I think they dont like the fact that these awards also grant reddit premium to the user who receives them. But they cant just remove that feature of the rewards without killing rewards otherwise they look really bad. So the new award system will just be a community highlight. Maybe something that changes the background color of the post to highlight it on the front page. Like gold background. Then they will allow advertisers to also pay to make their “paid advertisements” also have background colors to generate a dark pattern where they trick you into clicking ads because you think they are awarded front page posts.

Thats my guess at least.

There’s rumors that Reddit may launch some new cryptocurrency. In the comments there was an unsourced claim that the source code shows a buildout for a feature where people can claim rewards for reviving gold or karma.

They’ve kind of already implemented that on the cryptocurrency subreddit as Moons - and yes, it’s about as bad as you’d expect.