Here's an idea I've been turning over in my head, and because I have neither the time nor the know-how to make it happen, I would like to make it public in the hopes that someone else sees the same utility in it as I do and decides to make it happen.
Reddit's
/u/bitcointip allows users to send ANY other reddit user some BTC, whether or not the other person has a bitcoin wallet or even knows what bitcoin is. It does this by using the Blockchain.info API to create a new wallet for each user, and letting users control their wallets with a series of commands.
Is there any reason that this couldn't be done as an SMS service for cell phones? Imagine that I want to send my friend who has never heard of bitcoins a tip, it might work like this:
First, I send a message to BITCN or any other SMS service number. I could type:
send 3035550000 1.0 BTC
The phone number being the recipient's phone number. The service would then create a new wallet for the recipient, and send a new message to that person:
You have received 1.0 BTC from [my phone number]. Please reply ACCEPT or DENY.
Tips not claimed within 30 days would be returned to the original sender.
And, like all third-party applications, people would have to be aware that coins stored on the tipping bot wallet are not fully in their control, and for maximum security to withdraw regularly to a bitcoin address that they control.
The framework is already in place with the reddit bitcoin tipping bot, we know all the commands that are useful for something like this. Would something like this really be that difficult to make? I don't think this should even be done as a profit-making business, but instead as a utility for Bitcoin which makes it even more useful and increases the adoption even further.