Monetization is being added to Google's browser. You can easily pay for content through Chrome.
On the last day of January, an entry appeared on the Google Chrome platform status page indicating that a micropayment solution is coming to the browser. Web monetization provides a new revenue model for content creators and website owners, and simplifies the process of paying for voluntary contributions – It can be read on the page..
The news reached the general public a few days later. A contributor to the open source Chromium project, Alexander Surkov Software Engineer uploaded on February 2nd To the chrome forum same textwhich can also be read on the official Chrome website.
Surkov also wrote that the solution to this is It is built on the HTTP-based Open Payments API.which was created specifically for microtransactions on the web. It is implemented through wallets: Microtransactions basically mean transfers between wallets. The security of transactions and control of wallet owners are ensured by GNAP (Grant Negotiation and Authorization Protocol) (About the security of the protocol Here is a more in-depth analysis.).
Barrier-free and flexible
According to the developers of Web Monetization, there are great opportunities in the service, because content producers can move from the two most common monetization models, subscription and advertising funding, to a more flexible model for users. In this way, even very small amounts can be handled efficiently (and automatically). For example, a payment based on usage can be solved. The user links his wallet to the page he visits regularly, and if he opens a paid article, the article fee of a few cents is automatically deducted from his digital wallet.
All you have to do is insert HTML code of the following structure into the page, based on which Chrome sees that the page supports web monetization and determines which payment processing service to use:
like BleepingComputer draws attentionWeb monetization is not yet a W3C standard, but the Web Platform Incubator community group is working on it intensively. Feedback from the web community is currently being collected and processed.
It took a quarter of a century to get here.
The idea of microtransactions has been on the minds of the web for over two decades. For a long time, most were skeptical about its functionality. Even those who expressed doubts about the concept, as one of the most important figures in the world of cryptocurrencies, have Hungarian roots. Nick Szabo (He was previously a potential candidate for Satoshi.) In a study published in 1999, It draws attention to the fact that the mental “bookkeeping costs” of small transactions are also important, and can be higher than accounting costs, and they also hinder the acceptance of small payments. (Mental accounting means that we keep our transactions and various economic events that affect us with a positive or negative sign in some mental structure.)
Although the concept of micropayments has improved due to new payment technologies (PayPal, Stripe, cryptocurrencies, decentralized finance solutions, blockchain technology, wallets, in-app purchases, etc.), there is currently no mainstream solution that can effectively manage micropayments. Really small, a few transactions worth cents.
The Open Payments API has a chance to do this, if the Chromium team and Google can actually implement it. Apple supports this solution, but Chromium-based browsers (like Microsoft Edge, Brave, etc.) could also help it spread.
