Cryptoeconomics is the fusion of two social science disciplines as old as civilization itself: Economics and cryptography.

I’m going to assume that most readers are familiar with the fundamentals of economics. If you understand that the price of tea in China determines how many cups of chai you can drink daily on your current income, then you have a basic understanding of economics. If you don’t drink tea, you may relate to the price of petroleum in the Middle East and how it affects the price of gasoline in your home state. You know how many miles per gallon your vehicle gets on your commute to work every day and budget for that expense.

Cryptography is a little more complicated. I’ll start with a little history.

A Short History of Cryptography

Primitive cryptography involved writing symbols on cave walls. Eventually, writing moved from cave walls to clay tablets. Of course, not all writing needed to be secure. If Jeanette wanted to convey to Ned what they were having for dinner that night, she simply drew a picture. If the neighbors figured out they were having Macedonian meatballs, who cared? But if Ned, a battalion commander in the Mesopotamian Army, wanted to draw up battle plans on an upcoming invasion, he wouldn’t want that communication to fall into the hands of the enemy. Therefore, a secret code was devised.

Down through history, civilizations have used secret codes to secure sensitive communications.

During World War II, the U.S. and British used computers. The Germans and Japanese had their own ways of securing messages with computers, and both the Allies and Axis attempted to break the codes of the enemy using computing systems.

After World War II, cryptography grew more complex and mathematical. In the early 1970s, as the ARPANET began to grow and internet protocols developed, there arose a need to secure communications on the systems the government used on its wide area network. The U.S. published its first data encryption standard to the Federal Register in 1975. One year later, a new development in cryptography occurred when two Stanford researchers developed a public-private key cryptography technique. Just like that, asymmetric cryptography was born.

Cryptography is a very important part of cryptoeconomics because if digital currencies aren’t secure, then they essentially have no value.

How Bitcoin Opened the Floodgates of Cryptography

In the 1990s, a radical group of computer nerds called cypherpunks made it their mission to use cryptography to promote computing privacy and security.

The father of the cypherpunks is a man named David Chaum, who made the first attempt at creating a digital cash system.

In 1992, three brainiacs began meeting at a small company in California. John Gilmore, a computer scientist who later founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Tim May, employed by Intel and founder of a crypto-anarchist group that advocated for internet privacy and wrote extensively about libertarian ideas, and Eric Hughes, chief administrator of the cypherpunks mailing list, were the founding members of the cypherpunks.

Within two years, the cypherpunk mailing list had 700 subscribers. By 1997, there were 2,000 subscribers.

The cypherpunks had robust discussions regarding public policy as it relates to privacy, anonymity, security, and related topics. They also were known for radical activism. When the U.S. government called a popular encryption program “munitions export without a license,” its creator published the program’s source code as a hardback book and sold copies of it in order to circumvent a law that defined munitions as a cryptosystem with a key larger than 40 bits. If the source code was in print, Phillip Zimmerman could then claim First Amendment rights. To this day, he hasn’t been charged with any crimes. His book is listed as out of print on Amazon.

Adam Back, the creator of a protocol adopted for bitcoin, wrote three lines of code as an act of civil disobedience and suggested people use it as an email signature.

Another cypherpunk created a web page with an open call for anyone to become an international arms trafficker. Visitors could fill out a form that would send an email with Back’s code from a U.S. server to Anguilla.

Cypherpunk members filed lawsuits against the U.S. government claiming some action was unconstitutional, and won.

Members of the cypherpunk community included such notable public figures as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange; Adam Back; author Jim Bell; BitTorrent creator Bram Cohen; Hal Finney, recipient of the first bitcoin; author Sean Hastings; law professor Peter Junger; publisher Jude Milhon; author Bruce Schneier; smart contracts creator and bit gold inventor Nick Szabo; Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn; and Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape and venture capitalist.

At least three of these people (Chaum, Back, and Szabo) made significant contributions to the development of technology that Nakamoto adopted for bitcoin’s development. Finney was one of the first people to get excited about bitcoin. Back, Chaum, and Szabo have all gone on to found or get involved with other cryptocurrency developments.

Cryptography, a science that began with U.S. national security in mind, has entered the private sector and is being used to fight government censorship, violations to individual privacy, and personal security. More people are studying and developing cryptographic systems today than ever before.

DISCLAIMER

I am not a financial advisor, nor do I give financial advice. The above information should not be considered financial advice but is for informational purposes only. Neither I nor Cryptowriter are responsible for financial losses incurred as a result of acting on this information. Please consult a financial advisor before making any financial decisions.

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I joined Steemit in March 2018 when STEEM, the native cryptocurrency, was in the $1.80 to $2.00 range. Initially, I was excited to be a part of the platform despite its obvious flaws. The platform’s user interface was atrocious, the trending topics page was full of spam that had achieved the privilege by buying it, and my earnings were very small at first because I was new to the platform and had no fans. Nevertheless, I quickly learned how to promote a post in order to attract large numbers of readers, and, more importantly, the influential readers who were more likely to vote up my posts with a lot of Steem Power. Sadly, most of that promotion had to take place off-chain in Discord groups, but it led to my involvement in several great communities, graduation to Minnow status, and satisfaction that I had an audience that seemingly hung on my every word.

That last part was important to me because I had lost my passion for blogging. I’ve been doing it since 2006 and found myself in a rut—until I found Steemit.

How I Grew My Steemit Income

Over the course of a year-and-a-half, I was very active on Steemit. Many weeks, I posted every day. Every week, I posted at least three times and my posts fell into three broad categories.

1) Being, at the time, editor of an online publication focused on blockchain technology, I wrote about a lot of cryptocurrencies. Many of these posts were satirical in nature and received a lot of upvotes.

2) I also wrote and published a lot of fiction and poetry. At one time, I hosted fiction contests and gave away prizes to the winners. I had a lot of fun and took a lot of pride in creating challenges for fiction writers. It made for some great stories and we all enjoyed ourselves.

3) Right about the time I joined Steemit, a game called Steem Monsters took root (it is now called Splinterlands). Steem Monsters began sponsoring their own contests for best fictional back stories of the monsters in the game. I entered these contests and won several of them. My first viral Steemit post was a narrative poem I wrote for one of those contests. It didn’t win the contest, but it earned me some respectable rewards from all the upvotes I got. Every time I won a contest, I received several packs of free Steem Monsters cards. Later, I applied to become a part of the Steem Monsters team and became the leader in one of the teams competing for the best backstory for one of the seven Splinterlands. If I recall, our team took second place and we received some free cards for our efforts. Over time, I managed to secure quite a few free collectible cards and purchased some more.

Over time, my fan base grew, my upvotes grew, and my Steemit income grew. Even as the price of STEEM declined until it eventually hit 15 cents. Other things became a priority in my life and one day late in 2019, I stopped posting to Steemit.

Security Can Work For You or Against You

When I can’t remember my bank account password, I call the bank and they ask me a series of security questions. Once I’ve proven my identity, I can gain access again. Thankfully, that doesn’t happen very often. But it’s not an option with Steemit.

Upon joining Steemit, users get a set of public keys and a set of private keys. If you lose your private keys, there’s no back up. I thought I was being security-conscious, protecting my keys. In fact, I was so careful that I never allowed my browser to remember my logins. When I used the browser extension Keychain, I never allowed it to remember my logins. When I used a third-party posting tool, I never allowed them to remember my logins.

Instead, I kept all my logins in a Word document, which I had saved only on an encrypted thumb drive. The only way a malicious person could get to my logins was to acquire my thumb drive and break the encryption.

One day, I needed to copy something and I couldn’t get the print function on my computer to communicate with the printer, so I saved my document on my thumb drive and carried it to the printer. I printed my document and stuck the thumb drive in my pocket, and forgot it was there. Typically, I kept that thumb drive on my desk where I worked so that I had access to it when I needed it. Otherwise, it was locked up.

Later on, I went with my Dad into town. Because I was wearing a pair of shorts with no back pocket, and it was allergy season in Texas, I had my handkerchief in my front pocket with my encrypted thumb drive. When I arrived home later in the day, I could not find my thumb drive. Today, I have $1,500 worth of Steem in my account, which I can’t access.

This entire scenario could have been avoided if I had kept a backup of my crypto keys. My paper wallet was so secure that not even I could hack it.

Whatever way you are securing your logins, passwords, encryption keys, make sure you have a backup. Otherwise, you may regret it.

DISCLAIMER

I am not a financial advisor, nor do I give financial advice. The above information should not be considered financial advice but is for informational purposes only. Neither I nor Cryptowriter are responsible for financial losses incurred as a result of acting on this information. Please consult a financial advisor before making any financial decisions.

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In my first post on Facebook’s fictitious blockchain, I talked about how Bob could have earned cryptocurrency by posting to Facebook daily if Facebook had launched with a blockchain. In my last post on the topic, I discussed Facebook’s fictitious staking protocol. This time, I want to discuss a few other ways Bob could have increased his earnings while making fun of Mark Zuckerberg 18 times a day.

Facebook Posts

As a reminder, for the purposes of this illustration, we’re assuming Facebook’s fictitious cryptocurrency Facebit is valued at $5.55 USD in 2021. Bob’s earnings from his 18 posts per day are expected to earn him at least $24,065.91, but because he’s been staking his earnings for 18 years, Bob has maned to pull in an additional $55,500 in earnings from an initial investment of $50. But what if he had been active in some of Facebook’s other core features?

Facebook Groups

Groups are a core feature on Facebook’s platform. Started by an individual user, they allow Facebook users to gather in a social community around a common interest. Bob could have participated in any number of groups as a user, but he could also have started any number of groups and acted as their moderator. He could also have been selected to be a moderator of Facebook Groups started by other Facebook users.

Let’s say Bob is a member of five Facebook Groups on various topics and posts to those Groups a few times each day for a total of 10 posts. Some of those groups have thousands of users. Bob gets 50 percent of any rewards earnings from posts he makes in groups. Because each post earns 1 Facebit, by the end of the year, he could expect to earn an additional $10,128.75 from his group postings in 2021.

As the founder of a group called Satirizing Social Media, Bob earns an additional 10 percent of all rewards earning generated in the group, but he has to share some of that his moderators. Each moderator earns and equal share of 5 percent of the total earnings generated by the group. If Satirizing Social Media earned a total of $40,000 Facebits in 2021, Bob’s earnings from the group this year would be $20,000.

Bob is also moderator a couple of groups started by other Facebook users with a total income from those groups of $5,416.82.

Total earnings for Bob from Facebook Groups in 2021 = $35,545.57.

Facebook Pages

Pages are static on Facebook and allow individuals and businesses a way to set up a publishing platform allowing them to share information, posts, and more while reaching a broader audience than they could by simply posting on their timelines. For rewards purposes, we’ll assume they operate the same way as groups. The page owner gets 50 percent of rewards and any page administrators share an equal portion of 10 percent of rewards.

Bob owns the page Mark Zuckerberg is a Goofball and has no administrators. As a fairly new page, it doesn’t have a lot of traction yet, so Bob’s earnings in 2021 are expected to be a modest $2,468.92.

Instant Messaging

Instant Messaging (IM) is a great tool of the Facebook platform, allowing users to contact each other directly. But on Facebook’s fictitious blockchain, called Facechain, users must pay a small fee in Facebits to send a message. The amount is up to the recipient.

Bob decides to charge members of his groups a measly .01 Facebit to send him a message. If users abuse that the privelege, he’ll increase their fee on a case-by-case basis. Subscribers to his page can send a message for free. Everyone else must pay .05 Facebits.

Bob also uses Instant Messenger strategically to promote certain high-value posts he wants more people to see. In 2021, his expected earnings from IM is $594.26, but his expenses are expected to be around $3,498.93. A net loss

Facebook Ads

Since Bob has figured out he’s running a business, he has quit his day job to focus entirely on making fun of Mark Zuckerberg. But he wants to make sure he is making money from his business. So went to Cafepress and created T-shirts and coffee mugs using content from his most popular posts making fun of Mark Zuckerberg. He promotes those using Facebook ads, which he pays for in Facebits.

In 2021, Bob’s total expenditure in advertising comes to $15,628.96. From that, he earns $25, 498.52 selling T-shirts and coffee mugs that make fun of Mark Zuckerberg.

Facebook Events

Once a quarter, Bob holds a special event and invites as many people as he can to watch him make fun of Mark Zuckerberg live on Facebook video. Because he must pay to boost his events to get them wider promotional distribution, he spends $2,435.98 per quarter on events promotion. He is sure this expenditure results in more people seeing his page, group, and timeline posts and that he sells more coffee mugs and T-shirts. It’s an expense worth the Facebits.

Facebook Games

In his spare time, Bob likes to play games on Facebook. His favorite games are Texas Holdem and Hay Day. Every Friday night, he plays Texas Holdem with a group of friends, sometimes losing a few Facebits and sometimes winning a few. Since gambling is illegal in his state, players don’t actually bet money. They play the game for the points and earn Facebits based on the number points they earn in a single month. At the end of the year, Bob takes inventory and realizes he has lost a total $1,456.82 in 2021 playing Texas Holdem.

Each day, however, he spends a little time managing his farm on Hay Day. The activities he participate in during the game earns him a total of $1,524.96 throughout the year.

His total earnings from games is $68.14.

Bob’s Total 2021 Facebit Earnings

Of course, there are other ways Bob could have earned Facebits playing around Facebook all year. He could use Facetime to call his parents and friends. He could use Marketplace to buy and sell items for Facebits or real dollars. He also post to Stories and Offers, and play Oculus, Facebook’s virtual reality game. At the end of the year, Bob totals his earnings and expenses and learns he has $97,517.28 worth of Facebits in his account. Because he has to eat and pay bills, he cashes out $3,000 out each month to live on and lets the rest grow as he continues to build his Facechain business.

My hope is that this scenario gives you a little glimpse into the future potential of blockchain as a business enterprise for serious content creators. However, I make no claim that earnings are guaranteed.

DISCLAIMER

I am not a financial advisor, nor do I give financial advice. The above information should not be considered financial advice but is for informational purposes only. Neither I nor Cryptowriter are responsible for financial losses incurred as a result of acting on this information. Please consult a financial advisor before making any financial decisions.

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This post was originally published at Voice.

In my last post, I introduced you to Bob the Facemeister, an ordinary guy who could have earned a modest income posting to Facebook regularly for 18 years, if Facebook had a blockchain, but I made some basic assumptions about the value of Facebook that are quite conservative. There are a number of factors that determine the value of a cryptocurrency. The law of supply and demand, of course, is one of those. But there are also fundamentals such as product, underlying technology, company leadership, etc.

My assumptions were based on the relative growth of XRP, which has had a modest trajectory compared to other cryptocurrencies. What if, instead of holding a value of .45 USD in 2021, Facebit held a value of $1.45 USD?

If that were the case, instead of expecting to earn $1,788.48 in 2021, Bob’s income expectations from making fun of Mark Zuckerberg all day would be $5,715.90. And if he had earned, let’s say, $2,100 additional income from liking, commenting, and sharing the posts of others, his income would be $7,815.90. At Steemit's height, STEEM was over $3, so that kind of that growth would not outrageous. In fact, given Facebook's popularity (with users and investors), I'd say $3 is even conservative. Imagine the income Bob would have had if the price of Facebit was $10 in 2021. He could be making a full-time living.

How else could he have increased his income?

Staking Bob’s Claim

Being the visionary that he is, let's say Bob decided not to cash out any of his earnings. Instead, he staked them.

Staking is a process that allows blockchain users to sock away their crypto earnings into an account to boost the economy of the blockchain. Some blockchains have a special account for this. Others simply require you to hold your tokens in your on-chain wallet. Whatever the case, Facebook’s fictitious Facechain rewards users who stake their crypto an extra 10 percent of their earnings. In other words, instead of earning 87 cents of the $1.45 generated for his posts, Bob earned an additional 8.7 cents for each Facebit he generated with his content.

Keep in mind that, over time, there’s a compound effect. If Bob had $100 to start with and earned 10 percent, he’d have $110. But on the next 10 percent earnings report, he wouldn’t get an additional $10. Rather, he’d get $11 (10 percent of the account total). But I’m going to stick with easy math. I'll make another assumption.

We're going to say the value of Facebit in 2021 is $5.55. Bob makes 18 posts per day for 365 days this year. His posts generate a total of $99.90 per day in Facebits. Of that, he gets to keep 60 percent. His portion of that is $59.94. Because he's staking his rewards, he gets an additional $5.99. Multiply that by 365 days in the year and Facechain income in 2021 will be $24,065.91.

Remember, Bob got in on the groundfloor of Facebook’s operation with the idea that it was going to be something big someday. He went all in. So, on day one, he purchased 10,000 Facebits at the chump change price of .005 USD. His total investment was $50. But in 18 years, the value of Facebit has climbed to $5.55. Therefore, his $50 investment grew to a whopping $14,500. But, since he’s been staking that investment for 18 years, it is now worth $55,500 in my lazy, easy math calculation. His Facechain account holds a total of $79,565.91 in Facebits.

Power and Influence on Facechain

There’s another way staking could benefit Bob in this fictitious Facebook blockchain scenario. On the Steem blockchain, staking STEEM, a process that converts the liquid form of the cryptocurrency into something called Steem Power, increases the power and influence of the account holder on the blockchain. The Steem blockchain uses the same consensus mechanism that our fictitious Facechain uses—delegated proof-of-stake.

The way it works on Steemit is the account holder’s vote on the value of posts goes up based on that account’s Steem Power. In other words, the wealthier you are, the more power and influence you have (even if you acquire that wealth through questionable means). That’s not unlike the real world, however, it isn’t exactly a fair system either. If we assume that Facechain operates similarly, then Bob’s likes and shares would grow in power and influence as his staking account grows. The problem is, each vote creates X amount of STEEM and Steem Dollars (Steemit’s alleged stablecoin), and the voter gets a portion of that based on their Steem Power. That creates a conflict of interest. To prevent that, Facechain rewards all likes, comments, and shares equally and rewards conflict creators a little more if they are also stakers.

We’re not done with Bob yet. In Part 3, we’ll cover even more revenue streams.

DISCLAIMER

I am not a financial advisor, nor do I give financial advice. The above information should not be considered financial advice but is for informational purposes only. Neither I nor Cryptowriter are responsible for financial losses incurred as a result of acting on this information. Please consult a financial advisor before making any financial decisions.

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While working on my manuscript for a book on the intersection between social media and blockchain technology, I discovered that it might be prudent to show people new to cryptocurrencies but familiar with social media just what a blockchain-based social media platform might have to offer. So I decided to include a chapter titled “What If Facebook Had a Cryptocurrency?”

Now, I'm acutely aware that Facebook already has a cryptocurrency, but it hasn't been implemented yet. And it won't look anything like the fictitious Facebit I'm about to introduce you to.

The following content is not verbatim from my book's chapter, but it is a summary of the first draft. Your feedback is welcome and encouraged.

Meet Facebit: The Cryptocurrency You Should Have Had

Imagine, if you will, that Facebook had launched with a cryptocurrency. Never mind that, in 2004, there was no such thing. Bitcoin would not be invented for another four years. But the basic building blocks of the first blockchain did exist when Facebook launched.

Suppose that Facebook’s blockchain, we’ll call it Facechain, was built on a delegated proof-of-stake (DPOS) protocol. That would mean three entities could potentially earn Facebit simply by participating on the blockchain on a daily basis. Those entities are:

* Individual users (which could be individual persons or businesses)

* Block validators

* Facebo ok, the corporation

Let’s assume that Facebook launched with a monthly payout schedule. Let’s also assume that posts older than a month earn no more rewards due to aging out. Two more assumptions we’ll make are the initial price of Facebit at launch was .005 USD and its current price is .45 USD. We’ll also assume Facechain rewards each of the entities the following percentages for their roles in creating blocks.

* Content posters earn 60 percent of block rewards

* Engaged Facechainers (Likers, commenters, and sharers) earn 35 * percent of block rewards

And Facebook keeps the remaining 5 percent of block rewards

In January 2021, Facebook users posted more than 100 billion messages every day. If every post earned 1 Facebit, Facebook’s portion of earnings would equal a measly .05 Facebit per post, that would be a total of 5 billion Facebits daily, or 155 billion Facebits for the month of January 2021. At a valuation of .45 USD, Facebook’s total income from its own cryptocurrency in the first month of this year would have been $69,750,000,000. Compare that to the $85 billion Facebook earned in revenues last year. But keep in mind that we’re just talking about asset appreciation. We haven’t got around to discussing potential revenue streams.

Something far more exciting to talk about is how much individual Facebook users could earn from a Facebook cryptocurrency.

Meet Bob the Facemeister

Bob’s just an ordinary guy. He joined Facebook on the day of launch and has consistently published an average of 18 posts per day for 18 years satirizing Mark Zuckerberg. The values of Facebit have grown steadily during those 18 years as follows:

2004 = .005 USD

2005 = .006 USD

2006 = .007 USD

2007 = .009 USD

2008 = .010 USD

2009 = .015 USD

2010 = .018 USD

2011 = .020 USD

2012 = .030 USD

2013 = .050 USD

2014 = .085 USD

2015 = .10 USD

2016 = .15 USD

2017 = .19 USD

2018 = .24 USD

2019 = .29 USD

2020 = .33 USD

2021 = .45 USD

For simplicity sake, we’ll assume these values are static throughout the year for each year in question.

In the last month of Bob’s first year, he would have had to share $3 in earnings with 1 million users. That’s not very encouraging, but Facebook’s growth over 18 years tells a different story. Continuing to maintain his 18 posts per day output in 2021, by the end of this year, he could expect to earn a total of $1,788.48, just for making fun of Zuck. Not exactly a blockbuster, but considering this is activity he’d have engaged in anyway, the $1.48 per hour he earned for making fun of Zuck isn’t anything to sneeze at either. You'll see why later.

And, remember, we’re just talking about a small portion of earnings potential Bob had access to as a poster. He could also have earned plenty of revenue by interacting with the posts of other Facebook users. And had he decided to become a block validator, that could be another revenue source. What other ways could Bob have earned some income with a Facebook cryptocurrency?

Stay tuned: I’ll cover a few more ways Bob could have increased his Facebook earnings over the years in my next post.

DISCLAIMER

I am not a financial advisor, nor do I give financial advice. The above information should not be considered financial advice but is for informational purposes only. Neither I nor Cryptowriter are responsible for financial losses incurred as a result of acting on this information. Please consult a financial advisor before making any financial decisions.

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Current payments models are about 10 years behind the technological ability to implement. An article published in Wired online two years ago asked rhetorically, “Shouldn’t we have seamless micropayments by now?”

The article points out that a “402 Payment Required” error was planned for by early World Wide Web developers but currently sits on a digital shelf collecting dust. Sadly, web standards organization W3C has closed its paged labeled Ecommerce/Micropayments Activity. That doesn’t mean, however, that all micropayments development for the web has ceased. There are still some interesting projects happening in this space.

PayPal has a micropayments service for sellers of digital products. One enterprising web development company has a micropayments plugin for WordPress, though I’d be loathe to use it without delving deep into its security protocols. And last week, I talked about Coil.

Despite the great strides micropayments have made in recent years, I think there’s still room for improvement. Keep reading to see where micropayments has the potential to grow.

5 Practical Micropayment Implementations That Are Possible Today

Below are five ways I believe micropayments could change the internet for the better, and we have the ability to implement these protocols right now.

1) Filter email spam – Adam Back, an early pioneer in proof-of-work, created Hashcash as a way to fight email spam. Unwittingly, bitcoin’s creator Satoshi Nakamoto adopted Back’s system for the world’s first blockchain. Back’s thesis still remains. If sending an email message cost a small fee, spammers would quickly lose motivation to send hundreds of emails in a single blast. I’d like to see digital wallets interoperable with email addresses allowing email account holders the ability to set the fee for the privilege of sending them email. If you trust the sender, you could set the fee to zero. For those people you know but aren’t warmed up to enough yet, you could set a small fee. And for cold relationships, or no relationship all, you could set a higher fee. Owners of email addresses should be allowed to set their own privacy and security preferences.

2) Opt out of email lists – What if, instead of filling out a form to download a lead magnet, a website visitor opted to pay a small fee instead? As a journalist, I frequently encounter gated information that would be valuable in my research, but I don’t want to end up on a thousand different mailing lists, and it’s cumbersome to create a fake email account every time I want to send spam into the ether or log in to my honeypot account just to click a confirmation link for email I’ll never read anyway.

3) Independent artist downloads – Imagine discovering a new music artist, moviemaker, or book author and wanting to experience more of their work. Instead of being forced to interact with Netflix, Amazon, or Spotify, each artist could have a website where fans can stream their music or movies or buy their books using a peer-to-peer micropayments service using the digital currency of choice for both parties.

4) Saving and investing – Savings app Acorns allows investors to invest small amounts of money ($1 to $5) at a time. Users can invest in stocks even while they shop, sending spare change to the app. There is plenty of room for competition in the microinvestment space.

5) Web Publishing – I understand that online newspapers and publishers want to make money from their content, and advertising is nearly dead. But why should readers be forced into a monthly recurring contract when they may just want to read just one article? Charge me for one article. Publishers could make more money in the long run.

Micropayments Can Be Made in Cryptocurrency or Fiat Money

Micropayments are typically defined as anything less than $10. With the advent of cryptocurrencies, micropayments can be less than $1. Credit card companies charge fees for every payment. Under the current financial system, it doesn’t make sense to use a credit card for payments that small. The processing fee could be more than the payment! Cryptocurrencies, however, make micropayments not only feasible but highly desirable. Isn’t it time we devise a microfinance system that caters to the small transactions people naturally conduct multiple times a day?

DISCLAIMER

I am not a financial advisor, nor do I give financial advice. The above information should not be considered financial advice but is for informational purposes only. Neither I nor Cryptowriter are responsible for financial losses incurred as a result of acting on this information. Please consult a financial advisor before making any financial decisions.

This post is published for Cryptowriter in association with Voice.

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This post was originally published at Voice.

Website owners have searched for the ultimate web monetization method since the waxing days of the internet. In the 1990s, banner ads and sponsored content were popular, but those quickly gave way to something much more robust. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising wasn’t invented by Google, but Google took it up a notch with AdSense, giving web publishers an opportunity to earn revenues from web traffic clicks. For a long time, it was the best option web publishers had.

Membership sites have been around almost since the first day of the commercial internet. After WordPress became the open-source web publishing standard, their numbers grew.

The rise of social media has also played a part in the evolution of web monetization. Facebook introduced ad retargeting, a way for users to view ads based on websites they visit while not logged into the platform. Most Facebook users aren’t even aware that they’re the product.

Today, web monetization is taking another turn. The advent of Bitcoin, which reinvented the structure of data, has given birth to new forms of monetization.

An Introduction to Coil and Interledger

In his three-part series titled The Internet of Money, author Andreas M. Antonopoulos said the future will be more about protocols than platforms. I agree. That is especially true of web monetization.

Coil is simple, versatile, and easy to implement. Any web publisher can use it to increase revenues because all it takes is a payment pointer and a little bit of code. Users can pay a $5 monthly fee, similar to Medium, which is used to pay web publishers using the protocol. After implementing the non-invasive code into the section of their websites, web publishers sit back and let their current traffic dictate their income.

The Coil monetization engine is fueled by Interledger, an open protocol suite designed for sending payments across different blockchains and distributed ledgers. Its super power is making blockchains interoperable.

It isn’t necessary to subscribe in order to implement the Coil protocol. Once you add the code to your websites, you’ll earn 36 cents per hour of web traffic. If you have 60 website visitors, for instance, and each one spends one minute interacting with content on your website, that hour will earn you 36 cents. Granted, that’s not a groundswell of revenue, but if you have multiple websites each attracting thousands of visitors per month, you could supplement your current revenue sources with some decent Coil monetization.

What Crypto Do You Have In Your Wallet?

Unlike many cryptocurrency projects, Coil doesn’t make you jump through hoops. But you do need a wallet. Currently, you have two options: Uphold or Gatehub. Once you set up your wallet, you’ll need to find your payment pointer and add that to your Coil account. You’ll receive micropayments for your traffic as you earn it. The default currency is XRP. I’m hoping Coil, with no native currency, will add other options.

There are other ways to earn with Coil, so you don’t have to own any websites. For instance, you can monetize your video content on YouTube and Twitch. Other platforms that allow users to monetize using the Coil protocol include:

* Cinnamon

* Dev

* Exposure

* Hashnode

* Hackernoon

* Simmer

* Flood Escape

* write.as

Monetizing through third-party sites means even coders, gamers, journalists, and photographers can monetize their content using the Coil and Interledger protocols.

In addition to third-party platforms, Coil has a native blog platform for creators. You can publish your content on the Coil blog platform and earn from that too. As a bonus, you can create content that is public or create content exclusive to Coil subscribers.

Coil is not yet a household name, and it may never be, but I see protocols similar to Coil taking web monetization toward new and exciting futures. I want to be there to see it happen. Don’t you?

**DISCLAIMER
**

I am not a financial advisor, nor do I give financial advice. The above information should not be considered financial advice but is for informational purposes only. Neither I nor Cryptowriter are responsible for financial losses incurred as a result of acting on this information. Please consult a financial advisor before making any financial decisions.

*This post is published for Cryptowriter in association with Voice.
*

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First published at Voice.

You’ve likely heard the big news about Robinhood. If not, let me sum it up for you:

In December, GameStop stock was at $4.

Hedge fund billionaires began shorting the stock.

However, a group of Redditors decided to fight back and started buying shares in GameStop, driving the price up to $500. That sent one hedge fund billionaire on a rampage.

Robinhood subsequently halted trading on GameStop, and some other stocks, and that pissed off a lot of retail investors including famous YouTuber Philip DeFranco.

https://youtu.be/W0PvLnCY2zQ

One investor has now filed a class-action lawsuit against Robinhood.

https://youtu.be/KfN0-OvZCp4

This is far from over, and you can bet that this brouhaha will lead to more innovation in decentralized finance. Meanwhile, the controversy spilled over into the crypto world.

Dogecoin Plays With GameStop’s Joystick

The same Reddit frenzy that drove GameStop to a high like no high before also put some fire into Dogecoin, which led to Robinhood temporarily restricting crypto trading. Major exchanges like Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken report not being able to handle the traffic the surge has caused.

Ripple Drags Bitcoin, Ethereum Into Wrangle With SEC

As you likely know, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has sued Ripple and two executives for allegedly selling securities illegally. The case hinges on whether XRP should be considered a security or not. The SEC, obviously, is calling it a security. Ripple says it’s a utility token. As if a ready defense isn’t enough, Ripple is now asking the SEC to release documents related to bitcoin and ethereum for comparison.

Coinbase is Going Public, But Not With an IPO

The cryptocurrency exchange has opted to list directly with the SEC. It’s interesting that this news broke in the same week Coinbase had a technical issue that caused the site to go down temporarily.

Elon Musk Twitter Bio Leads to Bitcoin Surge

You might know Elon Musk as the eccentric billionaire who builds electric cars and leads the private market venture into space travel, but he recently cause bitcoin to surge simply by listing the #bitcoin hashtag in his Twitter bio.

4 More Things You Should Know About Crypto This Week

Crypto crime has declined.

Bitcoin SV hit a new record in transactions.

40 percent of UK crypto investors are women, according to Gemini.

Mark Cuban exposes his crypto wallet and shows a list of shitcoins.

Allen Taylor is a veteran award-winning journalist and former newspaper editor. He is a freelance writer focused on fintech, including blockchain and crypto projects, and manages crypto blogs through CryptoBloggers. Let’s connect on Twitter.

This post was previously published at Cryptocracy.

Writing a book is no easy task, but, at times, it is a necessary one.

Toward the end of last year, I submitted a book proposal to Business Expert Press describing a book I’d like to write on the intersection between blockchain technology and social media. Ordinarily, it would take 6-8 weeks to hear back on a book proposal, but the publisher liked my idea so much I got an offer within a week. My deadline for turning in my manuscript is April 30, 2021.

The working title of the book I’m working on is, “Is Social Media Ready for Decentralization? An Introduction to Blockchain-Based Social Media.”

Here's the Working Outline for My Book

This is the current outline for my book. I can't guarantee the publisher won't want to change it before publication.

1) Introduction

2) The Features and Benefits of Blockchain Technology

3) A History of Social Media

4) An Introduction to Cryptoeconomics

5) What’s the Big Deal About Decentralization?

6) The Story of Bitcoin and The Rise of Cryptocurrencies

7) What If Facebook Had a Currency?

8) How the Blockchain Turned Social

9) How Cryptosocial Platforms Can Go Mainstream

10) Conclusion

Peer Book Reviewer Qualifications

My publisher is requiring that I have my book reviewed by two peers before I submit it to them for publication. That means I need to have my manuscript completed by the end of March to give my peer reviewers enough time to read the manuscript and offer suggestions for improvement.

Consider this my call for peer reviewers.

Peer reviews are common in academic institutions and among academic publishers. While my book is not intended to be an academic book, it makes sense to have it reviewed by two peers. I think it will make for a stronger manuscript in the long run. But I’ve got to be careful to choose the right peer reviewers. Here’s what I’m looking for.

* Someone who is familiar with cryptocurrencies as a buyer, seller, and/or HODLer.

* Has a working knowledge of blockchain development.

* An individual with a basic understanding, at least, of cryptoeconomics.

* Familiarity with the concept of decentralization and what it means.

* Preferably, a peer reviewer will be familiar with the popular social media websites (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) and their advantages and disadvantages; you should particularly understand the drawbacks to using them.

* Likes to read.

* Ideally, a peer reviewer will have a basic understanding of book structure and what it entails to write a book for popular consumption.

* And you should have a critical eye with the ability to communicate strengths and weaknesses of a book-length manuscript with the intent of improving it.

Peer reviewers may not have all of these qualifications, but preference will be given to potential candidates with the majority of these characteristics. This is an unpaid position, however, I’ll mention you in the acknowledgements once the book is published.

To apply, contact me through allen at tayloredcontent.com.

This post was first published at CryptoBloggers.us.

Friday Fintech Roundup is a series of YouTuve videos I started producing before the end of last year. This is #10.

Below the video is the transcript.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epwJbe5Wk4s&feature=youtu.be

Transcript:

1) Affirm started selling shares on the Nasdaq on Wednesday and saw the price soar 100% from the initial listing of $49 to $97.24 at closing time. Way to go Affirm!

2) Finextra reports Santander has pulled the plug on funding Asto Digital, an app-based small business invoice and expense management system.

3) Lendio is providing PPP loan application and forgiveness services to Marketing 360 customers.

4) Business lender Linked Finance has been approved under the U.S. COVID-19 Credit Guarantee Scheme giving small businesses another avenue for securing fast discount loans.

5) Digital lending platform Blend has raised $300 million in a Series G funding round, putting its valuation at $3.3 billion.

6) LendingPoint received its first equity funding in the amount of $125 million.

7) The Financial Conduct Authority in UK and the president of the European Central Bank have both called for greater regulatory oversight of cryptocurrencies. These voices prompted crypto advocate Nigel Green of the deVere Group to agree. Green said greater regulation is needed because “digital currencies, including bitcoin, are set to play an ever greater role in the international financial system.”

Got some fintech news you'd like to share? Send it to allen@tayloredcontent.

Friday Fintech Roundup is produced by Taylored Content and hosted by Chief Content Officer Allen Taylor.