03.20.03
(Internet) stamp collecting
It looks as though Peppercoin are not the only people trying to kick-start the old online micropayments business. Centipaid are spreading the word of their arrival at market.
Unlike Peppercoin, which uses a wacky algorithm to approximate all the tiny payments going on and pay out accordingly, Centipaid will track each payment by use of … stamps.
Well, ’stamped’ graphics. I like this, because that’s pretty much the original meaning of stamp, so there’s a conceptual consistency to the enterprise.
I’m not sold on the mechanism, though. Saving graphics to My Documents and then uploading them to pay for stuff? It may be perfectly secure, but I’m not sure it will feel secure to internet punters.
Oh, and it took about 10 seconds of browsing the promo site to work out that their target market is gentlemen browsing the web for, ahem, exclusive artistic photographs, who require methods of secure anonymous micropayments.
So, it’ll probably be a roaring success.