Google is 'free'. Hotmail is 'free'. The 'cloud storage' the 'email service' the 'calendar' the apps associated... all these features are 'free' at Google and Microsoft.

But they're not really. Those services have to be paid for somehow and maintained... and so google users are NOT the customers. Google users are the product and their data + privacy is constantly being sold to advertisers to generate revenue. Google is not an 'internet' company it is a massive advertising company and "you" the user are the product.

Facebook is another horrible, hideous example of this. Noone 'pays' to use facebook... and yet they make money big time. How? By selling user data and privacy to advertisers and AI companies. Facebook totally, completely owns all your data and all interaction on the site to monetize it.

Twitter is another example of this it's 100% the same. It makes money driving 'engagement' to advertisers that's it full stop. Anything to result in 'engagement' (even total nonsense) is what they promote.

Years ago, Proton Mail realized that asking people to 'pay' for something 'free' (email) could protect their privacy and result in a better service... because user data doesn't have to be sold to advertisers.

It completely, totally fixes the incentives of online services and engagement. All the broken incentives, lack of privacy, and underhanded advertising is removed. You get what you pay for and beyond that Proton has taken Bitcoin payments for years... so that they don't get cancelled by the credit card companies for selling encrypted/private communication government doesn't like.

Personally I believe that Lightning is long-term, enormously necessary to be 'anti-bot'. If bots on Youtube or Twitter bad to pay 1 cent (on lightning of course) per comment... 90% of them would disappear overnight. Bots and spammers rely on volume and 1 cent a comment wouldn't effect legitimate users... but spammers won't pay 100s or 1000s of dollars to spam comments with very low ROI. I think it's the future and increasingly necessary to 'clean' the internet of total nonsense.

Imagine if creating a twitter profile cost 10 cents.. and maybe 1 cent a comment to post. What % of profiles would disappear and how many comments would fade away? My guess is that 80% of 'interaction' would disappear as it's artificial engagement or bots. But it would be a better platform in the long run.