iPayYou, a Seattle-based bitcoin payment platform, is rolling out a new service that allows anyone with a Twitter account to send and receive Bitcoin payments, without providing any private information.
Anyone using the “Pay-by-Twitter” tool can send bitcoins by entering the recipient’s Twitter handle (rather than an email or bitcoin address).The tweet contains a link to the iPayYou website where the recipient can accept the payment and deposit it as a bitcoin or trade it in for U.S. dollars.
iPayYou hopes Pay-by-Twitter will attract a broader user base for bitcoins. So far, the market for the crypto-currency has been fairly niche.
“Twitter presents a unique opportunity for iPayYou customers,” said CEO Gene Kavner. “Hundreds of millions of customers already use and know Twitter very well; they’re familiar with the process of logging into Twitter and interacting with their favorite content publishers. At the same time, Twitter is also unique because it is a massive social network that allows any user to hide their personally-identifiable information from other users.”
Kavner believes the Twitter tool will have a wide range of applications, from charitable donations, to peer-to-peer payments — even political contributions. Pay-by-Twitter allows users to send money to anyone with a Twitter handle, even if the recipient isn’t expecting payment. That’s why Kavner thinks it will be a useful tool for donations to causes.
iPayYou plans to integrate “all the most popular social platforms” to facilitate bitcoin payments, according to Kavner.