Airbnb Acqui-Hires ChangeTip Staff, But Code Still for Sale

A number of employees from the company behind bitcoin tipping service ChangeTip have been hired by travel lodgings startup Airbnb, the company confirmed today.

Airbnb has hired an undisclosed number of the employees of ChangeCoin, which operates the social media tipping service. Among those hired by Airbnb is CEO and co-founder Nick Sullivan, sources say.

Left unacquired is the ChangeTip codebase as well as the developers working specifically on bitcoin projects, though those invested in the firm expressed optimism that the project would continue under a new leadership.

The deal, first reported by Quartz, is the result of an extended process of trying to sell the firm.

The move comes weeks after Airbnb co-founder and chief technology officer Nathan Blecharczyk told City AM in an interview that blockchain was on the startup’s radar. At the time, Blecharczyk suggested that the firm was looking at the technology for possible applications related to reputation and identity.

News of the hires comes more than a year after ChangeTip raised $3.5m in seed funding for its micropayments service, which operates via social media networks like Reddit and Twitter.

Airbnb did not offer additional comment.

Disclaimer: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in ChangeTip.