[Nextgrid]

The problem with paywalls:

1) they ask for an unreasonable amount of money. If they could just charge what they'd otherwise earn from ad impressions on that particular page view, it would be fine.

2) there is no global, anonymous (from the website's perspective - I don't mind the payment processor keeping records for AML/KYC purposes) micropayments system, and card payment fees make micropayments unsustainable

3) subscribing to the website requires providing personal details, with no guarantee they won't be used for tracking/marketing/etc. Cancelling a subscription is also intentionally made difficult - see the New York Times.

4) all paywalls require subscriptions - there's no "pay per view" mechanism. Do they really expect every web user to have a subscription to dozens of different news websites? Unless you literally spend all day reading news, it's bad value for money.