It’s Tipping Time on Twitch.tv
Viewers and broadcasters alike can now exchange Bitcoin on the popular video game streaming site Twitch.tv thanks to ChangeTip.
Twitch.tv first launched in 2011 and has achieved massive growth since then. They quickly established a utopia for live video game streaming for both casual and hardcore players. The runaway popularity of the site led to acquisition by Amazon in August of 2014. With over 100 million viewers each month, the site is now ranked 4th in peak US internet traffic.
Founded in December 2013, San Francisco based company ChangeCoin launched their first product, ChangeTip. The company operates as a digital currency enabled social media tipping platform which allows users to express appreciation and instantly tip any great online video, cause, or content.
ChangeTip has allowed users to freely give Bitcoin across many platforms such as Twitter, Youtube, and Reddit with much success. Currently Bitcoin withdrawals are free but from the start of June 15, 2015, there will be a 1% fee to withdraw from your ChangeTip wallet.
March 20th marked their introduction of Bitcoin tipping on Twitch, and the massive traffic on the site holds the possibility of drawing a lot of attention to the cryptocurrency community.
“Fans chat while watching their favorite gamers make their way through virtual worlds, and we think ChangeTip is a perfect fit for showing appreciation on this platform.”
— – Victoria van Eyk, ChangeTip VP Community Development
Broadcasters and viewers are very interactive on Twitch, making it a great place to implement a Bitcoin tipping system. Fans of a particular streaming personality can directly contribute to the success of their channel. Those behind the camera can show gratitude for their popularity by tipping the community responsible in chat.
This isn’t just important for people already knowledgeable about Bitcoin; anyone who is unfamiliar could have their curiosity piqued seeing money change hands seamlessly, starting their own adventure down the cryptocurrency rabbit hole. A vast number of current crypto fans got their start in this way.
Opportunities for digital currency attention don’t stop there either! Tipping on Twitch is a direct result of a new API by ChangeTip. “…The Twitch bot was actually written by an independent developer […], not by ChangeTip for Twitch!” explains van Eyk. “This is the first project of many we expect to be built using our recently released API.”
Though Bitcoin has been a payment option for Turbo Subscriptions on Twitch for some time, options for tipping have been limited. Reddcoin and their committed team of developers were the first on the scene with a highly functional tipbot. Cryptiv was second, offering Twitch tipping options for Bitcoin and a few other coins via a flexible browser extension rather than an on-site bot. Dogecoin followed shortly after with DogeTipBot thanks to mohland and Wow Such Business, Inc.
In many ways DogeTipBot is responsible for the popularity of tipping, with the low price and community-driven nature promoting an atmosphere where people throw money at each other and charitable causes with great splendor.
“[Tipping is] like getting an invitation to an amazing party, where most everyone you meet turns out to be really fun and interesting people.”
— – mohland, Wow Such Business, Inc.
Whether it is Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency being exchanged, doing so in high traffic areas is great for drawing focus to digital currency as a whole. There are tons and tons of people online who are potentially moments away from becoming crypto enthusiasts. Sometimes all it takes is seeing the magic happen.
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