working on a website showing people how micropayments could work today
replies(1):
It'd be a basic guide that says do a,b,c,d,e,f,g to give me 10 cents, where a-g is
a) create a Coinbase account
b) fund it
c) buy some crypto
d) install a wallet
e) move the crypto to the wallet
f) connect the wallet to my website,
g) send 10 cents my way
it's not going to offer any choices of crypto and wallet, just a proof of concept to document that the rails do exist today.
what about transfer fees?
all in all this is way to complex for the average person and inaccessible for many.
in some countries mobile money accounts come with every phone number, and you can transfer micropayments from one number to another even across networks and even internationally. and you don't even need a smartphone. any feature phone that can send USSD codes will work. that is a working micropayment system accessible to anyone who can afford at least a feature phone.
my point about USSD codes was that a globally applicable solution for micro payments does exist, and using a complex system with many steps really just begs the question of what prevents these simpler systems from being adopted.
the answer is probably politics and lethargy. the inability or unwillingness for big companies to innovate.
to be clear, i am not criticizing your work, but the state of micropayments in the US, and i am mostly interested in discussing what can be done about that.
showing people how it can work now may or may not be part of that. personally i am more inclined to look at this process and run away screaming than make any attempts to adapt it.