- Kyle Chua
Twitter Expanding Tips Feature By Letting You Send and Receive Bitcoin
Twitter is expanding its in-app tipping feature, which debuted a few months ago, by letting you send and receive Bitcoin, among a host of other payment options.
The social media firm officially announced the feature on 23 September via its blog, adding that it is now rolling out on iOS with Android to follow in the coming weeks. The move makes Twitter one of the first major social networking platforms to encourage the use of cryptocurrency as a mode of payment.
Bitcoin tips on the platform will be facilitated by Strike, a payments application built on the Lightning Network protocol, which allows you to make Bitcoin transactions in a fast and cost-efficient manner. The Verge notes that the company behind it has received funding from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, a major proponent of Bitcoin.
Strike is available in El Salvador and all U.S. states except New York and Hawaii. Users in these markets can sign up for an account and add their usernames to their Twitter profiles to start receiving Bitcoin tips. They can also add their Bitcoin addresses, which tippers can copy and paste into their crypto wallets of choice.
Twitter will notify you when you receive a tip via Strike so that you can quickly reply and express your gratitude to the tipper. The app will also generate invoices for you to track the tips that you receive.
"Bitcoin represents one of the best solutions for enabling people to transact in underbanked regions of the world," said Esther Crawford, Staff Product Manager of Twitter.
Other payment options include Bandcamp, Cash App, Chipper, Patreon, Razorpay, Wealthsimple Cash, Venmo, GoFundMe and PicPay. Twitter said users are redirected to these services when giving tips, and it takes no cut from the transactions.
Twitter also said that it is planning to support the authentication of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) by letting users connect their crypto wallets. This will reportedly come in the form of a badge, which will be showcased with your NFT art in your profile picture. The feature is still in the experimental stage as of now, but Twitter emphasized that it’s interested in giving users on its platform a way to showcase NFT ownership.
The new Tips feature can only be enabled by users above 18 years old.
Written by Kyle Chua
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