However - what incentives are there to tip? I tend to think public display of the tip (like ChangeTip does), is actually part of the reason people tip. So they are seen by others to be giving, there is a social and interactive aspect. I wonder if it will take off in any viral fashion without these public displays of tipping.
If a content provider gets bitcoin payments (tips) then they can do away with third party advertising and the user does not have to see these ads. At the moment people are getting the content for "free" but it is not really free. They are paying with their data one way or another.
Allthough it may be "viral" to tip on twitter for everyone to see, it does not mean you can not simply post about you supporting someone on any social media channel you want if you do not use CT. Also you have to think how much time is involved in sending 0.0001$ or even 0.10$ via CT, you have to send it, and the person you tip has to go through the effort of clicking here and there to get the funds, and spend a lot of time in relation to the ammount.
However with ProTip it is more automated so that you do not have to make a public spectale of every tip that you make. It gives eveyone more time to do what they really want to do.
In the end the whole viral aspect of CT is to promote CT and not bitcoin, to get more users on board all the while spamming people that are not even asking for tips in the first place often times.
Also we need to be realistic about just how "viral" CT has become. A lot of the viralness is fueled by CT employees themselves sending tips to people with funds that they might have gotten from CT in the first place, is that really tipping? Also there is a very large ammount of CT tips that are not collected.
CT does a good job of creating a bitcoin address for people that do not have a wallet. ProTip is open source you will be able to fork it and change it if you want, you could create an altcoin verion of ProTip ect ect. The question is, would you like to support a company which provides a third party bitcoin servece and that needs to somehow turn profit on millions that have been invested in it -or- an open source project that will be able to create software that anyone can use and change with minimal funding compared to what most VCs put into some start ups. Do you see value in open source code that will be around forever or in a company that has the goal of turning you into a source for profits, nothing against profits but just think about it.
-Theo
ProTip Launch Team