The current implementations of the lightning network don't easily allow transactions to an address (A method called keysend does exist but isn't widely used).

In order to receive a lightning payment, the receiver has to generate an invoice that anyone with a lightning wallet can pay (usually by scanning a QR code or copy/pasting the invoice). These invoices are meant to be single use.

There is a draft spec (BOLT12) that would make it easier to be able to just pin a link or QR code on a webpage or profile and receive bitcoin via the lightning network.

https://bolt12.org/

As someone who often tips people with crypto, having a button at the point where I’m consuming the content is helpful. Otherwise I have to go search for their address, or hope they have something like an ENS name as their display name so I can easily address a tip to them.

The problem with tipping online is not that people are unreasonably stingy. It's that people are reasonably lazy. A lot of people are happy to toss a few coins to their Witcher. But, it has to be trivially easy to do so or they won't bother. Requiring even trivial effort to give away money is unreasonable.

See, the problem with your methods is that Twitter's not taking a cut. They might even require a user to leave Twitter for another site! And we can't have that.

A lot of business is just taking something that is possible and making it accessible. See: the famous Dropbox detractor comment on hacker news.

But it's just a bitcoin address. All you need to do is go to an exchange (or a wallet), click withdraw enter the public key of the other person, type in the amount and you're done.

Dropbox is also silly. It's just rsync with a UI, just spin up a command-line and transfer all your fi-... Wait a minute. This is what you meant! ;-)

I'd love to hear a version where a chef would talk about food this way or some other field that I know next to nothing about.

Edit: I didn't realize it was using the lightning network.

> But it's just a bitcoin address. All you need to do is go to an exchange (or a wallet), click withdraw enter the public key of the other person, type in the amount and you're done.

Or you could just click the button on the tweet and not do all that?

This uses the Lightning Network, which requires an invoice (unless the node has keysend payments enabled, but most end users don't run their own node). It's not the same as a Bitcoin address, and address re-use is a dirty habit anyway.

Twitter will hold the bitcoins and collect interest before transfering to person tweeting?

Yes, they will enter a Defi contract for the few seconds it takes to send the lightning payment. They will scalp fractions of fractions of a cent, making them wealthier beyond their wildest dreams.

Try harder.

Well, technologically it is possible to transfer almost impossible That doesn't mean they will do it. They will hold it for a few days. At scale, it will add some money to twitter coffers(if they are successful that is)