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Bitcoin Tipping: Whether Coinbase Tip or ChangeTip, a Use Case Is Forming

Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:41 PM
Connie Kearney
Last Updated March 4, 2021 4:41 PM

bitcoin tipsPotentially bitcoin’s first killer app, tipping has been a hot topic of discussion lately. Earlier this week Bitcoin investment firm Pantera Capital announced its participation in the Series A funding round for social tipping startup, ChangeTip. And just last month Coinbase launched its bitcoin tipping button to allow anyone to accept micropayments anywhere on the web. 

Despite it being early days in the world of bitcoin tipping, it seems as though early adopters have their personal preference when it comes to which service they want to use to spread value across the internet. A discussion on Zapchain initiated by payments industry veteran, Aaron Williams, began with a few simple questions, “Which do you like best for tipping? ChangeTip or Coinbase Tip? Why?”

Also read: Is ChangeTip the Viral Bitcoin Killer App?

ChangeTip or Coinbase Tip

Ready to pick a side, outline the differences and weigh-in on the pros and cons of each service, bitcoiners sounded off and gave Williams their answers.

Litecoin creator and current Engineering Manager at Coinbase, Charlie Lee shared the following:

ChangeTip and Coinbase tip button serves two different purposes. ChangeTip’s strength is peer-to-peer tipping, whereas Coinbase tip button’s strength is user to content provider tipping. Coinbase made it super easy for a content provider to add a tip button to their content. And tipping for users is just one click, so if they enjoyed the content, one click and they are done. ChangeTip also has a tip button via tip.me but it’s so much harder to use that than Coinbase’s. But they can definitely improve their button. Letting users tip on social network is awesome. It’s a good way to introduce new users to Bitcoin. Though as some people have said, making people keep track of yet another bitcoin wallet is a minus. They should just use Coinbase’s wallet API to leverage Coinbase to store user funds.

Acacia Trading co-founder, John Reinstra added:

I like both! Changetip is great for sending someone a tip over social media, and the Coinbase tip button is an awesome way to tip a blog post (or an answer on ZapChain). They serve different purposes, so I don’t favor one over the other.

Bitcoin enthusiast, Yuri Yerofeyev noted:

ChangeTip is more advanced because it lets you tip via 7 social network at the moment. Plus, it’s more fun with monikers: tipping someone a “beer” is nice!

John Mardlin of Coinbase customer operations mentioned:

I’m pretty loyal to Coinbase, but I like the ubiquity that ChangeTip has enabled. I’m not sure why they haven’t integrated with the Coinbase API. I would appreciate that so I can just have a single account, and more easily access my funds on ChangeTip.

Technologist, Kamron Kennedy answered:

I prefer an address for tipping. ChangeTip and CoinbaseTip are centralizing the tipping of a decentralized currency over the internet.

It is important to note that although this discussion revolved around ChangeTip and Coinbase Tip, there are other bitcoin tipping options available on the market. Both Xapo and Cryptiv allow users to send tips across the web as well.

What are your thoughts? Do you have a preferred service for sending or receiving bitcoin tips? Let us know in the comments!

Images from Shutterstock.