Twitter started the roll-out of Bitcoin-based payments features on Thursday, which will allow users to tip their favorite content creators. The company also announced it would bring verified NFTs.
Twitter announced the new features in a call to reporters, saying that “bitcoin operates without global barriers.” The social media company further said that the new features would help it take part in the “evolving decentralized news.”
Users will have two Bitcoin-based options to tip creators. They can use Strike, a crypto-payments application based on the Lightning Network. Alternatively, they can use the payments option menu, which will now have an option to send tips to a Bitcoin address.
The Bitcoin-based tipping features will be available to all users globally who use iOS this week. The features will roll out to Android users in the near future.
The company also announced that it planned to “explore NFTs for authentication.” The company tweeted an image captioned “Twitter NFTs” but did not provide many details on how they would work.
“It’s a way to support creators making this art with a stamp to demonstrate authenticity,” said Twitter’s executive, Esther Crawford. “By allowing people to connect their Bitcoin wallets, they can track and showcase their NFT ownership on Twitter.”
While Twitter is promoting more freedom-based features on the platform, the fact remains that its platform is still centralized and is way below the mark in terms of allowing freedom of expression.
