Just caught up on the tipping meta “drama.” Quick recap + some thoughts:

Recap:
Jacek (founder of $DEGEN) voiced frustration about new tipping apps on Farcaster not defaulting to DEGEN.

He hinted that anything using USDC for payments should maybe rethink that too, but that’s a separate thread.

Most replies weren’t pushing back on the what, just the how he said it.
That sparked a broader convo around tipping as a distribution model, a microtransaction use case, etc.

Some people love it. Some don’t.

My take:
Devs default to USDC or spin up their own token because both offer better upside.

USDC = sustainable revenue
Own token = fundraising rocket fuel

Personally, I’ve never really vibed with tipping.

DEGEN worked because it was free. 

Spending my money just to “like” something ain't it for me. Same mentality goes for Zora, Rodeo, etc., which is why I'm hardly even a casual user there.

It's not that I’m stingy (maybe I am). I’ve dropped a few hundred tipping friends on Farcaster but it still feels weird.

Like Tipping Tuesday is some ritual I feel socially obligated to participate in.

I’ve never subbed to a Patreon.
Never paid for a Substack.
Lived off uTorrent for years.
I’m a child of the open internet. Free by nature, cheap by design.

That said, tipping isn’t inherently bad; quite the contrary. It’s cool that people want to support creators.

But like anything with money involved, it invites gaming, farming, clout chasing, the works.

But that’s just part of the deal. Every system can be gamed.

Final thought:
Do whatever you want with your money. I truly do not care.

I think if you're Jacek right now your emotional brain is probably like wtf why are people using tipn and noice when I gave them free money?!

But logically, no one has an incentive to use your thing based on past free money. They don't feel like they owe you anything. It's not a personal relationship.

You do have a brand in the space, but ultimately you still need to compete. You don't have a monopoly for being first or giving people free money.

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