Twitter Updates: Bitcoin Tips, NFTs, Spaces & Creator Fund

Twitter Continues Rapid Product Development

Twitter is consistently unveiling new product features and initiatives. The company recently announced several updates focused on enhancing conversations and fostering a stronger community on its platform. These include the introduction of cryptocurrency tipping, NFT authentication capabilities, and various experiments designed to provide greater context for new users joining ongoing discussions.

Furthermore, Twitter is preparing to launch a creator fund within the coming weeks. This fund will offer audio creators access to vital financial, technical, and marketing resources.

A Challenge to Social Audio Leaders

While specific details regarding the fund’s size and participant numbers remain undisclosed, it represents a direct challenge to leading social audio platforms like Clubhouse. Clubhouse’s own creator program previously offered participants connections to brand partnerships or a monthly stipend of $5,000 during their participation.

Twitter’s creator fund differs in its primary objective. It isn’t intended to reward creators based on content performance, unlike similar funds on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Snap. Instead, it aims to assist creators in initiating audio productions within Twitter Spaces.

“Our main goal is to provide the necessary technical and marketing expertise,” explained Esther Crawford, Twitter’s Product Lead for Creator Monetization. “We envision this as a temporary solution to onboard creators into more sustainable, long-term monetization options, providing them with an initial boost.”

New Features and Expansions

Twitter also announced the ability for Spaces hosts to record and replay their programs. This feature is intended to address competition from platforms that highlight recording capabilities as a key advantage. The rollout is expected within a “few months.”

In addition, Twitter is introducing several new products and expanding existing features.

NFT Support and Authentication

One notable addition is a new feature designed to better support creators working with NFTs (non-fungible tokens) – a method for verifying digital assets on the blockchain. Artists are increasingly creating and selling NFTs through marketplaces like OpenSea, Rarible, Foundation, and SuperRare.

Twitter plans to “soon” explore NFT authentication, allowing creators to link their cryptocurrency wallets to Twitter. This will enable them to showcase and track their NFTs on the platform. The implementation is still in its early stages, with Twitter exploring visual cues like profile badges or altered avatars to highlight authenticated collections.

Details regarding Twitter’s broader NFT roadmap were not disclosed.

Bitcoin Tipping and Expanded Payment Options

Another new feature is support for Bitcoin tipping. Introduced in May as a beta, the “Tip Jar” feature initially allowed users to send and receive payments via services like PayPal, Venmo, Patreon, Cash App, and Bandcamp. It will now expand globally on iOS (with Android support coming soon) and include Bitcoin tipping.

Users can add a Bitcoin Lightning wallet or their Bitcoin address to receive tips. Lightning wallets are favored within the crypto community due to their lower transaction fees. Twitter’s implementation utilizes Strike, a payments application built on the Bitcoin Lightning Network, enabling instant and fee-free Bitcoin transactions.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey previously indicated that integrating the Lightning Network into the platform was inevitable, and this update fulfills that prediction.

The Tip Jar will also incorporate GoFundMe and PicPay, a Brazilian mobile payments service.

Enhancing Conversation Safety

A new experiment, currently dubbed “Heads Up,” aims to provide users with insight into the tone of a conversation before they participate. This addresses a significant challenge for Twitter: fostering a safe environment for sharing thoughts and opinions.

Twitter has implemented features like limiting reply access to tweets, which has reportedly led to a reduction in abuse reports. Safety Mode, currently in beta, provides automated protection against harassment. Users can also quietly remove followers and are now testing “word filters” to moderate potentially abusive tweets that don’t violate Twitter’s policies.

The “Heads Up” feature will leverage data from emoji reactions and reply prompts to assess a conversation’s atmosphere.

Ongoing Experimentation and Iteration

Twitter has been rapidly launching new products in recent months, including improvements to Twitter Spaces, interest-based “Communities,” creator platform Super Follows, newsletters via Revue, a premium subscription service called Twitter Blue, crowdsourced fact-checking with Birdwatch, new e-commerce features, updated profiles, a reopened verification system, and Direct Message enhancements.

Updates are also planned for Spaces discovery, Ticketed Spaces, newsletter access, a creator earnings dashboard, and account labels.

Twitter also plans to implement specific moderation guidelines within its Communities feature, allowing each community to establish its own norms and moderators, in addition to the standard Twitter Rules.

“This is our initial step towards decentralizing moderation, giving users more control over their Twitter experience,” explained Christine Su, Twitter’s Product Lead for Conversational Safety. Communities will be opened to a wider audience “soon.”

Twitter acknowledges its strategy involves extensive experimentation. Kayvon Beykpour, Twitter’s Head of Consumer Product, stated that the company will continue to iterate and discontinue features that don’t perform well, as demonstrated with Fleets. He emphasized the importance of taking significant risks to drive innovation.

These announcements were made during a press briefing and are detailed on the company’s official blog.