Now that zaps are taking off and more folks experience the power of V4V first-hand, I'm tempted to write more about it (and share some thoughts on how to do text-based V4V "right" - or at least not terribly wrong!)
What do you guys think I should focus on?
Here's my writing on it so far:
> Monetizing information is a hard problem. Information wants to be free, and I think we should not build cages - no matter how pretty - for the sake of imprisoning information. This is one of the reasons why I don’t intend to charge for bits and bytes.
> Free speech platforms can not exist. Only free speech protocols can exist.
> If someone can control what is being said, someone will control what is being said. If you can monitor, filter, and censor content, you will monitor, filter, and censor content.
> All platforms will run into this problem, no matter how pristine their intentions. Even if you position yourself as a free speech platform at first, you will be forced to step in and censor in the long run.
> We move from the analog world of scarcity into the digital world of abundance. Markets don't work in this world. In the words of Jaron Lanier: "Markets become absurd as supply approaches infinity."
> "Trying to make digital files uncopyable is like trying to make water not wet," to quote Bruce Schneier.
> When it comes to JPGs, mp3 files, blog posts, or similar digital artifacts, we have to stop pretending that the files themselves are scarce or precious. They aren't. The humans that create them are. Consequently, we have to find new ways of pricing and monetizing things. New ways of making sure that the value that is generated accrues to the humans that are responsible for the added value, without imprisoning information or users—without trying to make water not wet.
> We have to disconnect price from value, and we have to re-think both.
https://dergigi.com/2022/12/18/a-vision-for-a-value-enabled-web/
> "The Ask" is the most important piece of the puzzle. The number one reason people do not give is because they weren’t asked, and the same holds true for the V4V model.
> There is an art in asking your audience to give back, and it will be different depending on medium, demographics, and other factors. But one thing remains: you’ll have to ask.
Well I startet to write up some thoughts but your replies just went right to K.O. with them. Honestly Gigi, I (we?) love it! Thank you so much!
Can Filipinos own Bitcoin as much as the Americans can?When?
Yep, that’s a profound point I’ve been trying to articulate but you’ve found great words for. Independent of #nostr, Sam Harris is incredibly good at what you call “the ask”. He does it in a way where it is clearly authentic, because 1) unlike almost everyone else he’s forgoing advertising revenue and 2) he offers people who can not afford it a free version of his subscriptions.
What’s interesting there is that the default is people pay and he forces people to be ACTIVELY disingenuous if they want to cheat his system.
I don’t understand this one still. Information trends toward being free in the digital space because of the zero cost of duplication, but duplication is not the only cost.
Paywalls don’t pretend that the cost of duplication isn’t zero, they just have to be reasonable and frictionless enough that someone will pay for the “original” version rather than go to the trouble of finding the duplicate (which in many cases is duplicated by someone predatory).
Have you read the writing linked in this thread? I took great pains in trying to explain the problem in detail.
In any case, I'm fine with the "selling early access" argument. Just don't pretend that you're selling information.
Yes of course, I’ve read it all. The problem with the reasoning that “all information wants to be free” is that even the information that is free is not free!
If you are downloading that “free” information on your computer, whether that be viewing a screenshot of an article on twitter, or pirating a movie, or reading from a Nostr relay, someone else is footing the bill to make it “free” to you.
Pirated movie sites have a million ads and they are a nightmare and terrible to use. Why? Because even the “free” movies that have broken their paywall chains and “set themselves free”… still have a paywall. You’re just paying for the servers with the annoyance and UX nightmare and accidental clicks on a paywall of a million ads instead of a literal paywall.
Lightning will be see easy, so frictionless, that *almost no* information will be free. The cost of receiving information will trend toward the cost of serving it to you, plus whatever additional cost people are willing to pay to be honest. But you’ll pay that cost with a real paywall. Because the alternative of not paying an easy, instant, and cheap Lightning paywall is to go pay for the content some other way that sucks way more than zapping 10 sats (or however many).
Give me any example of paid content “setting itself free” and I’ll show you the trade off you’re choosing to consume it that way instead of just paying for it.
I think we would zap the f*** outta you if you write more
~ Value enabled web
What do you think how v4v impacts political party's in future? Maybe a party can be just a "collective of best ideas". Can bitcoin's "verification technology" bring new possibilities to vote?
I would like to learn more about the time, talent, and treasure. For example, I love how Adam Curry has his audience create artwork for his show and then sends the artist 10% . I want to see more of this collaborative V4V stuff.
Good point! It's a big part of the FLOSS culture and a lot of time & talent came my way too!
In form of translations and remixes, for example.
Wow. I didn't know you had so many translations. What would an example of a remix be? Bitcoin Audible?
Videos of the texts, animations, etc. Someone made a VR world of 21 Lessons, for example, which was probably one of the most awesome remixes so far.
I’m a huge proponent of FLOSS culture.
Here's a V4V gif I made 
Are you familiar with the Stay Awhile album by Able and the Wolf?
When they went to release the album they wrote the artists into the splits for the track art https://ableandthewolf.com/album
Haven't heard of them, but I found them on fountain. https://fountain.fm/show/yBOZzxLIz1YE3oxfDfbc
Yup that's it.
On my end, curious what the impact of the nip57 standard will have for companies focus on building V4V.
So far V4V has been fairly incompatible across platform on the content side. Only the payment was standardize through lightning
Hey #[1] I was thinking about your question and came up with an interesting thought that you might consider to put a focus on.
As I see it, the main burden is to get people to the process of actually paying, even if they like what they got. If they could do it with just a thought and the right trigger, many more would probably send something. And, receiving a payment gets even harder after the individual got the desired information. As soon as it is consumed, the attention drops rapidly and in most cases there is no payment made.
So how to get around this? Asking for a payment helps but it won’t push it as much as it should be possible.
The solution: lock the payment while the attention and will to consume the information is still strong, but give the readers the possibility to get their sats back (in case they are disappointed). Practically they would have to make a payment which they can withdraw again after the established reading time (or another time period). The initial payment could be freely chosen by the reader or be a set amount or inside a given range.
This would need to be testet but I am pretty sure that it would boost V4V payments immensely and I could imagine that there are smooth ways to integrate this. It helps to circumvent the problems of prepaying and not knowing what you get for your payment as well as not paying because of lost attention.
Wenn du intensiver darüber sprechen möchtest, schreib mir eine dm. Gefühlt entwickelt sich der Gedanken gerade in real time✌🏻
