Reddit is dipping its toe into the digital collectible craze. The website is launching a brand new tackle NFTs with collectible avatars, one in every of its first forays into blockchain-based tech.

The avatars are designed by artists (lots of whom are, naturally, additionally Redditors) and will likely be on the market in a brand new storefront. Initially, solely a small group of Reddit customers will be capable to buy the avatars by becoming a member of the r/collectibleavatars subreddit, however the firm says it intends to open the shop to all customers “in the coming weeks.”

Though the corporate isn’t utilizing the phrase “NFT” to explain these “blockchain-backed” pictures, it actually sounds just like different NFT tasks. For instance, Redditors can entry their avatars through Vault — Reddit’s blockchain-based pockets — and proudly owning an avatar provides purchasers a license “to use the art – on and off Reddit.” Notably, collectible avatars can only be paid for with regular old fiat currencies; the storefront won’t support cryptocurrency transactions. 

Unlike many NFT marketplaces, Redditors will not have to fret about wildly fluctuating costs, at the very least for now. Avatars will likely be offered by the corporate for fixes costs between $9.99 and $99.99, although Reddit appears open to the existence a secondary marketplace for avatars ought to the demand exist. The firm notes that artists behind the avatars “are also entitled to receive royalties from secondary sales of their Collectible Avatars on open marketplaces.”

Reddit isn’t the primary platform to experiment with bringing digital collectibles to its customers. Meta has begun to check NFT assist and Instagram, and Twitter launched NFT earlier this yr. YouTube executives have additionally expressed within the know-how. Even Reddit itself briefly experimented with an NFTs-as-profile-photos function earlier this yr.

But to date most of those integrations have been centered on permitting customers to point out off their collections, relatively than unlocking particular advantages to NFT house owners. While Reddit says that its avatars include “unique benefits on the Reddit platform” the perks sound fairly restricted, at the very least for now. Using a collectible avatar as your essential avatar on the location will give your profile picture a “glow-like effect” in feedback, in addition to the power to “mix-and-match the avatar gear with other Reddit avatar gear and accessories.”

At the identical time, Reddit says collectible avatars are merely an “early step” towards bringing extra blockchain-based know-how into the platform. “In the future, we see blockchain as one way to bring more empowerment and independence to communities on Reddit,” the corporate says. “As part of our mission to better empower our communities, we are exploring tools to help them be even more self-sustaining and self-governed.”