3 ms·

I wish I could just pay $x/mo for unlimited access to all media. It would get distributed to content creators proportionally based on my time using websites, m

I wish I could just pay $x/mo for unlimited access to all media. It would get distributed to content creators proportionally based on my time using websites, music, videos, and games. No ads or subscriptions. I can't imagine how such a system would be implemented though. And I'm sure there would be new unintended consequences with such an incentive structure. But something like that would be nice!

smaddock 8y ago
What you're describing sounds similar to Basic Attention Token [1] which is used by Brave browser [2]. [1] https://basicattentiontoken.org/ https://basicattentiontoken.org/ [2] https://brave.com/ https://brave.com/
- lucb1e 8y ago
  If the intro video is to be believed, that seems like a terrible idea in so many ways. The video explains it like "you view ads, your browser privately tracks whether you watched them, and awards the website and the user with BATs". So while we now have middlemen in the form of ad networks, with BATs we have an additional one to convert that currency into your local currency. Additionally, the ad network will have to believe the browser that the user actually viewed ads at all (DRM all over again). And what blockchain has to do with this is, as always, unexplained.
  - Aramgutang 8y ago
    Right now, earning BAT by watching ads is not yet implemented. After you use up the free 10 BAT you get on first install, you have to buy more to keep paying the sites you visit (this is reasonably frictionless at the moment, and is likely to get more so). I assume there aren't many people right now that buy BAT to send into the Brave wallet (though I do, and know of others that do), but it's still early days. The part of their proposal I would suggest fixating on is the fact that if you make deposits into your Brave wallet, you get to block ads (right now, ads are blocked regardless), and publishers will be able to turn off their anti-ad-blocking measures if they see you're using Brave, since you'll be providing them with revenue. The hope is that in the future, paywall sites like WSJ may allow you to bypass their paywall if they can verify that you're using Brave. There is a lot of uncertainty right now about how the whole ad system will work, because the team is focusing on making the browser robust enough so it can compete with FF and Chrome. But in the meantime, they're also getting useful information about what real users and publishers are actually keen on. I suspect that the more obvious flaws, like the ones you pointed out, will be accounted for once the system is fleshed out. They have not shied away from moving away from their original proposal to more practical approaches. Regarding the earned BAT by watching ads, I believe that it cannot actually be withdrawn, only used to pay publishers, but again, things may change. And I agree that the blockchain may superflous here, but using it has allowed them to get the funding to get things off the ground and attract users, which counts as a valid use in my book.
dageshi 8y ago
Yeah I think the unintended consequence would be it'd be massively profitable to produce funny memes and little else.
- lifeformed 8y ago
  Well that's already the case, isn't it? Getting someone to read a Pulitzer prize winning article online currently gets <1 page view's worth of ad revenue. Having someone look at endless pages of memes gets many page views.
makecheck 8y ago
This model would require some way to indicate the cost of producing content (e.g. sending journalist overseas with risk to life and limb, versus 30 seconds making up a meme). And unfortunately, it has the huge problem that a lot of technologies that could track what you do could be misused. An anonymizing scheme similar to Apple Pay might work.
- lifeformed 8y ago
  With the first point, that's already a problem with an ad based revenue system. A life-risking article still just generates <1 page worth of ad revenue per reader, the same amount as a no-effort article. Maybe this system could include some sort of tip-based approach to reward quality content. Maybe 10% of your monthly $x is distributed based on your favorite content of that month.

smaddock 8y ago

What you're describing sounds similar to Basic Attention Token [1] which is used by Brave browser [2]. [1] https://basicattentiontoken.org/ https://basicattentiontoken.org/ [2] https://brave.com/ https://brave.com/

lucb1e 8y ago
If the intro video is to be believed, that seems like a terrible idea in so many ways. The video explains it like "you view ads, your browser privately tracks whether you watched them, and awards the website and the user with BATs". So while we now have middlemen in the form of ad networks, with BATs we have an additional one to convert that currency into your local currency. Additionally, the ad network will have to believe the browser that the user actually viewed ads at all (DRM all over again). And what blockchain has to do with this is, as always, unexplained.
- Aramgutang 8y ago
  Right now, earning BAT by watching ads is not yet implemented. After you use up the free 10 BAT you get on first install, you have to buy more to keep paying the sites you visit (this is reasonably frictionless at the moment, and is likely to get more so). I assume there aren't many people right now that buy BAT to send into the Brave wallet (though I do, and know of others that do), but it's still early days. The part of their proposal I would suggest fixating on is the fact that if you make deposits into your Brave wallet, you get to block ads (right now, ads are blocked regardless), and publishers will be able to turn off their anti-ad-blocking measures if they see you're using Brave, since you'll be providing them with revenue. The hope is that in the future, paywall sites like WSJ may allow you to bypass their paywall if they can verify that you're using Brave. There is a lot of uncertainty right now about how the whole ad system will work, because the team is focusing on making the browser robust enough so it can compete with FF and Chrome. But in the meantime, they're also getting useful information about what real users and publishers are actually keen on. I suspect that the more obvious flaws, like the ones you pointed out, will be accounted for once the system is fleshed out. They have not shied away from moving away from their original proposal to more practical approaches. Regarding the earned BAT by watching ads, I believe that it cannot actually be withdrawn, only used to pay publishers, but again, things may change. And I agree that the blockchain may superflous here, but using it has allowed them to get the funding to get things off the ground and attract users, which counts as a valid use in my book.

dageshi 8y ago

Yeah I think the unintended consequence would be it'd be massively profitable to produce funny memes and little else.

lifeformed 8y ago
Well that's already the case, isn't it? Getting someone to read a Pulitzer prize winning article online currently gets <1 page view's worth of ad revenue. Having someone look at endless pages of memes gets many page views.

makecheck 8y ago

This model would require some way to indicate the cost of producing content (e.g. sending journalist overseas with risk to life and limb, versus 30 seconds making up a meme). And unfortunately, it has the huge problem that a lot of technologies that could track what you do could be misused. An anonymizing scheme similar to Apple Pay might work.

lifeformed 8y ago
With the first point, that's already a problem with an ad based revenue system. A life-risking article still just generates <1 page worth of ad revenue per reader, the same amount as a no-effort article. Maybe this system could include some sort of tip-based approach to reward quality content. Maybe 10% of your monthly $x is distributed based on your favorite content of that month.