Discussions about micropayments

[mouser]

nice article from 2000:
http://www.openp2p.c...9/micropayments.html

Micropayments are back, at least in theory, thanks to P2P. Micropayments are an idea with a long history and a disputed definition - as the W3C micropayment working group puts it, " ... there is no clear definition of a 'Web micropayment' that encompasses all systems," but in its broadest definition, the word micropayment refers to "low-value electronic financial transactions."

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Micropayment systems have not failed because of poor implementation; they have failed because they are a bad idea. Furthermore, since their weakness is systemic, they will continue to fail in the future.

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editorial note: this is a nice article but i believe something like micropayments will eventually come and be a huge benefit to independent writers on the internet.. still waiting for it to be done properly though.

[Rover]

mouser- I agree, micro payments will become effective and useful.  I don't think this will happen until the 'net is completely reworked and made private.  The 'Net company will be the one to moderate the micro payments.

$0.02

[Renegade]

The micropayment market is far too lucrative for the payment processors for anything to get done.

There can only be bickering and fighting with nothing resolved other than 50 trillion micropayment systems in the end and a frustrated consumer. The closest thing out there is PayPal, and it will remain that way until the big guys move in for the kill.

At the moment it looks like Google is positioning itself to try it, but they've been screwing so many things up so badly lately that it's hard to say if they'll be able to get it right. They screwed the pooch with Google Video but did so well with GMail. What's up with that? If their Google Base (or whatever the heck it's called) turns out as bad as Google Video they'll just end up losing the market to someone like Microsoft.

But you never know. A good open standard would help, but would still leave open the question of "who processes the transactions" and "who holds the money"? Those are the questions that will kill micropayments no matter what.

[Deozaan]

mouser- I agree, micro payments will become effective and useful.  I don't think this will happen until the 'net is completely reworked and made private.  The 'Net company will be the one to moderate the micro payments.

$0.02

-Rover (March 09, 2006, 08:25 PM)

Was that your micropayment to this forum, Rover?