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Twitter has made it possible to ask for tips using Bitcoin through its app. This makes it the first social network to promote the use of cryptocurrency as a payment method. Users will be able to connect their crypto wallets, and use a badge to verify ownership of NFTs.

Twitter is testing tips for a while now. However, the company has not made tips widely accessible until Thursday. The feature will be available globally on iOS. Android will follow. Twitter users will be able to connect to nine traditional payment providers such as Venmo or Cash App to their profiles in order to accept tips. Twitter doesn’t process the payments.

The Bitcoin tips are handled by Strike, a Bitcoin wallet application that uses the Lightning Network protocol. Lightning was created to make Bitcoin transactions faster and more affordable. The company behind it has received funding from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, a staunch Bitcoin advocate who tweeted in June that it was “only a matter of time” before Twitter supported payments via the protocol.

Strike is available in all US states, except New York and Hawaii. It also works in El Salvador. Twitter users can add their Strike usernames to their profile. They will be able then to copy and paste their Bitcoin addresses into their crypto wallet of preference to send tips.

Image: Twitter

Twitter’s app will notify someone when they receive a Bitcoin tip via Strike, letting them quickly reply to the tipper to say thanks or send an emoji reaction. Twitter will generate invoices that creators can use to track tips received. During a conference call with reporters, Esther Crawford (product lead for creator monetization at Twitter) stated that Bitcoin is “one of the best solutions” to enable people to transact in the underbanked areas of the world.

Bitcoin isn’t the extent of Twitter’s crypto plans: the company said it is also planning to support authentication for NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, by letting people connect their crypto wallets. A spokesperson for the company said that NFT authentication will be in the form a badge on profiles, which would mark the owner’s NFT to be authentic.

NFTs have recently boomed in popularity as a way to buy and trade digital art on the Ethereum blockchain. A few months ago, the main Twitter account did a giveaway of NFTs that were minted on a marketplace called Rarible.