Twitter's Tipping Feature to Soon Allow Bitcoin Lightning Payments on Android Devices

Twitter launched Bitcoin Lightning on iOS devices in September and is now testing the same on Android devices.

By Shomik Sen Bhattacharjee | Updated: 26 October 2021 18:07 IST

Twitter's Tipping Feature to Soon Allow Bitcoin Lightning Payments on Android Devices

Photo Credit: Pexels/ Karolina Grabowska

Bitcoin is soon going to be an option for Twitter users tipping their favourite content creators

Highlights

Twitter has roped in Strike to process Bitcoin payments
Twitter's Tip Jar supports PayPal, Venmo and Cash App
Lightning Network-powered BTC payments are available on the Beta app

Twitter has been working towards integrating Bitcoin support for its 'Tip Jar' feature and rolled out the integration to iOS users towards the end of September and is finally rolling out its Bitcoin Lightning tipping feature for Android devices. The social media giant has a tie-up with digital currency payment solutions giant, Strike, to take care of technical support for Twitter's new Bitcoin tipping service. The rollout is yet to gather pace but should show up for Android users in the US soon.

The Tip Jar feature until now supported traditional payment platforms like Venmo, Cash App and PayPal. With Bitcoin payments into the picture, Twitter has roped in Strike — a payment platform built on the Bitcoin Lightning Network that allows users to send or receive the popular cryptocurrency instantly and for a very low fee. In addition to adding a Lightning wallet, users can also choose to add a Bitcoin address to receive tips.

The development was spotted by notable reverse-engineering expert and researcher Jane Manchun Wong who noted that Twitter has already launched the Bitcoin Lightning tipping feature on the beta version of the app available for Android devices. She also posted screenshots of what she spotted.

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Twitter is working on bringing Bitcoin Lightning Tip Jar support to Android pic.twitter.com/5R10LltHKc
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) October 24, 2021

Since Android users claim 73 percent of the global mobile OS market as per Statista, the Bitcoin payments integration on Android could see crypto payments pick up on the platform. The move could also help scale usage for the Bitcoin Lightning Network which is a second layer added to Bitcoin's (BTC) blockchain that allows transactions between parties not on the blockchain network.

Talking of Twitter ramping up efforts on the crypto-front, the Jack Dorsey-led microblogging platform is also working on support for non-fungible token (NFT) authentication. The feature will make it possible for users to show off their NFT collection on the social media platform.

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