to want to wait until the law and technology around cryptocurrency are further along before deciding exactly how. We want to make sure we can give the community the full value of the equity when they receive it in the future, and today we haven’t been able to find a way to do that within existing regulations.

Edit: here's the last official blog post on the subject. http://www.redditblog.com/2014/12/announcing-reddit-notes.ht... We were not contacted by this guardian reporter didn't contact us for comment. So it goes.

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You should be issuing an official blog post stating this in explicit, unambiguous terms, as there's a lot of confusion around just what exactly are RedditNotes.

EDIT: A new post, to reflect the fact that the current cryptography plans have been halted.

I have no idea if they would be interested, but I would be happy to help write any such blog post, so as to make sure the technology is accurately represented.

Agree. There may be fewer issues with misinformation if you put out the correct information yourself. And using your main channel rather than a comment on a separate site is a good way to do it. (Looks like that's been done in this case though - the blog seems to state the situation accurately to me.)

We did in December. This is still a work in progress. Thanks, I've updated my comment.

Ah, I meant issue a new post, to reflect the fact that there are no cryptographic plans currently.

If you read the corresponding Reddit thread to that blog post (http://www.reddit.com/r/blog/comments/2pt25f/announcing_redd...), there's a lot of skepticism on whether RedditNotes is actually legal (including in this very HN thread), and there is speculation that the laying off of the one person who could actually implement it indicates that the project is dead.

don't tell alexis what to do

Can you talk to the new icon style you guys are going for? I'm not a huge fan of the new Alien Blue icon, the Android AMA icon, and this redditnotes icon looks kinda shitty too.

I'm no designer, and I don't mean this in an insulting way (besides the fact that I think the new icons look shitty) at all. Just curious.

The only way the law and technology are going to get further along is by companies pushing it forward. It's not going to happen by itself.

I think reddit has outgrown its ability to innovate in this way and suggest it will likely be a competitor not bound by the constraints of being an established player that will allow them to create a more compelling offering.

I just won buzzword bingo.

i'm still missing 'Disrupt' and 'life hack', damn you.

Can you expand upon some of the known unknowns on the legal and technology side?

I assume that the lead time for creating redditnotes is substantial. Therefore, getting started (even with a lot of uncertainty) is probably worthwhile unless those unknowns are foundational (e.g., does the SEC allow this at all rather than what specific regulation best applies).

Looking forward to it! Better to have it done right than to have it done wrong, but quickly.

BTW, is the "decimating our ads revenue" plan still on, or does this replace it?

http://www.redditblog.com/2014/02/decimating-our-ads-revenue...

Will be announcing it shortly. Had to wait for the 2014 numbers to all come in.

> Not sure where the author got "redditcoin"

Oh come on, that's what a lot, if not most, people have been calling it since it was announced.

Other than that, nothing you write contradicts the Guardian article (in fact, it more or less confirms it), and they're linking to some very public sources.

This is kind of weazily response that only marginally addresses the "wtf is going" question raised by the article, and on top of it tries to discredit the messenger. The latter is really in poor taste.

So basically, Yishan left, he was the big proponent of it, and the rest of you are too chicken-shit or simply not knowledgeable enough about cryptocurrencies to deal with corporate risk concerns over it. Got it.

Chicken-shit, eh?

I have no idea how you became emotionally invested in this, but I am pretty sure not being able to do something legally is a completely valid reason not to move forward with... well, most things.

> emotionally invested

I've been involved (ahem) with the Bitcoin drama since Jan. 2012.

Hundreds of people are working with it legally. Do they have a magical exemption from the law?

Zero people are working with it in the way proposed by Reddit.

Or, perhaps they are knowledgeable enough about cryptocurrencies to realize that what they were previously planning to do is actually unlawful.

OK, this is possible. My bad.

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