Twitter to allow profiles to have Bitcoin addresses

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The developers at Twitter are working on a new feature that will allow users to accept Bitcoin tips through the Tip Jar feature, the social media platform unveiled earlier this year.

Twitter product manager Kayvon Beykpour first indicated that the feature was on Wednesday when he commented on a screenshot tweeted by app developer Alessandro Paluzzi. The screenshot appeared to show Twitter using The Lightning Network, a technology that helps secure payment transfers, to allow Twitter users to use Bitcoin when sending tips.

Paluzzi wrote in his original tweet that Twitter is “working on the possibility of receiving tips in #Bitcoin”. Later Wednesday, Beykpour tweeted Paluzzi’s screenshot, adding a flash emoji next to one that read “soon”.

On Thursday, Paluzzi posted another tweet containing three new screenshots. In the first, Twitter’s Tip Jar feature seemed to offer two new options: the ability for users to tip by copying a Bitcoin address or one with Ethereum, another cryptocurrency.

The second screenshot showed an option for users to enter their own Bitcoin addresses. A message below at the bottom of the screenshot read: “People will send payments to the Bitcoin address you entered above.” The third screenshot said the same about users’ Ethereum addresses.

A product manager on Twitter said on Wednesday that the social media company was working on a new feature that would allow users to send tips using Bitcoin. This photo, taken on July 19, 2021 in Istanbul, shows a physical banknote and counterfeit Bitcoin coins. OZAN ​​KOSE / AFP via Getty Images

Twitter officially unveiled its Tip Jar feature in early May. The initial launch allowed users to share links to their Bandcamp, Cash App, Patreon, Paypal and Venmo accounts as “a new way for people to send and receive tips”.

Users who have enabled the Tip Jar feature will have an icon displayed on their account home page that allows other users to select the payment method they want to use to send a tip. Users are then redirected to the application of the platform of their choice.

“This is a first step in our work to create new ways for people to receive and show their support on Twitter, with money,” Twitter said in a blog post in May announcing the launch of Tip Jar. The company added that it plans to expand the feature in the coming months to include more users and languages ​​across the world.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey told investors earlier this summer that Bitcoin will be a “big part” of Twitter’s future and identified cryptocurrency as one of the three important trends for the future of the social media platform, according to TechCrunch.

Twitter has not yet made any announcement regarding the extent to which Bitcoin will be part of the business, and has not released a timeline for Bitcoin’s start of involvement.

Newsweek reached out to Twitter for comment, but didn’t get a response until the time of publication.

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