OKWave, which is a Japan’s question and answer platform similar to Quora, announced its plans to include a bitcoin tipping scheme. The company’s name comes from ‘oshiete’ (Japanese for “tell me”) and ‘kotaeru’ (Japanese for “answer”) and serves as a community for helping its users out.
The platform was established back in 1999 and is the country’s largest Q&A site. The community is rooted in gratitude and users can express thanks by leaving comments under their favorite answers. With a bitcoin tipping scheme, users can be able to send tips in exchange for helpful feedback.
Bitcoin Tipping Option
To send bitcoin tips, users will have to paste in their bitcoin wallet address in order to tip respondents with the digital currency. Before this option was added, users are only able to either up-vote, down-vote or thank users for their answers.
This goes to show that Japan is also joining the bandwagon with other social media platforms that have employed bitcoin tipping. Earlier this year, Argentina-based Taringa! also announced a bitcoin tipping shared revenue model to encourage more content. ChangeTip, which allows user to send tips or donations, is also supported through various social networks like Facebook and Twitter. It also allows bitcoin tipping through chat applications and SMS.
In sending tips for content or recommendations, users are able to leverage the power of social media and encourage further community participation. Using bitcoin as a currency for these transactions also makes it convenient to send funds to different locations across the globe, as this removes the need to go through a foreign exchange counter or incur additional conversion costs.
However, an issue that has been weighing down these small bitcoin transactions is the block size, which is currently being debated to have an increase in limit. This could allow the bitcoin network to process several small transactions at a time without taking too long for verification.