13 ms·

Twitter launches Bitcoin tips, NFTs, recorded Spaces, creator fund and more

71 points by hidden-spyder 5y ago

mikece 5y ago
The most exciting part of this, to me, is that Twitter is using the Lightning network for "tips" (personally I hate calling it a tip: kudos, boost, or almost any other word would have been better). The folks at Podcasting 2.0 have been using the Lightning network for the last year as a way of monetizing podcasts real-time (sats/minute) and through "boosts" (like Twitter's tip concept but with a far better name) and has been a rousing success for those who have gotten on board.
- NicoJuicy 5y ago
  Source that it is a success vs. Other payment methods? Edit: for all downvoters. All sources since 2017 mention that crypto is a marginal % in comparison with other payment methods. If something changed as he indicates ( a rousing success), I'm really curious, but the op hasn't provided a source for that statement and i couldn't find anything in my search.
  - mikece 5y ago
    The big change is second-tier chains like Lightning which is very fast (hence the name) and a fraction of cost overhead for transactions (compared to BTC -- which is a tiny fraction of traditional payment clearing systems). I don't pretend to fully understand lightning but the idea that one would move their BTC holdings to a second tier chain to conduct transaction makes sense. Eventually BTC will be like a central bank and the second-tier chains will be more akin to accounts at your local bank. Heck, if you're sufficiently skilled/intrepid you could BE your own bank and move all of your holdings to a Lightning or Hive node that you run yourself.
    - NicoJuicy 5y ago
      I thought with rousing success you meant popular, not just that they implemented it. The popular part has been the problem since 2017/ever. Not many people are willing to spend their crypto. Tipping apps already appeared on Facebook in 2014: https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2014/06/06/facebook-approves-first-cryptocurrency-tipping-apps/ https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2014/06/06/facebook-approve...
    - __Admin__ 5y ago
      LOL, anyone that has even read the White Paper knows that LN is first, unnecessary and second does not work and never will. Only idiots and scammers push LN as a "solution" to the problems Blockstream introduced after they hijacked the Core GitHub repo. Putting all your money in an LN channel is the funniest (if not saddest) thing Ive every heard.
- corobo 5y ago
  I think calling them tips has taken on legal slash CYA purposes, makes it harder to refund than a "donation" (the former internet name for it, not quoting you) which has its own legal meaning regarding registered charities making it easily chargeback-able If I buy a boost from Twitter than decide I prefer the money, I can't ethically say that I didn't get what I paid for but I'd probably win a chargeback if I did. Calling it a tip everyone, including the dinosaurs at Visa Mastercard and Paypal, knows what it means
  - zeven7 5y ago
    Crypto handouts have been called "tips" for several years, long before Twitter was involved. There's of course even a crypto called TIPS[1] dating back to 2014. During that time Bitcoin and Dogecoin tips were common on Reddit crypto communities (and even other subreddits). [1] https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/fedoracoin/ https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/fedoracoin/
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - corobo 5y ago
      Regular money handouts have been called tips for a few years longer
mikece 5y ago
What would be mind-blowing is if Twitter comes full-circle and adds a podcast player to their service, using this lighting/tip functionality as part of the Podcasting 2.0 value block. For people with long memories, Twitter grew from the ashes of Odeo which was supposed to be a Podcasting company with an industry-leading interface written in Flash (ah.. the memories!).
- api 5y ago
  My favorite thing about podcasting is that it's largely non-mediated. With the exception of the insertion of ads in some podcasts, what I hear is what the podcaster intended to say and there is largely no algorithmic timeline style sorting or other mediation. Podcasts win by having content that interests someone, not by gaming algorithms. I sincerely hope that these "podcasting 2.0" efforts fail. It's one of the few remaining parts of the Internet ecosystem that has not been ruined by gamified social media.
  - smoldesu 5y ago
    100% with you on this. People forget that podcasts are a syndicated medium, and even more people forget the days when you had to set up an RSS catcher if you wanted to be notified about the latest podcast episodes. The glory of that system was the simplicity in it's federation, it was no different than expecting the paperboy to throw you a bundle of mail in the morning. If you add more layers that I don't care about, I'm probably not going to participate. I can only speak for myself, but I doubt many people are interested in making podcasts more complicated.
    - api 5y ago
      The thing gloriously absent in podcasts is a tight optimization feedback loop. Whenever you introduce a tight loop, content goes to shit. Everything is flattened down to memes using superficial cliches, rage baiting, cheap humor, etc. to get attention so as to be forwarded, liked, or shared.
      - 5y ago
purple_ferret 5y ago
Will you be able to tip the ISIS, Al Qaeda, Taliban, etc twitter profiles?
- doomroot 5y ago
  I know this is a tongue-in-cheek comment but I’ll respond. Currently, no. To receive bitcoin tips you must have a kyc’d strike account.
- prideParade 5y ago
  Will you be able to tip the Proud Boys' accounts that promoted the Capitol Riots that ended in the death of 3 police officers?
hnzix 5y ago
This enlarges Twitter from a social platform to a payment gateway. I didn't get it until I watched this video that shows a near-instant money transfer from Chicago to El Salvador, calling it a "Western Union killer": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SByPewKAiZA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SByPewKAiZA Beyond huge for the diaspora sending money back home. Bitcoin's volatility is a problem, but widespread adoption (or adding a stablecoin/altcoin) would mitigate that issue.
- vmception 5y ago
  > Bitcoin's volatility is a problem, but widespread adoption (or adding a stablecoin/altcoin) would mitigate that issue. There is an extremely large audience within the crypto space that uses stablecoins (as you mentioned) and treats the base currency as inventory to be used as fuel to process transactions. It is currently a $100bn market with high daily volume. Our entire society is familiar with volatile prices of fuel and we don't transact directly in it. It is strange to me that - 12 years into this - people are still leaning on the base units as being the payment method itself and worried about how the volatility could work in economic theory. Its not an argument. If you want it to be an argument, then add the theoretical hedging capabilities with some kind of micro-futures contract that neutralizes volatility for the user. Merchants already hedge or autoliquidate via their own crypto payment processor. But volatility as an issue is simply not an argument. The technology is waaaaay past that. The zenith of the base unit's scarcity and use comes from the small fractions of it used in each layer1 transaction.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- NicoJuicy 5y ago
  Western union has no protections for the buyer, just like crypto. But since Western Union only has a market cap of 8 B $, i guess the value of crypto is firmly overestimated.
- Traster 5y ago
  Isn't this entirely unrelated to twitter though? This is just Strike's value proposition right? What does twitter add to this? Also, is the claim about fees really true? If you look at Strike's FAQ on fees it says it passes all on-chain fees (and lightning fees) through to the user. Essentially I'm very sceptical at the moment simply because I don't understand what it is about Strike that is saving you anything.
bob229 5y ago
if only there was already a payment system in existence that didn’t require trash crypto over engineering. Oh wait
dstaley 5y ago
Previous discussion with 160+ comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28632373 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28632373
ChrisArchitect 5y ago
[dupe] from last week plenty of discussion over here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28632373 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28632373
nikolay 5y ago
Pretty stupid self-serving "move". Nobody tips in Bitcoin as it's too expensive, unlike with credit cards, where you get cashback, with Bitcoin, you pay ridiculously high fees.
- ccfd65 5y ago
  They’re using the BTC lightning network. There are no practically no fees (sometimes a few sats).
- Jxl180 5y ago
  Consumers get cash back on credit cards while merchants have to pay ridiculously high fees.
weinzierl 5y ago
Oh, what a buzzword fest. Can anyone summarize the new features in plain language?
- vmception 5y ago
  As someone sensitive to buzzwords from the “cloud” and the ongoing “serverless” days, I don’t see any buzzwords here I’m familiar with all of the technologies mentioned here though, its just a combination of things already seen before
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
mraudiobook_com 5y ago
BCH has been doing this on Twitter and reddit for three years

71 points by hidden-spyder 5y ago

The most exciting part of this, to me, is that Twitter is using the Lightning network for "tips" (personally I hate calling it a tip: kudos, boost, or almost any other word would have been better). The folks at Podcasting 2.0 have been using the Lightning network for the last year as a way of monetizing podcasts real-time (sats/minute) and through "boosts" (like Twitter's tip concept but with a far better name) and has been a rousing success for those who have gotten on board.

NicoJuicy 5y ago
Source that it is a success vs. Other payment methods? Edit: for all downvoters. All sources since 2017 mention that crypto is a marginal % in comparison with other payment methods. If something changed as he indicates ( a rousing success), I'm really curious, but the op hasn't provided a source for that statement and i couldn't find anything in my search.
- mikece 5y ago
  The big change is second-tier chains like Lightning which is very fast (hence the name) and a fraction of cost overhead for transactions (compared to BTC -- which is a tiny fraction of traditional payment clearing systems). I don't pretend to fully understand lightning but the idea that one would move their BTC holdings to a second tier chain to conduct transaction makes sense. Eventually BTC will be like a central bank and the second-tier chains will be more akin to accounts at your local bank. Heck, if you're sufficiently skilled/intrepid you could BE your own bank and move all of your holdings to a Lightning or Hive node that you run yourself.
  - NicoJuicy 5y ago
    I thought with rousing success you meant popular, not just that they implemented it. The popular part has been the problem since 2017/ever. Not many people are willing to spend their crypto. Tipping apps already appeared on Facebook in 2014: https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2014/06/06/facebook-approves-first-cryptocurrency-tipping-apps/ https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2014/06/06/facebook-approve...
  - __Admin__ 5y ago
    LOL, anyone that has even read the White Paper knows that LN is first, unnecessary and second does not work and never will. Only idiots and scammers push LN as a "solution" to the problems Blockstream introduced after they hijacked the Core GitHub repo. Putting all your money in an LN channel is the funniest (if not saddest) thing Ive every heard.
corobo 5y ago
I think calling them tips has taken on legal slash CYA purposes, makes it harder to refund than a "donation" (the former internet name for it, not quoting you) which has its own legal meaning regarding registered charities making it easily chargeback-able If I buy a boost from Twitter than decide I prefer the money, I can't ethically say that I didn't get what I paid for but I'd probably win a chargeback if I did. Calling it a tip everyone, including the dinosaurs at Visa Mastercard and Paypal, knows what it means
- zeven7 5y ago
  Crypto handouts have been called "tips" for several years, long before Twitter was involved. There's of course even a crypto called TIPS[1] dating back to 2014. During that time Bitcoin and Dogecoin tips were common on Reddit crypto communities (and even other subreddits). [1] https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/fedoracoin/ https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/fedoracoin/
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - corobo 5y ago
    Regular money handouts have been called tips for a few years longer

mikece 5y ago

What would be mind-blowing is if Twitter comes full-circle and adds a podcast player to their service, using this lighting/tip functionality as part of the Podcasting 2.0 value block. For people with long memories, Twitter grew from the ashes of Odeo which was supposed to be a Podcasting company with an industry-leading interface written in Flash (ah.. the memories!).

api 5y ago
My favorite thing about podcasting is that it's largely non-mediated. With the exception of the insertion of ads in some podcasts, what I hear is what the podcaster intended to say and there is largely no algorithmic timeline style sorting or other mediation. Podcasts win by having content that interests someone, not by gaming algorithms. I sincerely hope that these "podcasting 2.0" efforts fail. It's one of the few remaining parts of the Internet ecosystem that has not been ruined by gamified social media.
- smoldesu 5y ago
  100% with you on this. People forget that podcasts are a syndicated medium, and even more people forget the days when you had to set up an RSS catcher if you wanted to be notified about the latest podcast episodes. The glory of that system was the simplicity in it's federation, it was no different than expecting the paperboy to throw you a bundle of mail in the morning. If you add more layers that I don't care about, I'm probably not going to participate. I can only speak for myself, but I doubt many people are interested in making podcasts more complicated.
  - api 5y ago
    The thing gloriously absent in podcasts is a tight optimization feedback loop. Whenever you introduce a tight loop, content goes to shit. Everything is flattened down to memes using superficial cliches, rage baiting, cheap humor, etc. to get attention so as to be forwarded, liked, or shared.
    - 5y ago

purple_ferret 5y ago

Will you be able to tip the ISIS, Al Qaeda, Taliban, etc twitter profiles?

doomroot 5y ago
I know this is a tongue-in-cheek comment but I’ll respond. Currently, no. To receive bitcoin tips you must have a kyc’d strike account.
prideParade 5y ago
Will you be able to tip the Proud Boys' accounts that promoted the Capitol Riots that ended in the death of 3 police officers?

hnzix 5y ago

This enlarges Twitter from a social platform to a payment gateway. I didn't get it until I watched this video that shows a near-instant money transfer from Chicago to El Salvador, calling it a "Western Union killer": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SByPewKAiZA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SByPewKAiZA Beyond huge for the diaspora sending money back home. Bitcoin's volatility is a problem, but widespread adoption (or adding a stablecoin/altcoin) would mitigate that issue.

vmception 5y ago
> Bitcoin's volatility is a problem, but widespread adoption (or adding a stablecoin/altcoin) would mitigate that issue. There is an extremely large audience within the crypto space that uses stablecoins (as you mentioned) and treats the base currency as inventory to be used as fuel to process transactions. It is currently a $100bn market with high daily volume. Our entire society is familiar with volatile prices of fuel and we don't transact directly in it. It is strange to me that - 12 years into this - people are still leaning on the base units as being the payment method itself and worried about how the volatility could work in economic theory. Its not an argument. If you want it to be an argument, then add the theoretical hedging capabilities with some kind of micro-futures contract that neutralizes volatility for the user. Merchants already hedge or autoliquidate via their own crypto payment processor. But volatility as an issue is simply not an argument. The technology is waaaaay past that. The zenith of the base unit's scarcity and use comes from the small fractions of it used in each layer1 transaction.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
NicoJuicy 5y ago
Western union has no protections for the buyer, just like crypto. But since Western Union only has a market cap of 8 B $, i guess the value of crypto is firmly overestimated.
Traster 5y ago
Isn't this entirely unrelated to twitter though? This is just Strike's value proposition right? What does twitter add to this? Also, is the claim about fees really true? If you look at Strike's FAQ on fees it says it passes all on-chain fees (and lightning fees) through to the user. Essentially I'm very sceptical at the moment simply because I don't understand what it is about Strike that is saving you anything.

bob229 5y ago

if only there was already a payment system in existence that didn’t require trash crypto over engineering. Oh wait

dstaley 5y ago

Previous discussion with 160+ comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28632373 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28632373

ChrisArchitect 5y ago

[dupe] from last week plenty of discussion over here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28632373 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28632373

nikolay 5y ago

Pretty stupid self-serving "move". Nobody tips in Bitcoin as it's too expensive, unlike with credit cards, where you get cashback, with Bitcoin, you pay ridiculously high fees.

ccfd65 5y ago
They’re using the BTC lightning network. There are no practically no fees (sometimes a few sats).
Jxl180 5y ago
Consumers get cash back on credit cards while merchants have to pay ridiculously high fees.

weinzierl 5y ago

Oh, what a buzzword fest. Can anyone summarize the new features in plain language?

vmception 5y ago
As someone sensitive to buzzwords from the “cloud” and the ongoing “serverless” days, I don’t see any buzzwords here I’m familiar with all of the technologies mentioned here though, its just a combination of things already seen before
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

mraudiobook_com 5y ago

BCH has been doing this on Twitter and reddit for three years