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The problem with micropayments isn't the tech really, it's that only the users want them but not any publisher. Which is completely reasonable.

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Publishers want them and many have tried. It is the other way around, people don't want to make micro payments. Some say they do, but the evidence proves they're wrong.

Edit: Typo

Would AI tokens count as a kind of prepaid micropayment?

Why would any publisher want them? Who exactly tried?

As a publisher, I'd want consistent subscription revenue. The goal is to convince users to pay after they hit the paywall several times.

I think the majority publishers have tried it in the past 10-15 years.

If you are a publisher, something which gains widespread attention might happen in your region, or an article might become viral for other reasons. You know that a lot of people would like to read that article and not become subscribers. So if you can sell access to an article 50 000 times for 1 dollar, that's $50 000 in income you wouldn't otherwise have.

But unfortunately, very few people are willing to pay a dollar or 50c for an article which they are desperate to read.

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