British multinational banking service company Barclays recently launched a new service that allows people to make payments using a Twitter handle. Meanwhile, we couldn’t help ourselves comparing this new payment service (called Pingit) with the widely accessed cryptocurrency tipping services, such as ChangeTip.

One could clearly see how Barclays has fed on the idea of micro tipping services. They have conceptualized their service around small payments that could be exchanged between friends and family, or could also be given as donations and “tips”. The only conceptual difference that exists between Barclays’ Pingit and a usual cryptocurrency tipping service is the use of macro transactions, instead of micro transactions.

The wider business scope of Barclays however has helped bring Pingit to a highernumber of users. Launched just a day ago from the time of writing, the new service has attracted over 57,000 businesses alone. On the other hand, digital currency tipping bots have been rising organically due to lack of proper education regarding cryptocurrencies.

Nevertheless, one could easily notice how Barclays has attempted an “incremental innovation” by peacefully taking the idea from Bitcoin tippers. It has eventually earned them a self-proclaimed title of the UK’s first bank to offer Twitter-based payment services. The company’s Director of Mobile Banking and Pingit, Mr. Darren Foulds, proudly took the claim as well and stated:

“We are always on the lookout for new and exciting ways to make people’s lives easier and customer feedback plays a big part in how we chose to further develop our apps.”

As we believe it’s an important step to help small businesses and the general population make easy payments, one should not forget to credit the technology that started it in the first place. Dear cryptocurrency tippers, you burned the first candle.