My First Taste Of Bitcoin

The bitcoin logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am not that late to the table. I have been excited about Bitcoin for a while now. But I just got my first taste of it. All you have to do is sign up with Coinbase and they give a dollar worth of Bitcoin for free. Go sign up. It's a good feeling.

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Google, Micropayments, And Online Newspapers

Google's proposal to the Newspaper Association of America

This article has been making the rounds this morning among some of my friends: Google developing a micropayment platform and pitching newspapers: “‘Open’ need not mean free”.

This truly is the wild wild west.

Image via CrunchBase

Noone really has a clue. Newspapers are imploding left and right. News is more important than ever before. But newspapers are not? Journalists are not? Many people don't know how to square that circle.

Companies need focus. That is why Cisco outsources its manufacturing. And big companies don't necessarily do well in every little venture they paddle into. But Google is Google, and Google Checkout has been a minor hit, although, it has to be noted, in the aftermath of Google Checkout PayPal has only grown.

But micropayments, I believe, are a tougher nut to crack. PayPal did not show up in

Image via CrunchBase

the face of an imploding industry. It simply showed up.

Will people pay? Even small amounts? Will ads carry the day on their own? I don't know. I don't know anyone does.

We sure will see a lot of creative destruction in the space over the next few years.

My PayCheckr team has as good a chance as any, and I am sure there will be several players in the space.

(Disclaimer: I sit on the PayCheckr Board, and am a small part owner.)

Related articles by Zemanta

• Google developing a micropayment platform (emilychang.com)
• Google News: A Payment System and A New Search Bar (battellemedia.com)
• Google Offers to Help Newspapers Charge for Their Content (blogs.wsj.com)
• Nieman Journalism Lab: Google developing micropayment system in pitch to newspapers (blogs.journalism.co.uk)
• Proposals For Newspaper Publishers Include Google Micropay (paidcontent.org)
• Google Micropayments Coming: Can It Save Newspapers? (mashable.com)
• FREEFALL: Newspaper Revenues Crash By 29% (mashable.com)
• Metaprinter: Newspaper Association of America goes online-only (blogs.journalism.co.uk)
• Google gets into micropayments (blogs.reuters.com)
• Some 71 Percent Of Newspaper Advertisers Stick Around [Print Is Dead] (consumerist.com)
• CNN Poll: Double-digit post-speech jump for Obama plan (politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com)

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