I may have gotten myself in trouble with Britt Blaser at the Web 2.0 pre-conference dinner when I slapped down his discussion of micropayments for the Internet. This is a subject that I have heard at least a dozen time over the years, I even had the the same discussion with Bob Medcalf years ago. I don’t believe that micropayments will reach a critical mass of trust necessary to bring this off. The economy is really just a complex barter system. Don’t let it fool you into believing it is some numeric machine. It’s roughly the same as having a fool proof gambling scheme. The economy is a belief and trust model, I believe my money is worth this much, and I trust that you do too. If we don’t have the same foundation, that one currency is stronger than another, or that the exchange isn’t fair, it all collapses. Micropayments are the same thing, except that it operates at internet speed. Too fast and too mystical for the average person to trust. Even a credit card provides a receipt, and a signature or a pin. Prices can’t change from moment to moment, micropayments could provide that, and no one could trust that happening.
I suppose that If I had known how famous Britt was, I might have kept me mouth shut. But I’m becoming Irish, and it just won’t close on it’s own.