At one point Clubhouse added “tipping,” which (of course) operated on fiat rails through Stripe, complete with all the joys of the credit-based system. 🤮

The first tip I received was for $5 (including a 46¢ processing fee) from a listener in a room I was co-moderating about bitcoin wallets (everyone’s favorite topic!).

A month later, I got a message from Stripe saying the charge was being contested by the user’s bank and I had 15 days to present evidence that it wasn’t a fraudulent charge. I sent everything I had including screenshots of the room showing myself as the speaker and a chat thread with the listener who paid me. That still wasn’t enough, so they took back the $5 and charged me another $10 just for shits and giggles.

That’s right, I had to pay $10 to not receive $5.

Fuck Clubhouse and fuck Stripe.