Well, I would say one large reason that micro-transactions haven't taken off is they are so bloody difficult to implement. Basically you are always dependent on

Well, I would say one large reason that micro-transactions haven't taken off is they are so bloody difficult to implement. Basically you are always dependent on someone's payment network, which usually is not geared towards supporting micro-payments. Take Paypal's fee structure for micro-payments, $0.10 + 10% -- basically kills the idea in the womb. Also, the idea of paying one penny to read an article might not make sense if it is user initiated, but it could very easily happen if you had an "drip" effect from a connected faucet (i.e. account of virtual currency). I'd be more than happy to pay $.05 for each NYTimes article I actually read, but I have no desire to pay a monthly fee for the Times. If I could have one account that worked across a bunch of different websites and automatically implemented the "drip," I'd consider that a major improvement. Personally my bet is on other virtual currencies as opposed to Bitcoin (i.e. my own), since the Blockchain stuff ends up being your enemy rather than your friend.