Image Attribution: Michelle Henderson from Unsplash
A New Way to Support Content Creators?
Web Monetization is a proposed w3c standard for browsers that allows site owners to integrate their site with something called the Interledger Protocol and get paid for their hard work. It is a more privacy centric and user-friendly alternative to traditional monetization methods like advertisements. Plus, Web Monetization provides a full Javascript API that allows web developers to integrate it into their sites and change behavior on receipt of payment. For example, a site could remove ads, provide extra content, or even additional features if it detected that the browser or extension had sent a payment.
To receive funds from Web Monetization, all you have to do to use it is get an Interledger wallet and add the wallet's address into some tags on your site. Addresses are available through a variety of providers, such as:
- Uphold
- Stronghold
- and more
The Web Monetization site has the latest list of wallet options here: https://webmonetization.org/docs/ilp-wallets
What's cool about this is that the method of payment is entirely dependent on your wallet! For example, the user could fund their payments using USD through a Coil subscription and you could configure your site to use a Bitcoin Interledger wallet through Uphold. Or you could just receive it as USD. It's up to you!
What is the Interledger Protocol?
So how does that work? How can USD just become Bitcoin (or Eth, or BAT, or etc...)? That's the magic of the Interledger Protocol and network. You can read more about how Interledger works here, but essentially it is a protocol based on TCP/IP that allows heterogenous ledgers and payment services to interact and transparently transfer and exchange money. So like in the example above, the Coil browser extension knows that you have a $5 USD Coil subscription to spend on sites. If it sees that a site is web monetized it will use the Interledger Protocol to coordinate with the service backing the Interledger wallet provided by the site to convert some small portion (usually a few cents) of that USD into the correct funds.
How is this different from BRAVE and the Basic Attention Token?
The main difference for end-users is that there are no ads involved and, perhaps more importantly for many of you, you don't earn any BAT or other cryptocurrency for browsing. Instead, the deeper integration with sites will allow users to be rewarded in other ways. For example, Imgur uses Web Monetization to provide premium accounts.
Web Monetization does, however, work very similarly for site owners! In fact, in some aspects its better. Site owners can choose what currency they want to be paid in and can incentive users through extra content or features. With BAT you're at the mercy of users sending tips or enabling auto-tipping.
Additionally, if Web Monetization does get accepted as a w3c standard it will be less tied to a single corporate entity like Brave. However, today, it is mostly driven by Coil so this is more of an aspirational benefit.
Should I Use Web Monetization?
If you are a site owner it can't hurt! Chances are if you're on PUBLISH0X you're already using Brave and BAT as a Brave Creator. This means you likely have an Uphold account. If that's the case, just go to Uphold and create an ILP wallet address and slap that address on your site. Then site back and watch as dozens of cents roll in.
If you're a user I recommend checking to see if a Coil subscription makes sense for you. A limited number of sites support it right now and the ecosystem is still pretty new, but it will never grow if people don't use it! Definitely worth considering.
The Future of Web Monetization
This part is purely speculative, but as the ecosystem grows it has the potential of replacing a lot of the user-hostile and privacy violating ads out there in the world. Mozilla has also expressed interest in the standard which may point at potential Firefox integrations in the future. Especially if the w3c standard is approved.
Have a good day fellow cryptos.
Your friend, friend.
