Fascinating. This reminds me of updn, an open source HN/Digg/reddit-style app that uses bitcoins, with some interesting discussion with Digg's @kevinrose and reddit's @alexisohanian.
Maybe someday we'll add "tipping" to Product Hunt. 😉
@kevinrose@alexisohanian@rrhoover Totally. Since community provides so much value in these cases, I do like the idea of giving back in a literal financial sense (as long as it's not so great as to skew the reason for participating).
I initially distrusted the promise of real money from social sites, but @jtzou has made a few bucks on Tsu, a social network that paid out users similarly. (They also encouraged connection in other ways, like requiring you to join from an existing friend's invite).
There's also this dynamic they don't talk about: it extends the paid incentive concept from user acquisition into the realm of retention and engagement. They're not just paying me as a thank you for providing value - the promise of future payouts might keep me providing that value for longer.
I don't mean to use "Reddit clone" derisively, btw: they very closely followed Reddit's UX and UI.
The company's main differentiating claim is it pays a revenue share out to its users, based on how much Karma you have relative to the rest of the community.
Product Hunt
CryptoPoops