3 ms·

I think they will be more than fine once we figure out micropayments.

• onion2k 11y ago
  I don't think so. The problem micropayments face is that they're too close to free to represent value - if something is $0.05 then your brain sees that it isn't free but its value is so close to zero that it feels like it ought to be free. There'a a cognitive dissonance between "This is something I need so I should pay for it" and "This is so cheap it can't be worth anything, so I shouldn't pay for it." You need to persuade people that something they're buying for a tiny amount has enough value that they should pay actually for it. That is exceptionally hard. It might actually be impossible.
  • rplnt 11y ago
    It will be free. There is just no convenient way for me to donate $0.05 (or $1) to wikipedia right now.
  • vlehto 11y ago
    The psychology is the really hard part. I think it should mimic tried and true real life coins. The spychological cost is managed by having limited number of different coins available. And the value of coin is small, but meaninful enough to be considered. In contrast to something infinitesimally close to zero. Let's say I make payment of 5$ to your account with my email address in the message field. You send me 20 hashes to that address, each worth 20snt. Now I see artists webpage with "tip me" field. I paste a hash, you make the money happen. Simple enough?
• jsight 11y ago
  I have run into people saying this for the last 15 years. I'm not convinced that micropayments will ever be solved.