---
author: lbry
title: 'Tipping In LBC'
date: '2016-05-12 00:06:18'
---
As our team ramps up for the Beta release of the LBRY protocol, we’re making sure to have a little fun too.

New team member Alex Grin set up a LBC tipbot on LBRY’s Slack, so now when someone does something cool, we’re high-fiving each other with LBRY credits. It’s a great feeling!

![micropayments for artists](/img/micropayment-tip-busker.jpg)

LBRY is designed for micropayments and we hope it will help to significantly advance their use. Imagine if consumers could pay a few cents for every download and all that money would go directly to the artist? The idea has been around for a while, but conventional payment processes haven’t been able handle it, as a [recent article in TechCrunch points out](http://techcrunch.com/2016/05/04/the-rise-of-a-new-era-in-the-monetization-of-digital-content/):

>”Micropayments have long been discussed as that potential middle ground between paywall subscriptions and intrusive advertising. However, despite decades of debate and promising starts, no model has successfully gained traction. But as ad blocking rates continue to rise, we may finally see that begin to change. The key to making micropayments viable is to make the entire process frictionless. That, historically, has been a challenge, because of the reality of payment processing costs.”

We believe cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology are the key to solving this problem. Our vision for LBRY is to allow all content producers – from large media organizations to independent artists – to sell their digital media directly to their fans and followers instantaneously, no matter the payment size.

Want to help us get LBRY launched and get in on the crypto action? [Test the LBRY Alpha and fill out our survey to earn 1,000 LBC](https://lbry.io/get).

If you have a strong interest in getting involved in LBRY, [join our Slack channel](http://slack.lbry.io). Come and join the fun!
