Tibdit Raises £122,000 for Bitcoin Tipping Platform

Bitcoin micropayments startup Tibdit has raised £122,080 in seed capital through a crowdfunding campaign.

Founded in September 2013, the London firm lets users send bitcoin tips or 'tibs' between 3p–75p to content producers.

As a result of the raise, which took place on equity crowdfunding platform Seedrs, 161 investors will receive 15.03% equity in the firm.

Speaking to CoinDesk, Tibdit co-founder Justin Maxwell said the company's decision to use Seedrs reflected the "democratic" ethos of its business.

Roughly half of its money will go towards additional features, while a third will be used to expand the handful of sites that currently support Tibdit. The remainder will cover operational expenses.

"We have identified a number of sectors where tibbing can be of real value and has a really good fit, and are prioritising these now," Maxwell said.

Bitcoin micropayments have been largely popularised by tipping platform ChangeTip, which markets itself as a 'love button' for social media platforms including Twitter, Reddit and SoundCloud. Back in December, the firm raised $3.5m seed funding from investors including Pantera Capital and 500 Startups.

Unlike its competitor, WordPress plugin Tibdit facilitates both tips and 'access payments', where users can pay to view content beyond a publisher's paywall.

As the publisher, or 'tibbee', cannot see the value of each transaction, Maxwell said they are "forced to treat ever tibber equally".

While ad-hoc tipping models like Changetip have had some success with bitcoin, he added, there is still work to be done to rethink micropayments:

Correction: A previous version of this article stated users could send tips of between £3 and £70.

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