[avnigo]

I'd like to imagine a future where I can stream fractions of a cent per minute/hour to the video provider or creator in exchange for consumption of that content. That way I only pay for however much I actually consume and the platform doesn't have to serve me ads to be profitable or sustainable. This could even work without needing to register for an account, using the HTTP 402 Payment Required response status code that already exists [0][1], something your browser could handle in the background.

[0]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Status/402

[1]: https://docs.lightning.engineering/the-lightning-network/l40...

[smazga]

I know all things cryptocoin are anathema here on HN, but one of the stated goals in the satoshi whitepaper was enabling micropayments. I don’t want to give my credit card info out to every video creator I watch, but what if I could load a digital wallet and pay for streams exactly as you suggest?

[gretch]

In such a world your digital wallet Id becomes just as important as your credit card number and you’re back to where you started.

[hn666]

Just my 2c as a layman:

This makes sense in my head, if there's an incredibly small cost to watching someone (which would add up if that someone thousands of views) and the experience doesn't revolve constantly around trying making me constantly want to consume something else.

[Draiken]

That sounds very interesting and fair but way less profitable than just selling ads, so it'll never happen under capitalism.

It's easy to forget that in reality it's almost never a case where we "can't find alternatives", it's that they are incompatible with profit seeking.