
How To Send Bitcoin Tips On Reddit - barmstrong
http://blog.coinbase.com/post/64708670240/how-to-send-bitcoin-on-reddit
======
berberous
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
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!

~~~
zombio
...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
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.

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mcintyre1994
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/bitcointi...](http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcointip/comments/13iykn/bitcointip_documentation/)

~~~
sverddans
And you get to see the confused reactions of everyone who has no idea what you
just did.

~~~
mcintyre1994
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
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.

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barmstrong
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)

~~~
immad
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
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.

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

~~~
jff
Related: [http://buttcoin.org/whoa-what-just-happened-
here](http://buttcoin.org/whoa-what-just-happened-here)

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slg
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?

~~~
citricsquid
> 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_ma...](http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1lcy3h/dreamhost_makes_fun_of_bitcoins/cbyiago).

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_b...](http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcointip/comments/1nslow/updated_bitcointip_stats_includes_charts/)

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jedberg
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.

~~~
barmstrong
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
The user receiving gold does benefit, somewhat, with the added features that
gold provides.

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TomGullen
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
Yes! Yesterday we released the application for tipping people for their
commits to open source projects
[http://tip4commit.com/](http://tip4commit.com/)

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

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

