
Introducing the Coinbase Tip Button - ntomaino
http://blog.coinbase.com/post/102957332182/introducing-the-coinbase-tip-button
======
JohnTHaller
The negative to this is similar to the negative of Flattr, you're giving a
prominent position to a button/brand other than your own for less than the
value of that space. On Adam Corolla's site, he's got it in the top banner, a
very prominent position. It's only gotten him $3.30* in exchange, a _very_
cheap ad buy.

It will be interesting to see how these perform after a week and a month vs
just placing a small ad there. Especially after the $2,000 they gave away to
spur usage is used up. I'd wager these will only bring in a small fraction of
what an ad would.

One positive over Flattr, though, is at least you can see how much that ad
position is paying out as a visitor. 1 Flattr doesn't have a direct connection
to dollars.

* - I'd originally forgotten the default tip is 10 cents, not $1. Updated with the 1/10th value appropriately.

~~~
hckr1292
This is really good point -- these buttons really ARE advertisements.
Personally, I've had a hard time figuring out how to get any ads on my
personal blog. The costs of hosting are very low (about $75 including AWS, a
cheap SSL cert, and DNS). It should be easy to break even However, because my
blog has so few impressions and is hosted on a subdomain (bryce.fisher-
fleig.org) I can't use Google Adsense. Flattr or Coinbase could be great for
hard-monetize situations.

~~~
JohnTHaller
Note that I was off by a factor of ten and the site has made under 4 bucks for
a sitewide banner ad.

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lvh
I had the pleasure of being one of the pilot test cases with Crypto 101:

[https://www.crypto101.io/](https://www.crypto101.io/)
[https://crypto101.github.io/](https://crypto101.github.io/)

Much easier for folks who happen to already have a Coinbase account! Same
functionality for everyone else (cards, straight LTC/BTC).

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grimtrigger
This is excellent.

Any chance we'll see an API? It would be cool to be able to use it as a
micropay button on top of a microdonation button.

Also a nitpick, the implication that things like this

    
    
        > aren’t possible with traditional payment networks
    

is obviously untrue. Flattr had the same functionality without bitcoin.

~~~
ntomaino
Thanks for the feedback! Yes an API is definitely on the roadmap.

The difference with bitcoin enabled micropayments and every other attempt at
micropayments in the history of the internet is that Bitcoin is an open,
interoperable network. Flattr, Beenz, Flooz, TipJoy, and others that have come
before have been closed loop networks where there was significant friction and
fees associated with getting onto and off of the network. When on the network,
these has also only been one behavior possible-- tipping.

Bitcoin is an open, interoperable network where any amount of money can be
sent frictionlessly anywhere on the internet. Perfect for micropayments, we
think!

~~~
hobo_mark
I've not used coinbase yet so forgive the question, from what I remember the
smallest bitcoin transaction fee is 5430 satoshis, or about 2 USD cents today.
That's 20% of a 10c tip, who "pays" it? (the tipper, coinbase, or the
recipient?)

~~~
ISL
Trades internal to Coinbase don't have to happen on the blockchain.

Source: [http://blog.coinbase.com/post/57483182558/you-can-now-
send-m...](http://blog.coinbase.com/post/57483182558/you-can-now-send-micro-
transactions-with-zero-fees)

If decentralized microtransactions could be done at sufficiently-negligible
(sub $0.01? ) cost, I think it could have a major impact on the web. Nobody's
yet figured out how to make it effortless, though. This implementation from
Coinbase doesn't appear to be different from Flattr, which hasn't yet taken
off.

Edit: With further thought, Coinbase may have more users than Flattr, and they
already have real money in their accounts. Those differences alone could be
significant.

~~~
hobo_mark
So if I understand correctly, coinbase creates a private internal "wallet" for
you, "hidden" from the public ledger, and owns the private key to it?

Thank you, it's funny how GP talks about an "open, interoperable network"
then...

~~~
tubbzor
For what its worth, this is only for convenience purposes for those who want
to use Bitcoin without having to handle managing their own keys (ie. grandma
and grandpa) or want to avoid transaction time/costs that come with operating
on the blockchain.

Coinbase offers multi-sig support which puts control back into the user's
hands in the event Coinbase went down or was compromised.

Coinbase is a great service for acquiring coin but I generally move it out to
my preferred wallet after I purchase it.

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andrewwomack
We're one of the launch partners (themorningnews.org), and we're excited to be
a part of this. Super-easy to implement. Thanks!

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wildchild
Very nice. I hope GitHub will integrate it.

~~~
disposition2
ChangeTip [1], which I've seen on reddit for some time, does this already
(among other social services).

1\. [https://www.changetip.com/](https://www.changetip.com/)

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ISL
What does the Coinbase service offer over something like a browser plugin that
enables one-click dispensation of tips from a small wallet to a bitcoin
address on a site?

A lot of Americans use Coinbase, but not everyone has a Coinbase account....

~~~
softdev12
I'm guessing it's primary benefit is for existing Coinbase users - offering
them the extension of their accounts.

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joeblau
This is great! I was using the donate button on www.gitignore.io but this is
what I was actually looking for when I implemented the donate button. Thanks
for launching this.

~~~
ntomaino
good stuff joe! looking forward to seeing the tip button on your site :)

~~~
joeblau
It's up! [https://www.gitignore.io/docs](https://www.gitignore.io/docs)

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drydot
press my brand new coinbase tip button at [http://mm-studios.com](http://mm-
studios.com) ; )

~~~
ntomaino
nice!

