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Twitter enables tipping with Bitcoin, plans to let users authenticate NFTs

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Re: Twitter enables tipping with Bitcoin, plans to let users authenticate NFTs

#81
post #66

I'm having a very hard time imagining a scenario in which I would feel the need to tip someone for a Tweet. I understand why I might want to pay someone for, say, a Youtube video, or a substack article. But is there really enough value packed into a tweet that I'd want to send someone money for it? Maybe I'm just not imaginative enough. Or maybe the answer is porn.

Here's an example.

Journalist spends a year on a story. Puts it on her blog. Shares the post via a tweet. You love the story, appreciate the hard work and give a tip.

Re: Twitter enables tipping with Bitcoin, plans to let users authenticate NFTs

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you are "buying" nothing more than a URL in a JSON file (i.e. no legal ownership of anything), This is wrong. I can see why you think it, but it is wrong. The URL in the JSON file is free, as is the artwork that it points to. It's very hard to restrict the copying of digital artworks anyway, so why bother trying to? The person buying the NFT is not "buying a URL". This phrase doesn't even mean anything! What they a…

> The person buying the NFT is not "buying a URL". This phrase doesn't even mean anything! "Buying a URL" (a pointer to a thing) means more than "buying a blockchain record" (a pointer to a pointer to a thing). What is the value of a blockchain record whose URL no longer works, or has been changed to point to something worth nothing?

So, what we have is the artwork. The artwork, as a digital artifact, continues to exist as long as there is a copy of it anywhere. A copy that was hosted at a particular URL may cease to exist, though.

"Buying a URL" doesn't make sense because there's no transfer of rights. I already have the URL! There's no meaningful mechanism by which I can take control of the URL, and there are no rights over the URL that anyone can sell to me. The reason people mock the idea of "buying a URL" is because they rightly observe that it doesn't make sense.

The value of the record is not directly related to the URL. The value of the record is that it has the artist's signature on it (or the signature of someone I believe to be the artist, or the artist's designated agent; fraud is definitely possible here!). Notably, the URL does not have the artist's signature on it (how could it? This also does not make sense as an idea). The artwork pointed to by the URL might or might not have the artist's signature on it, but if it does then the signature is easily copyable, because the image itself is easily copyable.

The thing that is not easily copyable is the blockchain record. This is because it contains an encrypted transaction signed by the artist's key, and I can't make a duplicate of this unless I have the artist's private key.

If I'm buying an NFT, I'm doing it because I think the artwork is going to be popular or important in some way. If this is true, there are going to be many copies of it. I don't really care about what happens to any single copy, even if it's the copy that was presented as the reference copy at the time I bought the NFT. If I'm truly concerned that the image might disappear entirely, I will download a copy to my laptop and save some backups. If it turns out that the thing I bought was so unpopular and unimportant that months later nobody anywhere saved a copy of it, then I suppose that sucks for me.

Re: Twitter enables tipping with Bitcoin, plans to let users authenticate NFTs

#83
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for bringing this up. While the idea of blockchain payments hitting a mainstream app is kind of exciting, adding Strike support to twitter isn't much different than adding something like Venmo support. Both require a banking style intermediary that require KYC from their users.

I don't agree. This way it is a) easier to onboard _receivers_, and b) stays open in the sense that _senders_ can send bitcoins by any app they want (including non-custodial of course).

Ok, I understand (a). Regarding (b) I guess I don't fully understand their implementation, but are you suggesting that any 3rd party app could implement the payments? I guess if any app or user can pull the twitter user's lightning address one can tip then yeah I guess so. So I guess they are just using "Strike" as an officially-supported app?

Re: Twitter enables tipping with Bitcoin, plans to let users authenticate NFTs

#84
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Diablo 3 real-money auction house was better implemented than most NFT schemes. At least that involved an actual transfer of virtual goods.

What's an "actual" transfer of a "virtual" good? When an NFT is sold a unit of data stored on a digital ledger is transferred. When a D3 item was sold a unit of data stored on in the database was transferred. Why are those meaningfully different?

I don't understand OPs point, but the meaningful difference is that the digital ledger is decentralized. If Blizzard shuts down D3, your virtual goods are gone forever. NFTs and ownership of NFTs live as long as the blockchain lives

Re: Twitter enables tipping with Bitcoin, plans to let users authenticate NFTs

#85
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of business is just taking something that is possible and making it accessible. See: the famous Dropbox detractor comment on hacker news.

But it's just a bitcoin address. All you need to do is go to an exchange (or a wallet), click withdraw enter the public key of the other person, type in the amount and you're done. Dropbox is also silly. It's just rsync with a UI, just spin up a command-line and transfer all your fi-... Wait a minute. This is what you meant! ;-) I'd love to hear a version where a chef would talk about food this way or some other fiel…

> But it's just a bitcoin address. All you need to do is go to an exchange (or a wallet), click withdraw enter the public key of the other person, type in the amount and you're done.

Or you could just click the button on the tweet and not do all that?

Re: Twitter enables tipping with Bitcoin, plans to let users authenticate NFTs

#86

Why does Twitter need to enable anything for users to receive Bitcoin? Couldn't the users just pin a tweet to the top of their profile "Hey, if you want to tip us, here is our Bitcoin address: ..."? And for receiving Bitcoin via the Lighnight Network, I would expect it is similar?

Twitter will hold the bitcoins and collect interest before transfering to person tweeting?

Yes, they will enter a Defi contract for the few seconds it takes to send the lightning payment. They will scalp fractions of fractions of a cent, making them wealthier beyond their wildest dreams.

Try harder.

Re: Twitter enables tipping with Bitcoin, plans to let users authenticate NFTs

#87

Why does Twitter need to enable anything for users to receive Bitcoin? Couldn't the users just pin a tweet to the top of their profile "Hey, if you want to tip us, here is our Bitcoin address: ..."? And for receiving Bitcoin via the Lighnight Network, I would expect it is similar?

The current implementations of the lightning network don't easily allow transactions to an address (A method called keysend does exist but isn't widely used).

In order to receive a lightning payment, the receiver has to generate an invoice that anyone with a lightning wallet can pay (usually by scanning a QR code or copy/pasting the invoice). These invoices are meant to be single use.

There is a draft spec (BOLT12) that would make it easier to be able to just pin a link or QR code on a webpage or profile and receive bitcoin via the lightning network.

https://bolt12.org/

Re: Twitter enables tipping with Bitcoin, plans to let users authenticate NFTs

#88
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of business is just taking something that is possible and making it accessible. See: the famous Dropbox detractor comment on hacker news.

But it's just a bitcoin address. All you need to do is go to an exchange (or a wallet), click withdraw enter the public key of the other person, type in the amount and you're done. Dropbox is also silly. It's just rsync with a UI, just spin up a command-line and transfer all your fi-... Wait a minute. This is what you meant! ;-) I'd love to hear a version where a chef would talk about food this way or some other fiel…

This uses the Lightning Network, which requires an invoice (unless the node has keysend payments enabled, but most end users don't run their own node). It's not the same as a Bitcoin address, and address re-use is a dirty habit anyway.

Re: Twitter enables tipping with Bitcoin, plans to let users authenticate NFTs

#89
post #68
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine a world where not everyone used the dollar. Then imagine having to support different currencies and ensuring that your price per article stayed in line with currency fluctuations.

Why would you have to support different currencies?

Youtube has an international audience.

Re: Twitter enables tipping with Bitcoin, plans to let users authenticate NFTs

#90
> Strike works in all US states except New York and Hawaii, and the country of El Salvador.

That's odd, because Strike is the company on which El Salvador's Bitcoin experiment is based.

https://www.businessofbusiness.com/articles/what-is-strike-E...

Also, this article has a completely different take:

> A video was released on Thursday of Jack Mallers demonstrating the service with the firm’s integration of the Strike API. In the video Mallers sent Bitcoin from Chicago to El Salvador via Twitter.

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/jack-dorsey-twitter-roll...

What am I missing?

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