Bitcoin Forum

I've recently launched a Twitter bitcoin tipper, http://btctip.com. The announcement thread can be found here:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=68320.0

Through this service, any Twitter user can send a bitcoin tip to any other Twitter user with a tweet.

The advantages I see in this method of donating/tipping is:

1) The donor's identity is publicized, so they can get credit for their generosity, which can encourage them to give subsequent donations.

2) The donor doesn't need to disclose their bitcoin address in order to publicize their identity, which protects the anonymity of their other bitcoin transactions, since bitcoin addresses, and the transactions they're involved in, can often be linked to the same wallet through analysis of public transaction data.

3) The donation is publicized, possibly encouraging others to donate as well.

This is also generally a good way to promote bitcoin, since it broadcasts bitcoin transactions in Twitter, creating more buzz and awareness about the digital currency. So if you have a minute, please post your Twitter username. I can't tip every developer that posts their username, but I'll certainly tip some of you.

Interesting, but somewhat confusing usage syntax. Good luck!

@LightRider

Thanks!

If you have any recommendations on making the syntax clearer, please let me know.

@bitcoinretweet

You both have small tips coming your way.

If I retweet the tipping message, do I tip myself?

No, you can't tip yourself so it's safe to retweet.

If I retweet someone else's tipping message, will I also perform that tip?

Good question. Yes, if you retweet someone else's tip message, you will also perform that tip. I'd recommend retweeting the confirmation message from @btctip if you want to retweet something.

Just tried to tip someone and I have gotten no message or confirmation if it worked. Does the first hashtag in the tipping message have to be #BTCTIP? Wouldn't it be better to require mentioning the @btctip username instead to remove ambiguity and help spread the message about the service?

Edit: Have just tried a second time and still nothing indicating whether or not it has succeeded. Not looking good.

Go to btctip.com and login.

The first hashtag needs to be lower case #btctip which you did use in the second tweet.

It occasionally misses a tweet and you have to redo it because Twitter sometimes delays inclusion of a tweet into search results for a particular hashtag, especially when someone posts more than one tweet containing the same hashtag in a short period of time. It's usually quite good though, I think you just got unlucky.

I agree it doesn't look good. I hope you'll give it another try.


I think "#btctip @someone 10 bitcents" looks clearer than "@btctip @someone 10 bitcents", since a hashtag is more clearly the beginning of the command than a Twitter username.

The @btctip username is advertised to users when the @btctip account posts the confirmation tweet.

Developers, I want to send you money! Please post your Twitter usernames!

http://www.polishtheconsole.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/shut-up-and-take-my-money.jpg

@film2240

I'd like to be able to recieve BTC via tweets from donors. I'm actually looking for donors to finance a few projects (an upcoming film-can't say much yet on this,upcoming services for Dream Islands Publishing,etc)

For more info about Dream Islands Publishing and the content subscription service I hope to lift off,see this thread here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=74958.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=74958.0)

Edit:I signed up to the service.Can someone send me a really small amount to test if this works so i can then do the same if possible? Thanks

Honestly, I don't see this as an advantage. When I tip someone on forums like this one, I like it to be vague because this decreases the chance of the author trying to write subsequent posts in a way that pleases me. And when I get a donation, I also like this vagueness because this way, I can see it as a positive feedback that just encourages me to go on like before, rather than creating the risk that I focus on certain discussions because of the donation.
I like this. Even though I don't plan to use your service for the reasons stated above, this is yet another piece of bitcoin infrastructure which leads to people with different goals and opinions to serve one common goal: letting bitcoin grow.

Well, there's one other method.  Simply giving me the option to instead send a tip using a form on your site.

So I login, enter the amount and to which Twitter username to send the funds, you BTCTip takes it from there.

You could even give a checkbox -- Tip anonymously

That way the recipient gets your @mention and I never had to post any #btctip message that my followers had to read.

As a bookend to this thread, the BTCTip announcement and support thread is:
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=68320.0