Re: The Case Against Micropayments

From: hal@finney.org
Date: Sat Feb 24 2001 - 14:38:01 MST


Bryan Moss, <bryan.moss@btinternet.com>, writes:
> http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2000/12/19/micropayments.html
>
> "[...] the barriers to micropayments are not problems of
> technology and interface, but user approval."
>
> I think this is a technology and interface problem. Content
> can be aggregated client-side with the computer paying for
> each article, news item, etc, via micropayments, and the user
> seeing only a simplified payment model.

A similar point is made in this 1996 essay by occasional list member Nick
Szabo, http://www.best.com/~szabo/micropayments.html. Nick sees many
difficulties with the use of micropayments, but holds out hope that there
might be user interfaces which will make the "mental load" manageable.

Hal



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