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How To Send Bitcoin Tips On Reddit

62 points by barmstrong 13y ago

taopao 13y ago
http://buttcoin.org/the-reddit-bitcoin-tipping-bot-is-the-worst-way-to-promote-bitcoin-and-the-shills-wont-shut-up-about-it http://buttcoin.org/the-reddit-bitcoin-tipping-bot-is-the-wo...
- TomGullen 13y ago
  Just a rant about how the Bitcoin tip bot isn't very user friendly? Lucky there's more options like Coinbase's tipping system then!
- jff 13y ago
  Related: http://buttcoin.org/whoa-what-just-happened-here http://buttcoin.org/whoa-what-just-happened-here
slg 13y ago
There are two immediate question that jump to mind when I see this. What is the percentage of Reddit users that also use Bitcoin (or Coinbase for that matter)? And for those non-users, what is the minimum tip value that would entice them to actually go through the process of claiming the Bitcoins?
- dingaling 13y ago
  Any transaction of < 0.01 BTC attracts a transaction fee, which most clients default to 0.0005 BTC. At present 'market' rates ( $179 per BTC as I type ), that means that the tipper has to give $1.79 to avoid incurring a fee, and the recipient should wait until their stash exceeds that level before transferring to their wallet. Which is good practice, anyway, to avoid creating lots of wallets with small values that can't be ( affordably ) used.
- citricsquid 13y ago
  > What is the percentage of Reddit users that also use Bitcoin There's quite a significant userbase in r/bitcoin, although reddit itself supports Bitcoin for Reddit Gold purchases and they've stated the number of purchases is negligible: http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1lcy3h/dreamhost_makes_fun_of_bitcoins/cbyiago http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1lcy3h/dreamhost_ma.... The reddit bitcoin tip bot that others have mentioned is used fairly often (thousands of times a month), here is a collection of stats incl. frequency of tips: http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcointip/comments/1nslow/updated_bitcointip_stats_includes_charts/ http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcointip/comments/1nslow/updated_b...
mcintyre1994 13y ago
There's been a bot facilitating something similar for a while now. You can just post a comment, something like "+/u/bitcointip @RedditUsername $1". I haven't used it, but it seems pretty neat. Documentation: http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcointip/comments/13iykn/bitcointip_documentation/ http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcointip/comments/13iykn/bitcointi...
- sverddans 13y ago
  And you get to see the confused reactions of everyone who has no idea what you just did.
  - mcintyre1994 13y ago
    The verify function causes the bot to leave a confirmation reply which has a help button, so people who want to find out often can. I know some subreddits understandably dislike that practice though.
    - SquareWheel 13y ago
      I've been finding the bots very spammy as of late. Posting that you just tipped somebody 5 cents doesn't exactly contribute to the conversation.
  - tlo 13y ago
    And to confuse people even more, there is also a altcoin tip bot: http://www.reddit.com/r/ALTcointip/wiki/index http://www.reddit.com/r/ALTcointip/wiki/index
- barmstrong 13y ago
  We didn't think it was easy enough to use. Also you can do micro-transactions with zero fees on Coinbase, which is ideal doe situations like this which are all small payments, so we wanted to take advantage of that.
berberous 13y ago
Pretty cool, but it's been possible to tip users bitcoins on Reddit for a while now. (http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcointip http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcointip). Although this has the advantage of being fee less, since it can stay within Coinbase and avoid the blockchain.
- barmstrong 13y ago
  Thanks for pointing this out. We wanted to do one that was (1) easier to understand for users new to bitcoin and (2) used the free micro-transactions feature on Coinbase that you mentioned. Number 1 in particular I think is really important, but it is still a work in progress, so if you have any ideas let us know!
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - zombio 13y ago
    ...And (3) force people to either create a Coinbase account or lose their money. (The post wasn't very clear, but as I understand it the receiver will get a PM linking them to Coinbase where they will need to sign up to receive their money). I don't want to just sound cynical, so I'll try to provide a solution. Perhaps there should be an option to reply to the BitTip PM with a regular Bitcoin address where all future payments will be sent.
    - barmstrong 13y ago
      The micro-transactions are off-blockchain (an in-network transaction between Coinbase accounts) - unfortunately that's the only way to get them for free without any miner fees (many are very small amounts). However, if you accumulate enough tips (at least 0.01 BTC) in your Coinbase account you can then send them out of Coinbase to any other bitcoin wallet and we'll even pay the fee for you. We don't want to have any lock-in there. It would be nice to receive your tips at an external address like you mentioned, but the miner fees could be greater than the amount you receive with such small amounts.
- 13y ago
HN_Master_Race 13y ago
is it capped on low amounts? if it's not people might start hacking reddit accounts
barmstrong 13y ago
What do people think about a similar service for HackerNews/Twitter/Facebook? You need a way to be able to send the person a private message (to receive the first claim URL). But other than it is pretty simple to set up. It uses our Token api call https://coinbase.com/api/doc/1.0/tokens.html https://coinbase.com/api/doc/1.0/tokens.html and a browser extension. Here is the one we wrote for reddit https://github.com/coinbase/bittip https://github.com/coinbase/bittip
- frakkingcylons 13y ago
  Implementing the same service on Twitter and Facebook would have the most impact. Those should be the first priorities in my opinion. I really like this though, and the token API seems really useful.
- immad 13y ago
  Github seems like a good candidate. Maybe Tumblr too. Seems like in HN/Twitter/Facebook users don't give that much value to each other that they would want to tip.
  - corysama 13y ago
    From https://www.gittip.com/about/faq.html https://www.gittip.com/about/faq.html > Can I use bitcoin? Sort of. We currently support manual payouts using Coinbase. However, you cannot use bitcoin to pay in.
- apw 13y ago
  I think the real "killer app" for this would be github. There have been many times that I've come across a particularly useful piece of code on github for which I would have loved a frictionless way to tip the author. This would complement, not compete with, gittip I believe.
- generalseven 13y ago
  Our site -- https://www.PikaPay.com https://www.PikaPay.com, does Bitcoins via Twitter. If you're interested please take a look. Still a lot of work to be done, but we welcome any requests, suggestions and criticisms you might have. As announced at the San Jose Bitcoin Conference in May, we've built an enterprise API that's open to everyone. (See https://Github.com/PikaPay https://Github.com/PikaPay ) An integration with Coinbase is already in the works.
consonants 13y ago
Look at the result: it just ends up hijacking what could have been constructive dialogue into a BTC proselytizers circlejerk and hangers on who want a handout by asking 'What just happened here??!!?' You've been warned.
TomGullen 13y ago
I think tipping people in Bitcoin is an absolutely awesome way to introduce new people to Bitcoin. I think it would work well on HN, but I imagine not everyone would be a fan.
- sashazykov 13y ago
  Yes! Yesterday we released the application for tipping people for their commits to open source projects http://tip4commit.com/ http://tip4commit.com/
jedberg 13y ago
If you really love reddit you won't do this, because it eats into reddit's own tipping product which means taking away revenue from reddit.
- selmnoo 13y ago
  Why don't you guys start doing this on your own terms? People love using bitcoin in quirky ways -- let them, make it even easier than this current method.
  - lololomg 13y ago
    You can already buy Reddit gold with bitcoin
- zombio 13y ago
  Reddit's tipping product doesn't actually send money, just a shiny "gold" image and a few minor gold-exclusive features.
- barmstrong 13y ago
  It's a good point. You can actually buy reddit gold using bitcoin right now (through Coinbase) so we are familiar with it. When people give reddit gold they are actually supporting reddit which is cooler in some ways, although the poster/commenter doesn't directly benefit. We thought about having an option in the Chrome extension that also contributed to Reddit on each tip, so something like "also tip 0.001 BTC/10%/whatever to Reddit each time I send money". The micro-transactions could be broken down like this in any arbitrary way. Just an idea at this point, but definitely doable.
  - mrhazel 13y ago
    The user receiving gold does benefit, somewhat, with the added features that gold provides.
kclay 13y ago
I purchased heytip.me earlier this year to make something like this, needless to say I haven't had time to work on it.

62 points by barmstrong 13y ago

http://buttcoin.org/the-reddit-bitcoin-tipping-bot-is-the-worst-way-to-promote-bitcoin-and-the-shills-wont-shut-up-about-it http://buttcoin.org/the-reddit-bitcoin-tipping-bot-is-the-wo...

TomGullen 13y ago
Just a rant about how the Bitcoin tip bot isn't very user friendly? Lucky there's more options like Coinbase's tipping system then!
jff 13y ago
Related: http://buttcoin.org/whoa-what-just-happened-here http://buttcoin.org/whoa-what-just-happened-here

slg 13y ago

There are two immediate question that jump to mind when I see this. What is the percentage of Reddit users that also use Bitcoin (or Coinbase for that matter)? And for those non-users, what is the minimum tip value that would entice them to actually go through the process of claiming the Bitcoins?

dingaling 13y ago
Any transaction of < 0.01 BTC attracts a transaction fee, which most clients default to 0.0005 BTC. At present 'market' rates ( $179 per BTC as I type ), that means that the tipper has to give $1.79 to avoid incurring a fee, and the recipient should wait until their stash exceeds that level before transferring to their wallet. Which is good practice, anyway, to avoid creating lots of wallets with small values that can't be ( affordably ) used.
citricsquid 13y ago
> What is the percentage of Reddit users that also use Bitcoin There's quite a significant userbase in r/bitcoin, although reddit itself supports Bitcoin for Reddit Gold purchases and they've stated the number of purchases is negligible: http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1lcy3h/dreamhost_makes_fun_of_bitcoins/cbyiago http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1lcy3h/dreamhost_ma.... The reddit bitcoin tip bot that others have mentioned is used fairly often (thousands of times a month), here is a collection of stats incl. frequency of tips: http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcointip/comments/1nslow/updated_bitcointip_stats_includes_charts/ http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcointip/comments/1nslow/updated_b...

mcintyre1994 13y ago

There's been a bot facilitating something similar for a while now. You can just post a comment, something like "+/u/bitcointip @RedditUsername $1". I haven't used it, but it seems pretty neat. Documentation: http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcointip/comments/13iykn/bitcointip_documentation/ http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcointip/comments/13iykn/bitcointi...

sverddans 13y ago
And you get to see the confused reactions of everyone who has no idea what you just did.
- mcintyre1994 13y ago
  The verify function causes the bot to leave a confirmation reply which has a help button, so people who want to find out often can. I know some subreddits understandably dislike that practice though.
  - SquareWheel 13y ago
    I've been finding the bots very spammy as of late. Posting that you just tipped somebody 5 cents doesn't exactly contribute to the conversation.
- tlo 13y ago
  And to confuse people even more, there is also a altcoin tip bot: http://www.reddit.com/r/ALTcointip/wiki/index http://www.reddit.com/r/ALTcointip/wiki/index
barmstrong 13y ago
We didn't think it was easy enough to use. Also you can do micro-transactions with zero fees on Coinbase, which is ideal doe situations like this which are all small payments, so we wanted to take advantage of that.

berberous 13y ago

Pretty cool, but it's been possible to tip users bitcoins on Reddit for a while now. (http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcointip http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcointip). Although this has the advantage of being fee less, since it can stay within Coinbase and avoid the blockchain.

barmstrong 13y ago
Thanks for pointing this out. We wanted to do one that was (1) easier to understand for users new to bitcoin and (2) used the free micro-transactions feature on Coinbase that you mentioned. Number 1 in particular I think is really important, but it is still a work in progress, so if you have any ideas let us know!
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- zombio 13y ago
  ...And (3) force people to either create a Coinbase account or lose their money. (The post wasn't very clear, but as I understand it the receiver will get a PM linking them to Coinbase where they will need to sign up to receive their money). I don't want to just sound cynical, so I'll try to provide a solution. Perhaps there should be an option to reply to the BitTip PM with a regular Bitcoin address where all future payments will be sent.
  - barmstrong 13y ago
    The micro-transactions are off-blockchain (an in-network transaction between Coinbase accounts) - unfortunately that's the only way to get them for free without any miner fees (many are very small amounts). However, if you accumulate enough tips (at least 0.01 BTC) in your Coinbase account you can then send them out of Coinbase to any other bitcoin wallet and we'll even pay the fee for you. We don't want to have any lock-in there. It would be nice to receive your tips at an external address like you mentioned, but the miner fees could be greater than the amount you receive with such small amounts.
13y ago

HN_Master_Race 13y ago

is it capped on low amounts? if it's not people might start hacking reddit accounts

barmstrong 13y ago

What do people think about a similar service for HackerNews/Twitter/Facebook? You need a way to be able to send the person a private message (to receive the first claim URL). But other than it is pretty simple to set up. It uses our Token api call https://coinbase.com/api/doc/1.0/tokens.html https://coinbase.com/api/doc/1.0/tokens.html and a browser extension. Here is the one we wrote for reddit https://github.com/coinbase/bittip https://github.com/coinbase/bittip

frakkingcylons 13y ago
Implementing the same service on Twitter and Facebook would have the most impact. Those should be the first priorities in my opinion. I really like this though, and the token API seems really useful.
immad 13y ago
Github seems like a good candidate. Maybe Tumblr too. Seems like in HN/Twitter/Facebook users don't give that much value to each other that they would want to tip.
- corysama 13y ago
  From https://www.gittip.com/about/faq.html https://www.gittip.com/about/faq.html > Can I use bitcoin? Sort of. We currently support manual payouts using Coinbase. However, you cannot use bitcoin to pay in.
apw 13y ago
I think the real "killer app" for this would be github. There have been many times that I've come across a particularly useful piece of code on github for which I would have loved a frictionless way to tip the author. This would complement, not compete with, gittip I believe.
generalseven 13y ago
Our site -- https://www.PikaPay.com https://www.PikaPay.com, does Bitcoins via Twitter. If you're interested please take a look. Still a lot of work to be done, but we welcome any requests, suggestions and criticisms you might have. As announced at the San Jose Bitcoin Conference in May, we've built an enterprise API that's open to everyone. (See https://Github.com/PikaPay https://Github.com/PikaPay ) An integration with Coinbase is already in the works.

consonants 13y ago

Look at the result: it just ends up hijacking what could have been constructive dialogue into a BTC proselytizers circlejerk and hangers on who want a handout by asking 'What just happened here??!!?' You've been warned.

TomGullen 13y ago

I think tipping people in Bitcoin is an absolutely awesome way to introduce new people to Bitcoin. I think it would work well on HN, but I imagine not everyone would be a fan.

sashazykov 13y ago
Yes! Yesterday we released the application for tipping people for their commits to open source projects http://tip4commit.com/ http://tip4commit.com/

jedberg 13y ago

If you really love reddit you won't do this, because it eats into reddit's own tipping product which means taking away revenue from reddit.

selmnoo 13y ago
Why don't you guys start doing this on your own terms? People love using bitcoin in quirky ways -- let them, make it even easier than this current method.
- lololomg 13y ago
  You can already buy Reddit gold with bitcoin
zombio 13y ago
Reddit's tipping product doesn't actually send money, just a shiny "gold" image and a few minor gold-exclusive features.
barmstrong 13y ago
It's a good point. You can actually buy reddit gold using bitcoin right now (through Coinbase) so we are familiar with it. When people give reddit gold they are actually supporting reddit which is cooler in some ways, although the poster/commenter doesn't directly benefit. We thought about having an option in the Chrome extension that also contributed to Reddit on each tip, so something like "also tip 0.001 BTC/10%/whatever to Reddit each time I send money". The micro-transactions could be broken down like this in any arbitrary way. Just an idea at this point, but definitely doable.
- mrhazel 13y ago
  The user receiving gold does benefit, somewhat, with the added features that gold provides.

kclay 13y ago

I purchased heytip.me earlier this year to make something like this, needless to say I haven't had time to work on it.