Brian Armstrong promised me $100 in Bitcoin – so where is it?
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong owes me $100. That’s because he might not know how to use the Lightning Network, the instant payment solution built on top of Bitcoin.
Armstrong, who has been building on Bitcoin (BTC) since 2012, recently tweeted that he would pay people who provided the “best examples” of people using cryptocurrency in Africa. “If you use crypto in Africa, please reply with a short video (<30 seconds) or photo of how you use it," Armstrong wrote. "The best examples get $100 in crypto."
This is the CEO of Coinbase, after all, so I shared a video of myself using Bitcoin in Africa, which was part of a 30-second segment of a recent Cointelegraph documentary covering Bitcoin in Senegal.
The tweet quickly became the most liked and most shared response to Armstrong’s request. (Crucially, the tweet referred to Bitcoin in Africa, not crypto in Africa, and it demonstrated the ease and speed of the Lightning Network.)
However, Armstrong seems to have ignored my post, despite more than 600 likes and 100 retweets. The second most popular entry only had 50 likes. So I reached out to some key opinion leaders, creators and influencers in the Bitcoin community to amplify the tweet. Wicked, an anonymous Bitcoin educator and data analyst, tagged Armstrong in a post, accusing him of “actively ignoring the #Bitcoin Lightning Network.”
Wicked very kindly drew Brian’s attention to my tweet video about Bitcoin in Africa. The tweet, and Armstrong’s confirmation that “Lightning is great and something we want to integrate,” prompted news outlets around the world to report on Coinbase’s next development. He then also tweeted that he had sent me the money.
This is where things get weird. Armstrong said he paid me $100. He said he sent $100 to the Lightning address shown in my Twitter profile: [email protected]
Now, if you’ve never used the Lightning Network before, you’d be forgiven for mistaking this address for an email address. But would the CEO of Coinbase make that mistake? Could Bitcoin OG have failed to recognize that the request in my bio — which says “Send BTC to [email protected],” surrounded by lightning bolt emojis — could be my Lightning address?
Side note: Running a Bitcoin node is technical to say the least, and sending money on the Bitcoin blockchain for the first time is a little nerve-wracking since the transaction takes about 10 minutes to confirm and we live in an instant world. But are you using the Lightning Network in 2023? It’s dead simple. A walk in the park. Seriously.
“It’s a big call, Joe,” I hear you say.
Yep, that’s it. And I have the receipts to prove it. Using the Lightning Network is so easy that I stand on the street in places all over the world handing out Bitcoin to people on their brand new Lightning wallets – and I film their reactions.
The most common comments are “I didn’t know it was that easy” and “Wow, it’s so fast.” The videos are on my YouTube channel. Here is a video shot in France for the Cointelegraph YouTube channel where I hand out Bitcoin:
So please – let’s not pretend Armstrong is overwhelmed by the complexity of sending money to my Lightning address. Also, funnily enough, Bitcoin advocates all over the world saw my tweet and were happy to send me rate to show that my Lightning address is alive and well.
Back to the story. Danny Scott, CEO of CoinCorner — a Bitcoin and Lightning company — was quick to point out to Armstrong Twitter that he may have made a mistake by confusing Bitcoin with email, as Coinbase offers a “send to email” feature.
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Scott told Cointelegraph in an email, “Of course we know the address [that Joe shared] is a Lightning address, but apparently not everyone does.”
“So I guess Brian knows very little about Lightning right now, especially LNURL, Lightning addresses and other innovations that are being rolled out, which is totally fine, he’s distracted, it happens, now we just hope he helps himself and the industry by turning their attention to what really has substance and long-term value, Bitcoin and Lightning.”
It’s true: Coinbase offers trading for more than 250 different cryptocurrencies – that’s a lot of tokens to keep an eye on. And as Scott adds, “I can appreciate how busy he will be – this industry never sleeps, and running a Bitcoin company myself, I know that feeling myself on a smaller scale.”
To give Brian and ultimately Coinbase the benefit of the doubt, I waited a few days before writing this article. I have tweeted repeatedly to Brian (no response) and I have also contacted the Coinbase Press Team. They told me they’d get to the bottom of it, but “I’m guessing Brian probably collects the broadcasts at certain times.” A day has passed since this message (more dubious benefit-giving) and they have not sent an explanation.
Related: Coinbase wins $470,000 in restitution in insider trading case
The press team’s email was particularly left field when it referred to “batching.” Batching is consolidating multiple payments into a single transaction on the Bitcoin blockchain, not the layer-2 Lightning Network. Again, they are not familiar with Lightning. This adds insult to injury: Could it be that the Lightning Network is simply not on Coinbase’s radar?
It’s been three days since Armstrong said he would send the money, and there have been some downright awesome memes from Bitcoin and the wider crypto community.
Armstrong has been active on Twitter while his company is busy launching new projects and winning insider trading cases for the 250-plus crypto projects Coinbase hosts.
Meanwhile, I’m still waiting for my $100. But I’m also increasingly concerned that billionaire, crypto OG and Coinbase CEO Armstrong struggled to spot a Lightning address.
Joe Hall joined Cointelegraph as a reporter in 2021. He holds an MA in French and Spanish from the University of Edinburgh and a BA in Languages from Sceinces Po Lyon.
This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed herein are those of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
