I recently drafted a protocol for micropayments. It is almost trivial, and while it requires a trusted payment provider which issues and validates tokens, the way it is designed should prevent any vendor lock-ins.
My goal was to design something that avoids the need for user authentication and logins towards the website which provides content or services.
Anyway, here's the link to the specification I wrote:
http://konstantinschubert.github.io/pennytoken-spec/
I am very interested in your opinion and I hope it is not considered rude that I am posting here.
I know. But I think at least for instantaneous payments you will need SOME trusted party, even if you trust this party only for small amounts and a limited amount of time.
Also, regarding bitcoin, I'm worried about the future of the network after the recent drama and I'm concerned about the computing resources spent in securing the network. I realize that this expense in securing the network is a necessary component of the game theory. But apart from the ecological impact, I think that the cost of it might be higher than trusting a provider who is ultimately backed by the state.
I think bitcoin is amazing and I'd love for it to succeed. However, I believe that for micropayments, the most pragmatic solution might be the one with trust involved.
