Twitter Feature Rolling Bitcoin Major Milestone for Cryptocurrency, Coingecko Co-Founder Says

WASHINGTON (Sputnik), Ekaterina Chukaeva - Twitter's new feature of allowing its users to tip their favourite content creators with bitcoin is a major milestone for the cryptocurrency and is becoming one more step toward its mass adoption, Bobby Ong, co-founder and COO of Coingeckо, told Sputnik.

"This a major milestone for bitcoin, and moves it one step closer to mass adoption, and as a means of payment. Crypto Twitter is already a well-known nickname for the space as many crypto users are active on Twitter," he said.

According to Ong, Twitter is solidifying its position as the go-to social media platform for cryptocurrency enthusiasts.

"With this move, now over 200 million Twitter users will be directly exposed to bitcoin, and while it is possible only a fraction of that will actively receive tips in bitcoin, it is still a move that will increase Bitcoin’s exposure," he said.

When asked whether the use of bitcoin via Twitter will be legal enough, Ong replied that Bitcoin tips on Twitter are similar to users receiving tips in US dollars via traditional payments.

"So there shouldn’t be any issues with regards to it being considered illegal," he concluded.

Speaking on how the Twitter feature would affect Coingecko, the world's largest independent cryptocurrency data aggregator, and its operations, Ong replied that currently, CoinGecko receives tips from customers via crypto addresses on its website.

"With this new tipping feature, we foresee receiving more tips from our users via Twitter because it provides greater accessibility for our supporters to tip us. Operations-wise, this shouldn’t have any impact," he said.

Bitcoin, the grandfather of digital coins, remains highly popular despite being rather volatile this year, rallying more than 800% at one point from a year ago before dropping to about half its value, causing huge losses for some speculators.

On Thursday, Twitter announced that it had added Bitcoin to the payment modes in its tipping service, extending business legitimacy to the cryptocurrency. In a separate statement, Twitter said that users on its site can seamlessly tip using Bitcoin via Strike, the payment application built on the Bitcoin Lightning Network that allows people to send and receive the digital currency.

Earlier in September, El Salvador made headlines when it became the world's first country to accept cryptocurrency as legal tender. The government hoped thus to save millions a year on fees charged for sending money from abroad, predominantly from Washington. However, reacting to the decision, the World Bank rejected a request from the Latin American nation to help with the implementation of the cryptocurrency as legal tender.