I like the idea of micro payments, but I don't think they'll take off versus existing ad/subscription models. The problem is economics: the vast majority of people are simply unwilling to pay even a cent. Part of this is people don't know the brand to feel comfortable spending money on random sites (I recall a comic where a user was deliberating heavily on a $0.99 app after easily buying a $7 coffee). Part of this is also the shape of the economy where most people just don't have spare income.

The fraction of people who are willing to pay a cent are likely to be willing to pay considerably more. It is much, much more lucrative to get those people into subscriptions, where they will keep buying -- potentially for years.

So for most businesses, they'd likely earn less revenue via micro payments, which means it's unlikely they'll get widespread adoption.

This is the kind of “better internet” I want. Compared with ads, I’d much rather have a 0.05 dollar paywall.

But for this to work, the technology has to be built on crypto micropayments. The total cost and friction of traditional payment systems, including online payment services like PayPal, would make this impossible. I think this is also one of the design goals behind Web3 and Project Xanadu.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Xanadu

https://cloudflare.pay/