https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/twitter-beta-testing-bitcoin-lightning-tipping-service



This is very interesting news about potential developments over on Twitter.
This goes another step to "normalising" Bitcoin for the masses or at least those on
Twitter.

This will also mean that if initiated on Twitter we will be able to tip the BitcoinTalkShow account !!

https://twitter.com/BtcTalkShow?s=09

Yes of course, its just you were super quick with your post 🤪

I have to admit I was a little surprised when I visited their site and read the following in their FAQ :


I'm not familiar with the percentage of Twitter users from the US (although I guess it's significant), but it seems to me that there aren't too many of them from El Salvador. So if something doesn't change in terms of expanding to other countries, this will actually be a very limited option - although very interesting and useful in promoting the Lightning Network.

It's an wonderful news indeed! Jack is anyway quite optimistic about bitcoin and it is reflecting in the project Twitter has undertaken. Even if this feature will be rolled out in US only for now, but we may see it launching in other continents as well in near future.

These are mainly granular level adoption which we all want to see with bitcoin. A revolution that started back in 2009, is taking shape slowly but steadily! That's what it matters!

True that. Just in that case allow me to not see it as a "wow" news. 
Still, I do hope it'll be better, see below.



On another topic @dkbit98 said that there are more options and wallets mentioned and this Strike solution is there basically while they do testing.
And they did say "for now" (one can hope, right?); I'd say that they may actually do better at some point.
Jack (&Co) is developing a HW too. I see it as a sign that he's not so keen to drive everybody (who wants a tip) into custodial wallets.

I'm sure it would be just a matter of time though before its uesable worldwide I guess?


Yes the chances would have been very low to zero. There were threads before on the forum
made by people obsessed with whether or not Amazon would adopt Bitcoin but this is big
news for sure thanks to J.D's interest in Bitcoin.

Since Strike is a US-based app, it can never offer its services throughout the whole world because of the US imposing sanctions against some of the countries.
- Having said that, perhaps there's light at the end of the tunnel

• Quote from: NeuroticFish on September 02, 2021, 02:30:07 PM
  On another topic @dkbit98 said that there are more options and wallets mentioned and this Strike solution is there basically while they do testing.
  And they did say "for now" (one can hope, right?);
  

---

AFAICR, they've never banned any country ^{[it's usually the other way around]}.

I don't understand the integration with Strike at all.
Why not implement the tipping feature in a way that works with any wallet (including, but not limited to Strike)?

Strike is only available for a very limited number of users globally and Twitter will completely rely on the Strike team to deliver on their promise to expand globally quickly, which they have so far failed to do for (from my memory) over a year. I totally understand why: they have to partner with banks and stuff to be able to integrate local currency with Bitcoin, since they're almost acting as an exchange, which is no easy task.

---

But the way I would implement a tipping feature (and have done so, actually, this year as a tipping bot - BT post and open source code release will follow when I find the time):

1) User A wants to tip user B: Twitter generates invoice and gets paid by A (funds now in Twitter's hands, but B's 'balance')
2) Twitter notifies B that they received a tip via a notification and allows to paste an invoice to withdraw in a new menu / page.
3) User B can either wait till they receive more tips or withdraw at any time, by pasting a valid invoice (not larger than 'balance')

Both users can use any LN wallet they want. Those that have access to Strike and don't have any Bitcoin yet, can download Strike to acquire Bitcoin and tip those via Lightning, others can just use any other Lightning wallet.

The idea here is that only the 'receiver' trusts the service and trust is limited through the ability to withdraw at any time, whereas in previous solutions users had to load up a 'balance' (via on-chain or LN), then use that to tip (all tips are just database value changes) and withdrawal takes another Bitcoin or LN transaction. Of course, 'senders' could just load up very small amounts (e.g. the amount for 1 single tip) via LN due to low fees, but it's one extra step.

I'm sure that a big company like Twitter might even figure out a smarter architecture than me in my small amount of free time, the above is just one idea that would work universally and is quite a good user experience (feedback I got for my own tipping bot that uses that architecture).

---

Finally, the best way would be static invoices like keysend or LNURL-Pay. These would allow to eliminate the 'payee trust' requirement and any middleman completely, but not all wallets support those yet. There is also the proposal of Offers with the same purpose.

@DooMAD. Agreed. It might be to avoid compliance issues and use Strike as the shield. It might also be a form of consignment of the task of developing and adding the feature to the social media platform. I reckon Twitter cannot do the job on their own or it might be more expensive for them to do it on their own.

Funny how things turn around, not so long ago these guys where banning crypto influencers accounts and ordinary crypto users accounts (https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2021/03/10/multiple-crypto-related-twitter-accounts-have-been-suspended/) and here we are now sending congratulatory messages for their business move in including a bitcoin tipping service, hope they are not playing to the gallery to avoid losing users seeing the crypto community has grown.