In the world of investing and finance, cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin, was perhaps the most interesting and followed topic in 2020. Bitcoin had a huge price rise, going from a low of around $2,800 last year, to going past $50,000 for the first time earlier this year. In percentage terms, Bitcoin has risen by more than 1000% in this time, which explains why there was so much interest around it. Many observers believe that this rally is only the beginning, and we can expect bitcoin to reach $100,000 in the next few years, especially if the accommodative central bank policies being seen around the world continue to be in place. Thus, it is no surprise that even as the price of Bitcoin continues to rise, more and more people are looking to get into this market. At the same time, there are many people who are trying to make it easier to enter the crypto market, which can seem confusing at times. One such initiative could be one of the biggest ones so far, where Twitter users will soon be able to send each other Bitcoin via a single tweet.
The digital payments app Bottlepay recently launched a feature, where transactions between two users on Twitter can take place through simple tweets that follow a fixed template. The tweet needs to be in the following manner – @bottlepay send 1,000 sats to @twitteruser – where Bottlepay will then send the specified amount of Bitcoin to the Twitter user whose handle has been mentioned in the tweet, from the account of the person sending that tweet. Of course, this means that both users need to be on Twitter, as well as having active accounts on Bottlepay, and their Twitter accounts need to be linked to their Bottlepay accounts. Therefore, it will be important for Bottlepay to promote this in the right way to ensure that tokens are not lost or sent to the wrong person by mistake. Nevertheless, it is an exciting new development in the crypto space and could be a gamechanger if it catches on.
Bottlepay is also circumventing transaction fees for these transactions by using the Lightning Network, which is a second-layer solution that avoids network congestion by taking BTC transactions off-chain. This is also important, since the increasing value of Bitcoin, along with the huge increase in trading volumes, has led to a rise in transaction fees as well over the last 12 months, and this is set to continue in the future as well in order to make it profitable for Bitcoin miners to continue mining operations.
It is interesting how many Bitcoin owners and traders are looking for alternatives to conduct transactions since the traditional methods are becoming more expensive. This is also one of the reasons why areas, where cryptocurrencies are being used in conjunction with other services, are also becoming popular. One such example is of the online gambling industry, which has become extremely popular over the last 12 months, largely due to the integration of crypto into the sector. There are multiple online gambling operators that offer players the option of placing bets through cryptocurrencies, which creates a Litecoin casino, for example, or any other crypto casino. The convenience and ease of use of crypto has drawn new users to these sites, while existing crypto traders and owners are able to use their crypto assets in an easy manner as well, which is why these sites are changing the entire online gambling sector at the moment. Thus, with the impact that crypto can have, it is not difficult to think of how Bottlepay could be a similar game changer in the crypto payments sector as well through this innovation.
Bottlepay has already seen a lot of success since its creation – it raised $15 million in a seed funding round in February 2021, while the beta version of its app attracted over 20,000 users without any marketing, and processed over $2.4 million worth of transactions in just one month since its launch on 10th February 2021. The fact that Bottlepay can be used with other social media sites such as Discord and Reddit is also proving to be a big reason for its popularity. Crypto users have been looking for platforms that allow them to conduct transactions with ease, especially in the wake of rising transaction fees which will only continue to climb higher as more and more transactions are made, and so this solution by Bottlepay could make a big difference in the industry if it manages to catch on and attract enough users. The app has had a solid start to life, and all eyes are now on whether it will be able to bring in enough customers to continue on its growth trajectory.