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FAQ and
Privacy Policy

Frequently Asked Questions

Is ChainTip open source?
Not right now but the code will be open sourced once ChainTip gains some traction. Probably after the Twitter version of the bot runs for a few weeks. I would like to include the community to build ChainTip to be the best on-chain tipping bot it can be.
How does this on-chain tipping affect usability?
Having to take your wallet out to tip someone does decrease usability compared to off-chain tipping bots. If you aren't that concerned about centralised risk and are happy with your tips never being returned to you when you send them to someone with no interest in claiming them, feel free to use an off-chain tipping service.
How can we trust ChainTip if it isn't open source?
Open sourcing the code doesn't grant any trust as this code may not be running on the ChainTip servers. However, since all tips are made on-chain, the amount you have to trust ChainTip is reduced to the time spent holding the tips for new tippees and trusting that ChainTip will forward new tips on to linked tippees.

If ChainTip wanted to act maliciously, it would only be able to take tips from a certain point in time until it was found out and users were warned about it. Contrast this to an off-chain tipping bot which is able to take all tipper balances, all tippee tips that haven't yet been withdrawn, and all future tips until users are warned about it. For both on and off chain services, these risks are not limited to the maintainer acting maliciously, but also apply to a scenario where the service is hacked.
Why don't you just handle all transactions off-chain?
Keeping all tips on a server until they are withdrawn creates a central point of failure. ChainTip was built to avoid central points of failure as much as possible. It takes inspiration from Emin's article on the soon to fail - at the time of the article - ChangeTip company.

To claim a tip, a new tippee is required to obtain a Bitcoin Cash wallet to be sent their Bitcoin Cash from the temporary holding address controlled by ChainTip by linking a receiving address from the wallet. They only have to do this once as all future tips are sent to the address they linked for the first tip.
Then what's in it for ChainTip?
I, u/Tibanne on reddit, was a Bitcoin maximalist. When it grew increasingly obvious that Bitcoin was being led down a path that I could not agree with, I switched my support to Bitcoin Cash which continues Satoshi's vision. I believe that currencies will compete for dominance and I wanted to create a service for Bitcoin Cash that might increase its chances of becoming the dominant currency for medium of exchange, store of value, and eventually, unit of account.
What if a tip is never claimed?
When a tip is not claimed within one week by a new tippee, it is returned to the sender's linked address. ChainTip does not want to keep your Bitcoin Cash when no-one ever claims the tip. ChainTip would rather that the generous be given back their Bitcoin Cash so that they can tip people who take the time to learn about Bitcoin Cash and claim their tip.

Privacy Policy

ChainTip does not store any personal information i.e. no real names and no email addresses. The only user information stored by ChainTip is the Bitcoin Cash addresses users have linked with their username along with the tipping history between users. I will not sell or rent any information about users to any third party. At any time a user is free to delete their user profile, including all linked addresses, by messaging the ChainTip bot 'delete me'.

ChainTip's maintainer does not, at this moment, require any external funding to keep the service running ($20 per month).
I am very privacy conscious myself, and if this situation changes, ChainTip will be shut down before attempting to keep ChainTip alive by selling or renting any user data! In the unlikely event of a shut down, tipping will be halted for one week until all funds on the server have been claimed or returned before shutting down.

ChainTip may release user information if ChainTip is required to by law, search warrant, subpoena, court order or fraud investigation.