I agree, this is a big problem, and one of the reasons why paywalls don't work.
I am aware of the mental transaction cost problem and I wrote about it at length here: https://dergigi.com/2021/12/30/the-freedom-of-value/ (CTRL+F "MTX problem")
Podcasting 2.0 shows that payments can be invisible. I think the challenge is both on the user-experience front, and on the business model front: no paywalls, voluntary support. I think the success of Substack (and Patreon, and Twitch) shows that this is a viable model.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Here's the other thing, though. Ads are also unsustainable! I wrote a thread about how AI is going to destroy the ad model a few months back: https://twitter.com/jimmysong/status/1577934190540165121?s=20
What this tells me is that there's a real opportunity for entrepreneurs to figure this out and I suspect Lightning will be a big part of it.
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I agree, as does Adam Curry. He talked about it at length in the V4V panel discussion that NVK hosted on Bitcoin Review a few nights ago.
The attention economy is broken, it leads to clickbait, polarization, and maximizes outrage and addiction.
The advertising model is broken for most; it doesn't fatten the long tail, and if successful it often leads to self-censorship. Incentives are messed up too, most of the time.
What this tells me is that there's a real opportunity for entrepreneurs to figure this out and I suspect Lightning will be a big part of it.
100%
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isn't advertising only as good as the quality of data linked to a real identity..? As people become more privacy conscious and careful with whom they share their data, won't this impact ad revenue models..? Seems the longterm solution to this is self hosting of the content you want to give away on a personal server and then use the V4V model where people can access it for free or stream sats as they stream the conent from your personal server. Guess if it was really popluar though, it might not handle the bandwidth. I don't know enough about this... What are your thoughts Jimmy..?
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