Micropayments are a bad idea that feels like a good idea. They're bad for a fundamental human reason - each decision carries with it emotional and psychological burden. Make a few in a day and you land in decision fatigue [1]. Weighing the value of a purchase no matter how small over and over again makes the whole experience an utter chore.

  There is a paradox in that "people who lack choices seem to want them and often will fight for them", yet at the same time, "people find that making many choices can be [psychologically] aversive." [1]

There's no technical reason why any wallet operator today, like PayPal can't do micropayments except people don't want them. They think they do, but they don't.

Concrete example: For most people, it's always been cheaper to just buy the content you want to watch from iTunes one at a time - and own it forever! But everyone uses Netflix instead. They continue to use Netflix even as it has less and less of what they actually wanted to watch in the first place! In the battle of more expensive vs more decision making, more expensive always wins.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_fatigue