Giving Bitcoin

The title says it all, but the implementation is much more complicated.

I want to use Bitcoin. Period. Full stop. I just want to use it where I see fit. I want to pay my bill in Bitcoin, I want to tip my waitstaff in Bitcoin, I want to donate to the veterans and other worthy causes. I just want to give and use Bitcoin.

Take a simple use case scenario. I am out to dinner with my beautiful wife. We have a great experience and want to tip (bear with me Europeans, we still do this here in the US) to show our appreciation and acknowledge how great the service, food, environment, atmosphere, fill in the blank was. But I want to show my appreciation using Bitcoin. If the waiter/waitress does not already have a wallet, this is problematic.

My current solution:

I carry multiple paper wallets with roughly $25 in Bitcoin. Depending on where we are and what I want to do, I’ll leave one or more of these wallets behind with brief instructions on what it is and how to ‘redeem’ it. Keep in mind that I will first ask if they would prefer something like a 25% tip in Fiat, or a 100% tip in Bitcoin. Without fail, they opt for the Bitcoin when allowed by management.

The problem with leaving paper wallets behind is that 62% of the time the Bitcoin goes unclaimed (not moved within 6 months). Yes, I do track this, and while I never remove the funds from the address even though I have the private key, I assume this is lost forever.

Let’s face it, the people at the lower level of the pay spectrum could use Bitcoin the most. I suspect there are a lot of people in this sub that fall into this category. I want to help educate and introduce Bitcoin to the people in this world that actually keep it running.

I’ve considered smart contracts and multi-signatures to provide a ‘contract’ to allow the recipient to transfer the Bitcoin within X number of months or lose it. However, this adds complexity to an already complex problem. Lightning requires an ‘invoice’ to be paid before transfer. While this is great for those of us that use this technology on a daily basis, it’s still too confusing and intimidating for the average person to navigate – not to mention the invoice created is assumed to be from the recipient’s wallet which may not even exist.

I just want to pick a value or number of sats and ‘give’ it to someone. If they choose not to take it, I want it back to give to someone else. Unless I am missing something, there is no easy way to onboard someone within just a few minutes of discussion.

It is time to build a, dare I say it, a custodial lockbox for tips? When I tip someone, I transfer whatever amount I want into a lockbox, hand off the private key to the recipient (picture of the QR code?), provide instructions on where to start on getting educated on Bitcoin and make sure they know this amount is theirs but it needs to be moved with in X months. Otherwise, I recycle it to someone that wants it.

The benefit is that it’s all real time. I can give 100 sats or 10M sats based on how drunk I am without having to worry if I have the correct denominations in paper wallets or if the value has changed dramatically since I created the wallets. I also know that if my tip does not get used over a certain period of time, I can reclaim it and give it to someone that can use it.

Are there any current solutions for this? Anyone have thoughts on how to make the process better?

TLDR; We need a better way of giving Bitcoin to people that don’t know or understand it to provide wealth and education to the very people that need it most. Something simple, but redeemable in the event the recipient chooses not to accept the payment/gift/token. It will also help spread adoption.