Cool blog post but I can't get excited about "micro-transactions" when we've heard this same story so many times since the 90s. Zzzzzz. Few weeks of hype (1 cent to read my blog = $120,000!?!) and it never materializes.
(Dee Hock was the "founder"/driving force behind Visa btw).
Also, the idea of paying one penny to read an article might not make sense if it is user initiated, but it could very easily happen if you had an "drip" effect from a connected faucet (i.e. account of virtual currency). I'd be more than happy to pay $.05 for each NYTimes article I actually read, but I have no desire to pay a monthly fee for the Times. If I could have one account that worked across a bunch of different websites and automatically implemented the "drip," I'd consider that a major improvement.
Personally my bet is on other virtual currencies as opposed to Bitcoin (i.e. my own), since the Blockchain stuff ends up being your enemy rather than your friend.