[hakfoo]

The problem with micropayments goes beyond the finances.

It's a major friction point.

How do you set up the payment relationship the first time? Maybe you can get it down to one click, at best, with stored credentials.

When you consume content, you still have to track expenditures, whether it's a prepaid credit balance draining or an invoice building up. Every pageview becomes a "is this worth 8 cents?" discussion.

A broad cooperative flat-rate programme-- Patreon on steroids-- seems the best way to manage that. The consumer signs up for the entire universe at $20 per month, and then doesn't have to think about what happens if he visits a new site, or opens 500 articles this month and 5 next month. It's all sorted out with analytics at the content-provider level.