Most people hate ads. Advertisers have found their way into everything—television broadcasts, movies, news coverage—and that has shaped media in ways we don't stop to examine. MiningPool exists becau
Most people hate ads. Advertisers have found their way into everything—television broadcasts, movies, news coverage—and that has shaped media in ways we don't stop to examine. MiningPool exists because we wanted a different structure. If that sounds obvious, consider that Chris Ellis and five teammates thought the same way. They built ProTip.
ProTip started on IndieGogo. After the campaign closed and months of development, the tool shipped in the Chrome Web Store. I covered ProTip during that crowdfunding push while I was at CoinTelegraph. What I saw then and what runs now share the same bones, but the new version is solid.
ProTip is a Bitcoin wallet that lives in your browser. You load it with funds, set a weekly budget, and it watches for Bitcoin addresses on any website you visit. Track how many times you encounter each address. When the week ends—or whenever you set it—the addresses you saw most get a slice of your budget, proportional to their presence. The tool banks on a simple assumption: the addresses you see over and over matter to you.
But Bitcoin addresses scatter everywhere. Letting an extension decide where your money goes feels risky. So ProTip built in controls. You can block addresses. You can block entire domains. You can flag addresses in green as you browse and return to review everything before you approve the distribution. Site owners don't have to do anything to participate—they need a Bitcoin address visible on their pages.
Privacy minded users should note this: ProTip keeps everything local. No addresses leave your machine. No browsing data syncs to their servers. No donation records get shared.
I tested the beta. It was rough—sometimes the tip button worked, sometimes it hung. The new release is solid. Spend an hour with it and you'll see the difference. The underlying logic works as before. What changed is reliability.
One thing didn't make the cut: a planned feature called "tickets" that would have let sites sell subscriptions through the platform. ProTip's team removed it before launch. No explanation given. Maybe it needed more work. Maybe it returns later.
The core argument: traditional media wrapped itself in advertising and that decision corrupted entertainment, film, and journalism. Commercial breaks dictated show pacing. Directors sneaked product placements into scenes. News outlets compromised editorial judgment. If the internet avoids the same trap, it needs a payment system that doesn't rely on ads.
ProTip won't do that alone. Users have to believe that a dime sent to creators beats a dime kept in pocket plus an ad viewed. People have to understand that small, direct payments work better for them than the advertising model. ProTip removes friction from the choice to give. The barrier exists. It's smaller now.
You can download it from Chrome. More from ProTip in the days ahead.
(We'd appreciate it if you saw value in what we do here. A milliBTC wouldn't go unnoticed—it's under twenty-five cents. Our donation page lets you steer the site. 1RAx3kijGf3YBp18v1omB8cWxaahyawos)
