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But how would the whole thing work? How do you make it worthwhile for the people who want to pay you the penny or nickel to contact or tip you?
It's not a business idea, just looking at micropayments as a way to reduce spam and tip people on the internet.
But how can you send a penny or a nickel across the internet easily?
It cannot require installing new software. Most people won't install it, and they're right to be suspicious of software installs. Phones are a flaming disaster for privacy because of apps.
Really, you just need to send a credible promise of the penny or nickel. The promise can then circulate - but only as long as the promise is certain to be paid. How would you even pay it without losing money on the stamp?
One way to pay is in human attention, which is really the currency of the internet. But that sounds like ads, ugh. Ads suck.
Bitcoin and the other crypto systems don't work well with tiny payments like a penny or a nickel. Maybe one could let someone else use your computer power in the browser for a little while. People try to do this anyway, mining crypto with javascript on web pages you might visit.
One could in theory do a little work to pay the cent, but at the current minimum wage in CA, one cent is only half of a second of work. How do you even do half a second of work?
Maybe you could fill out a ReCaptcha as a way to pay someone. It will take more than half a second, but it's something useful people need when they want to get into an annoying website and are blocked by Google.
I know that the problem of reliable easy micropayments is hard, but maybe the answer will appear.