Pre-Tipping Era
The Internet has changed us in ways we cannot fathom. Most people take all the information we find on the internet for granted. Ask me, I see examples of this all around us. When I tell friends/family to contribute towards Wikipedia, I get laughed at. They would rather contribute elsewhere, but not Wikipedia (they don’t think of it as a medium worth donating to). Sad really, if you ask me. Wikipedia is perhaps one of those websites that anyone who uses the Internet frequently would visit.
10,000s of volunteers spend countless hours, and donate their time in an effort to make one of the best crow-sourced information repositories on the web — in multiple languages. How can we not be grateful?
I classify the Internet into two types:
- Seeders: People who contribute content to the Internet
- Leechers: People who download / read / watch / hear this content.
Seeders are the superheroes of the web. I honestly believe in this. Millions of people upload worthy content to help others out. Remember that article on how to fix your phone, or the app that keeps crashing on your computer and how to fix it? Or what you were doing wrong while baking bread? All this information is uploaded by someone. Have you ever given that a thought?
Presently, if you find an article useful, there is no way for you to appreciate the other person (monetarily speaking). At best you might be able to comment, thanking them. You cannot give them 5 cents, even if you tried today. If the solution to your problem costs 5 cents, how can you pay? You cannot.
During the course of my day, I come across many articles that I find really informative or helpful or both. Just recently I was trying to understand the whole issue of candlestick graphs (or candlestick charts) as they are known. I did manage to find 3–4 really helpful articles and videos that made me understand the whole concept — in a jiffy.
Just for argument’s sake, if these lectures or articles cost me a penny to view/read, I wouldn’t even think twice. I just pay. Even if they cost 10 cents, or 25 cents. The goal to monetarily tip a few coins into their proverbial tip jar, just doesn’t exist right now.
Tipping with Bitcoins
Enter Bitcoin!
One of the most powerful aspects of Bitcoins, is their ability to be subdivided to a very large degree. The current monetary system we have is to two decimal places, i.e. we can have values such as $0.33, or $0.99 or even $0.01, but nothing beyond that. For most currencies that I know of, 1 Note = 100 pennies.
Because Bitcoin is digital, 1 Bitcoin = 100 Million pennies, or Satoshi’s. A Satoshi is the smallest denominated value in the Bitcoin ecosystem. It is the smallest value that can be transferred, 1/100 Millionth of a Bitcoin.
This near infinite sub-division of the Bitcoin allows us to very easily pay small amounts to people, with little or no cost associated with it. Here are a couple of possible scenarios how tipping with Bitcoins can work.
Tipping originally started on the Internet in the virtual world of Second Life (SL for short).
Tip jars are all over the place in Second Life. It is how most of daily transaction commerce with Linden Dollars (the de facto currency in Second Life) works.
Google Search Result
When you find a search result you like, you can tip the owner of the page (regardless if they have tipping enabled or not). Some entity can escrow the proceeds till such time the owner of the page claims it.
Payment Wall on Articles
So many times we get hit with a payment wall (think Wall Street Journal or Financial Times), who want us to pay US$ 9.99 per month to get access to the website and the article. Though I don’t have the statistics with me, I am guessing a lot many people hit the Back button on their browser.
But imagine the alternative, being able to pay say 25 cents to view the article? Just click (or tip 25 cents) and voila! You’re granted access.
Blog Articles
Bloggers toil day and night to put out content. Millions of bloggers feel frustrated that they cannot monetize their content in an easy manner. Bitcoin tipping can change all that. Like something you see, just hit the Like button and a small tip goes into their tip jar.
Podcasts
Podcasters are mostly trying to inject audio ads inside of their podcasts, which could be annoying for some. With Bitcoin tipping, podcasters can now include tipping on the general podcast or include tipping inside very specific segments.
Quite a few Bitcoin related companies are now pursuing tipping like Coinbase and ChangeTip. It is only a matter of time before tipping with Bitcoin becomes the norm on the web.
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This page was last updated on January 13, 2025.
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