I hope they can turn it into Megabucks; I need Ivan to have poker money to lose ;)
I've always thought the whole "promise to pay" thing was a bit of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, you're relying on the honesty and follow-through of people to actually pay their promised debt. But on the other hand, it is awesome that you can pay/receive without having an account linked to some sort of payment method and all the other hurdles that a tipping service would usually have. Plus, the ability to "cash out" at any time helps skirt the fact that micropayments are still very uneconomical due to fees. I don't know their statistics, but I imagine a vast majority of people only pay / cash out after they have at least a few bucks accrued.
For content with zero marginal cost that is easily pirated, the pledge model makes lots of sense. I'm certain we have a higher payment rate than iTunes has for music - IF you count those that pirate music. What was it? 2% of music on ipods is bought via iTunes?
We're going to be making mandating payment easier soon. Then we'll have a super powerful triple edged sword. Or something like that.
Just had a thought: if the money thing fails, they could use their code to just create a karma network. Instead of money, pay with karma points. Might still be useful, even if working micropayments would be nicer.
We have talked about changing the currency of the donations. For example, if a site like Flickr or Tumblr had an Explore section where you could pay for placement, you could "gift" placement there. The currency is more eyes and ears for your content, though it might essentially be a $1 donation.
I've always thought the whole "promise to pay" thing was a bit of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, you're relying on the honesty and follow-through of people to actually pay their promised debt. But on the other hand, it is awesome that you can pay/receive without having an account linked to some sort of payment method and all the other hurdles that a tipping service would usually have. Plus, the ability to "cash out" at any time helps skirt the fact that micropayments are still very uneconomical due to fees. I don't know their statistics, but I imagine a vast majority of people only pay / cash out after they have at least a few bucks accrued.