Coinbase Tip Button Provides An Easy Micro Payment Solution

One-click tips make online micropayments easier than ever. Just click – and the content creator has received money.
— – Coinbase

Micropayments have become increasingly popular over the years. Many have attempted to utilize the concept and it appears that Bitcoin technology was required to make the idea successful. With so much value placed upon online content, there seems to be an ocean of opportunity for micro payment solutions to support content creators.

While Pre Bitcoin Tipping solutions like Flattr have failed to break into mainstream adoption, Bitcoin based solution ChangeTip, the ‘Love Button of the Internet,’ has found a core group of users eager to use the tool. Coinbase has now announced their foray into the space with a embeddable button for websites.

Nick Tomaino, Business Developer at Coinbase, explains “We wanted to provide a way for our ~1.9M users to tip content creators in one-click and saw a real need for one-click tipping functionality. We’ve been encouraged by the initial response, but we have a long ways to go to making bitcoin micropayments mainstream.”

Buttons for easy acess bitcoin payments have been around for awhile, Bitcoinwidget.com has a simliar solution. Not only does the BitcoinWidget embeddable button provide a one click solution for micropayments, they accept Bitcoin and LiteCoin, you can code in any wallet address you want, and personalise the button to show the number of transactions and the amount received.

Nick claims to be a huge fan of ChangeTip, “they are an incredibly valuable service in the bitcoin ecosystem. It’s the easiest possible way to spread bitcoin to new users on social platforms via text and myself and a bunch of the team are users!”

ChangeTip and Coinbase have some fundamental differences. Coinbase has created a tipping solution focusing on content creators, stating “For users already signed into Coinbase, one-click tips make online micropayments easier than ever. Just click – and the content creator has received money.”

ChangeTipexplains their social networking solution, “We’ve created a system of robots that search for the name "ChangeTip" when mentioned across different social networks. When a robot hears its name, it parses the message and delivers the indicated amount from the sender’s wallet to the receiver’s. ChangeTip uses an internal ledger to process tips offchain, allowing us to offer this service free of charge.”

“More social networks mean more ways to show everyone your generosity to others (and others to you). Spread the love!”
— – ChangeTip

While a Coinbase account is required to host a Coinbase Tipping button, Coinbase states “The tip button can be easily added to any web page and enables website visitors to tip using a Coinbase account or other bitcoin wallet.”

The coinbase button debuts at the bottom of the post and at the time of writing this article they had received 55, 440 bits, going straight to the NYC Foundation for Computer Science Education.

“To date, over 30% of orders on Coinbase are $1 or below.  In an effort to make sending small amounts of bitcoin easier than ever, we decided to build the tip button,” Coinbase

With Bitcoin the world is now able to send micropayments in a cheaper and easier way than ever before.

B.Holmes, author of The Range of Illusion and The Private Key installments, is currently located in Thailand, researching and writing about crypto. You can follow B.Holmes on twitter @BanteringB, or contact via email: [email protected]