Twitter lets you tip with Bitcoin, announces slew of privacy updates

Twitter today announced a host of new features for its platform. While some of these features will be available on the micro-blogging platform starting today, others will arrive in the coming months. But the biggest and most interesting update it has rolled out is to its tipping feature called Tips. Twitter today announced that it has started rolling out Tips, which it started testing with a select group of people in the US back in May this year, to its users across the globe starting today. What’s interesting about this feature is that now users will be able to share money not just in digital currencies but also in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

Twitter said that users will be able to tip others in Bitcoin using a payments application built on the Bitcoin Lightning Network called Strike, which allows people to send and receive Bitcoin instantly globally. The micro-blogging platform also said that Strike is available to people in El Salvador and the US (excluding Hawaii and New York) and that users will have to sign up for a Strike account and add their Strike username to receive Bitcoin tips over the Lightning Network. Alternatively, Twitter users will be able to use any Bitcoin Lightning wallet to send tips to someone’s Strike account. This feature is being rolled out to iOS and Android users will get it over the coming weeks.

In addition to that, Twitter said it is also planning to add support authenticating NFTs or non-fungible tokens by letting people connect their crypto wallets. The NFT authentication functionality will be available in the form of a badge that is shown on users' profile pictures, which in turn would mark the owner’s NFT as authentic.

Also, Twitter said that it is adding new services to the supported third-party tipping platforms. The company has added support for GoFundMe and PicPay, which join Bandcamp, Cash App, Chipper, Patreon, Razorpay, Wealthsimple Cash, and Venmo.

Twitter gets new privacy features

Apart from support for Bitcoin tipping, Twitter announced a host of new features that are aimed at making the platform safer for its users. Twitter said that it has started testing its Safety Mode feature, which it introduced earlier this year, with a small group on iOS, Android, and Twitter.com beginning with accounts that have English-language settings enabled.

The company also announced that soon it will start testing a new Heads Up feature on its platform that will give tweets a heads up before they join a discussion. The company also said that it is exploring two new features -- Word Filters and Remove Yourself from a Conversation. The former will let users filter out replies and messages containing specific words, while the latter will let tweets remove themselves from a conversation that they don’t want to be a part of quietly without letting the person who mentioned them know. Word Filters is still in the concept phase while Remove Yourself from a Conversation will be available on Twitter soon.

And some more…

Besides the above-mentioned features, Twitter also announced updates to Spaces and Communities. The company said that in the coming months, Spaces will get recording and replays functionality so that people can experience Spaces conversations after they happen. Spaces will also get improved discovery with ways to find more Spaces at the top of users’ timelines or in dedicated locations soon.

Twitter also said that it is continuing to roll out access to Ticketed Spaces to give hosts the option to set prices and audience size to get compensated for the experiences they create and that it is testing Communities with a few initial Communities and that it will be rolling out more Communities in the future.