P.S. Ok, the following is not thought out much at all and is very incomplete. My point, if I can better make it, here, is that you limit users' exposure and r

P.S. Ok, the following is not thought out much at all and is very incomplete. My point, if I can better make it, here, is that you limit users' exposure and risk via the micropayment channel. And thereupon say, if the current balance does disappear (stolen, gaff, etc.), it's simply "not the end of the world" for that user. Fix the problem and move forward. On the receipts side, I have less to offer in terms of ideas for control of fraud. (E.g. accumulating masses of mis-appropriated micro-transactions.) For identifying and addressing user claims of mis-appropriated transactions. Etc. So, I sort of have what I see as "step 1": Keep the users "safe". I imagine step 2, "control fraud", has some technical remediations. And, overall, keep this system separate, in it's own transactions "box", away from the larger banking and payments system. Compartmentalize. And then solve, within that more limited scope. -- Technically, this seems quite feasible. However, the regulatory infrastructure gets in the way. I'm not arguing for mindless "deregulation". (Or, as it were in recent years, also lack of enforcement.) But it seems there needs to be a new class of payment for these things. A user has a limited value account presenting limited exposure/risk. Money can be pushed into it from a regular bank account, but it's an irreversible, one-way flow. The user, as an example, puts in $20, $30, $50 per month and then uses this to make low-overhead micropayments. Since exposure is limited, regulatory overhead can be kept lower. And... regulation can in turn help ensure that such accounts and micropayments are created and do exist. (E.g. Conventional banks: You must support this interface to micro-payment providers as part of your license or charter. In return, you face no liability beyond possibly restoring a mis-directed withdrawal of capped value made to "charge" one of these micro-payment accounts.) I'm no banker. But it seems to me that micropayments need a regulatory infrastructure that reduces/caps risk, and that also in-turn squeezes out needless and overly expensive overhead. Sort of like a pre-paid Visa card, but online. (And preferably with lower transaction fees.) Why would society do this? Why do we protect intellectual property, increasingly to the point of criminalizing infringement (and so subsidizing enforcement)? Society attaches value to this. Well, I think a good part of society attaches value to compensating and enabling (legitimate) content creators. In terms of a news, many of us want to see an informed society -- one informed by independent, self-standing reporting and not just propaganda.