One idea I had that is on my list of things I'll probably never get around to doing is an ad blocker that pays the ad companies for adverts you don't see on a page.
The thought behind this is that the ad companies already handle micropayments to websites, and there's only a few ad companies - 'all' you need to do is set up an arrangement with them where you take fees from users and distribute to the companies when their ads are blocked (as detected by the tracker). Website owner still gets paid, and ad provider effectively gets paid for being your microtransaction provider. You only have to set up relationships with a few companies, rather than practically every website in the world.
For people like myself who would like to block ads but feel ethically bound not to, this would be a great way around the inflexibility of current models, where I subscribe to a single website or whatever.
As I said, I'll probably never get round to it, but if someone feels like it they're welcome to use the idea.
The thought behind this is that the ad companies already handle micropayments to websites, and there's only a few ad companies - 'all' you need to do is set up an arrangement with them where you take fees from users and distribute to the companies when their ads are blocked (as detected by the tracker). Website owner still gets paid, and ad provider effectively gets paid for being your microtransaction provider. You only have to set up relationships with a few companies, rather than practically every website in the world.
For people like myself who would like to block ads but feel ethically bound not to, this would be a great way around the inflexibility of current models, where I subscribe to a single website or whatever.
As I said, I'll probably never get round to it, but if someone feels like it they're welcome to use the idea.