It is almost un-noticable yet, but there is an important change coming in our human behavior. In not so many years, we will think back , and wonder how we ever did without micropayments.
So what are micropayments?
Not so long ago, it was impossible to send somebody at he other end of the world, a small amount of money, like 10 cents. Modern technology is solving that now, right before our eyes. So what am i talking about ? Of course this story is again a result of the bitcoin revolution.
There are applications coming online which will change the internet forever. Not in its structure
(other apps will do that, but that's for another blog post) but in the content and use of it. In particular 3 of them i am following closely : ChangeTip, GetGemz, and Synereo.
ChangeTip is a handy way to send any user on the internet a tip. It works in several online messageboards like reddit and facebook, and this list is growing rapidly. You can tip amounts like '1 beer' and the app converts that to a certain bitcoin/us$ amount. The poster who was tipped can collect the tip then and use it to tip someone else, or send it to a local wallet and do groceries with it. (i live in a place where there actually is a bitcoin supermarket :)
Another interesting app is GetGemz. Many of you will know WhatsApp. Getgemz does the same, but not quite. What is different, is that the users are not milked for their information so they can send ads, but it turns the monetization of advertizing around: the user is getting paid, not some big company that sells your data. So if you are interested in cars, you are likely to -want- advertizements for cars. So you can 'opt-in' and every time a car company sends you an advertizement, you get paid for reading it.
Now connect the dots and look at the bigger picture, and you see Synereo. This is still in the making, but soon to come out. This could be the next Facebook. Take the idea described above at the GetGemz part, and apply that idea to a Facebook contender. This could become very big, very, very fast.
How many people are looking to earn money online? In Synereo it is possible that friends tip you or pay to spread your creativity. So many people have hoped in the past that if they make a youtube video, they get 100 million hits and get rich on the advertizing. But the reality is that this pays very, very bad unless you are really famous.
In this new model, you could post a picture you made, and make small money on that. This will attract people like crazy especially since many of them will, by the time Synereo comes out, will be used already to getgemz. And i am sure also some games will start to use bitcoin instead of worthless game points. It is still early, but ordinary people will get to bitcoin for this reason.
There is also another aspect of it: it will be very costly to buy hits, and that is a very good thing. Right now many youtube artists buy hits, so the viewers are constantly fooled thinking that a certain artist is popular.
It is some sort of rape on the natural flow of things when it comes to popularity. Artists should be popular because they are good, not because they bought their popularity. So what this means is that there will be a 'democratization of content' where there is a bigger chance that small, but good artists will win the popularity battle. And by the way, this also goes for online teachers and visionairs and politicians.
So eventually this could disrupt many existing power structures. I believe that bitcoin will spread far and wide over the planet, and this already means a democratization of purchasing power. Now soon we have to tools to do the same with artists and teachers. The power of billions of small people who vote with their micropayments, could be turning out in the most powerful force in the next decade.
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