In his October 8th appearance before the Canadian Senate, legendary Andreas Antonopoulos sat in front of a group of politicians and educated them on the intricacies of Bitcoin. The most common uses for it, he explained, were charitable donations... and micropayments.
The most common uses for bitcoin are sending small amounts of money to each other, and contributing to charities.
And what happens when we combine the two?
This year, our focus at ChangeTip is to work on making contributions to charities, causes and donations easier, faster and cheaper.
We often ask ourselves, "What would have happened if the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge had used bitcoin?"
We see a different world in front of us - one in which we are not only connected socially, but financially - a world in which crowdfunding massive, social change is not just a cool idea - it's a reality.
Our first step in making this vision come true is the launch of our initial Tip Redirect (Retip) feature, which enables an automatic transfer of incoming tips to a charity or cause you believe in.
Like most features, this initial launch is basic, and gets the job done. We have chosen to work with popular and regarded Bitcoin charity The BitGive Foundation - the first bitcoin charity to receive 501 (c)(3) status - on testing out this new feature. We hope to add new causes and charities every week.
It has been pointed out that tipping certain people can have ethical challenges, and furthermore, some people simply would rather channel their tips - although appreciated - to a cause they deem more worthy than themselves.
Howard Lindzon, investor in ChangeTip and founder of the popular financial social media platform StockTwits, explains:
"I love tipping, and receiving tips, but for someone like me - who works in finance, and does not necessarily need the tips, I would love to just choose a cause I believe in and donate everything I earn to them, automatically. I don't need to be paid for my information."
Indeed, sometimes this can even boil down to an ethical dilemma, as Michael Casey from the Wall Street Journal, explained to me in December:
"It's great to receive tips, but honestly, I would have to ask my managing editor about the ethical considerations with such a feature. It can be seen as a conflict of interest to receive tips for my writing - it may seem like I am being influenced by the tippers."
During the popular Bitcoin Bowl, we were instructed by ESPN's legal department to avoid tipping coaches and players, for the same reason. I believe our new tip redirect (retip) feature enables us all to win:
1. Celebrities, people with whom tipping causes a conflict of interest, etc. still have the knowledge (and warm fuzzy feeling) that they are getting appreciation from their fans;
2. Fans get the excitement of seeing their tips collected and noticed, and know that have achieved a unique connection with the people they admire;
3. Charities benefit from automatic tip redirect functions, so the people who 'don't need' the tips pass them along to the causes they feel passionate about.
We are excited to roll out this new feature with BitGive, iterate, iterate, iterate and add more charities and causes to our platform and work on new, fun, easy ways to change the world.
It's no easy task, but we believe that together, we can create massive social change. One step at a time.
Let us know what you think about our new feature. What would you like to see? How would you like it to change?
We always appreciate your feedback. Thank you!
-Victoria & Team ChangeTip
