Strypey
If a Bad Actor gets ransomware into my computer, how much I'll pay to get my files back (or stop them going public) is limited by how much money I have (ability to pay), and further by how important those files are to me (incentive to pay). Datafarming has built ransomware into our computing by convincing us to do it on their computers instead of ours. Even once people understand the problem, how much they will pay for ethical replacements is still limited by ability to pay and incentive to pay.
Jun 26, 2020 at 1:52amWeb
Show threadStrypeyJun 26, 2020
Pricing for ethical services is further complicated by the fact they're often competing with a cash price of $0. So while they need to keep prices within people's ability to pay, if services set prices too low, they risk making prospective users sceptical about their financial sustainability, competence, or honesty. Also, as Clay Shirky pointed out back in 2000, every transactions has a minimum mental decision-making cost, regardless of how low the cash cost gets:
https://web.archive.org/web/20180222082156/http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2000/12/19/micropayments.html
The Case Against Micropayments - O'Reilly Media

Show threadStrypeyJun 26, 2020

"Even tiny charges based on utilization decrease usage substantially. In a rapidly growing market, it is in the service providers' interest to encourage usage, and that argues for simple preferably flat rate, pricing. Historical evidence suggests that when service costs decrease, such arguments prevail over the need to operate a network at high utilization levels and to extract the highest possible revenues."

- #AndrewOdlyzko, 2000

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=235284

Show threadDoc Edward Morbius ⭕​Jun 26, 2020

@strypey You can add Nick Szabo to Shirkey and Odlyzko on micropayments.

I refer to all three here, also rebutting David Brin's pro-micropayments advocacy:
https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/4r683b/repudiation_as_the_micropayments_killer_feature/

#dreddit

Repudiation as the micropayments killer feature (Not)

Over a two-part series at the occasionally-promising [_Evonomics_](http://evonomics.com) website, science fiction and Transparent Society author...

reddit
Show threadDoc Edward Morbius ⭕​Jun 26, 2020

@strypey See also; why information goods and markets are a poor match:

https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/2vm2da/why_information_goods_and_markets_are_a_poor_match/

#dreddit

Why Information Goods and Markets are a Poor Match

In numerous recent conversations on information goods, market economics, the interaction between the two, and negative aspects ranging from...

Show threadStrypeyJun 26, 2020
@dredmorbius I never drank the micropayments kool-aid as such, but I was always intrigued by the concept of 'buskware'. Basically 'digital hat' software that helps people kick in for things that are already freely available on the web etc. To the degree that micropayments style systems have got any traction, it's the ones that implement such voluntary payments; Flattr, Ko-Fi, (Grati/)Liberapay, stuff like that, as well as crowdfunding and bounty platforms.
Show threadDoc Edward Morbius ⭕​Jun 26, 2020
@strypey Those methods strike me less as micropayments and more as micropatronage. Which does seem to work at least somewhat.
Show threadStrypeyJun 26, 2020

".. users want predictable and simple pricing. #Micropayments, meanwhile, waste the users' mental effort in order to conserve cheap resources, by creating many tiny, unpredictable transactions. Micropayments thus create in the mind of the user both anxiety and confusion, characteristics that users have not heretofore been known to actively seek out."

"In situations where there is real competition, providers are usually forced to drop "pay as you go" schemes in response to user preference ..."

Show threadStrypeyJun 26, 2020

Shirky sums up his whole argument for why micropayments systems have failed every time in 3 words:

> Users hate them