Bitcoin tipping platform Tibdit raises £122,000

Bitcoin micropayments startup Tibdit has raised £122,080 in seed funding via a crowdfunding campaign.

The London-based company was founded in September 2013 and allows users to tip authors of articles in bitcoins ranging from £3 to £70.

Thanks to the funding raised on equity crowdfunding platform Seedrs, 161 investors will receive a 15.03% stake in the company.

Tibdit co-founder Justin Maxwell told CoinDesk the company’s decision to use Seedrs reflects the democratization ethos of its business.

The micropayments that Tibdit does are inherently democratic and provide an opportunity for everyone, whether you are an online street artist or a writer.”

About half of the funds will go toward developing additional features, while a third will go toward expanding the website that currently powers Tibdit. The rest will go toward operating expenses.

In fact, bitcoin micropayments were largely popularized by the tipping platform ChangeTip, which designed itself as a "like button" on social media platforms including Twitter, Reddit and SoundCloud. Back in December, the company raised $3.5 million in seed funding.

Unlike its competitors, WordPress (a blogging system) can insert the Tibdit plug-in to simultaneously reward and collect "access fees", where users can pay to view article content beyond the publisher's paywall.