Twitter just received a cool perk, you can now send small bitcoin transactions as means of a tip for your favorite tweets. The beta app Tippin announced Saturday that it released a new Chrome Extension, which is available to Google browser users. Meaning, Twitter users can send bitcoin payments using the Lightning Network.
When the extension is enabled, a little lightning bolt symbol will pop up inside every tweet, next to the “like” and “retweet” buttons. By adding this new feature, it is considered a way “to make bitcoin transactions feasible at a large scale for the first time,” as CoinDesk reports.
Tippin was created off of an older idea, in which many believe will increase bitcoin’s selling points. The bitcoin app ChangeTip originally created a way to send payments over social media, however, it died out in 2016.
“In my opinion, tipping is going to be incredibly popular with Lightning Network; It’s the first time we can send small amounts almost at no cost, and we can do it incredibly fast,” Tippin engineer Sergio Abril told CoinDesk.
In order to use this feature, all a user needs is a Twitter account and to install Tippin to begin receiving tips. “Tippin started as a personal side project a couple of months ago, so I could understand lightning network a bit more, and of course help push adoption, but it’s starting to get big,” Abril said.
The app is currently custodial, further meaning that users don’t have full control over their funds, since the app is much easier to use this way, according to Abril. He added, “Of course, Lightning Network itself is still in beta, so we have time to make this happen until it’s fully ready.”