Monetizing A Blog with Bitcoin

If Louis C.K. proved anything this month, it's that you can provide DRM-free content to users for a small fee and still receive substantial compensation for your work without depending on corporations to produce your content. Today, we're going to take that one step further and handle our own payment processing as well.

With Bitcoin and some nifty code from StrongCoin, it's fairly straight-forward to sell any digital good or service that you have to offer. In this case, it will be a password to some hidden content on this page.

After a small payment, I will guide you through how you can monetize your own content. All proceeds will go to the Bitcoin Faucet.

There have already been payments!

Click this link to make your payment. A pop-up window will appear, so you may have to disable your pop-up blocker to see it work. Once your payment is made, click the "show encrypted text" link, below, and enter the password that you received in the text file that was sent to you.

Show encrypted text

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StrongCoin Developer Demonstrates Another Killer App for Bitcoin

After thousands of years, our financial system has finally come full circle.

Imagine being able to sell any digital good you own for any amount of money, no matter how small, in a way that was never before possible with the Internet.

The creator of StrongCoin has developed just that: a micro-payment system that will let you sell photos, artwork, music, code, documents, books, or anything else that exists in a digital form. The Internet finally has its lemonade stand.

Check out a demonstration, right here.

Suddenly, we can all be merchants and entrepreneurs that do not rise and fall at the whim of a payment processor. We will not be subject to chargebacks, fees, withheld earnings, or any other of the dozens of hurdles that Internet businesses normally face.

It's so simple, and so important.

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One of Three "Wagner Criteria" Met

If you remember my interview with Bruce Wagner, back in August, you'll recall that he outlined three hurdles that Bitcoin had to overcome before mass adoption could take place. While there has been much controversy surrounding Bruce Wagner, his reasoning was sound:

"I've been saying that the three major hurdles for Bitcoin are security, liquidity, and currency risk, and all three problems will be solved in three months, maximum. Once these hurdles are dealt with, Bitcoin will roll out as fast as Facebook has."

With StrongCoin, Wagner Criterion number one, "security," has now been met, though at a cost of one percent on outgoing transactions.

Bruce incorrectly used the term "liquidity" to mean the ease with which you could purchase Bitcoins (I've made the same mistake, myself). Regardless, it is still quite difficult to acquire Bitcoins. Inroads have been made on facilitating Bitcoin purchases, with services like BitInstant, but it's a symptom of the archaic financial system we live with that it may never become "easy" to purchase Bitcoins, especially in the United States. That being said, with improvements like Mt.Gox's arrangement with Chase Bank, it gets easier every day.

Currency risk to merchants has been mostly solved, with bit-pay, but again, at a price.

Each day we get closer to meeting all three Wagner Criteria. The three-month time frame might have been a little optimistic, but it is definitely safer, easier, and less risky to transact with Bitcoins, today, than it was when I spoke with Bruce.

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StrongCoin Developer to Release "True" Killer App

I've received some criticism for calling StrongCoin a Bitcoin application, let alone a "killer" application. I can appreciate that, as it isn't truly an app that takes advantage of Bitcoin's properties - rather it's a Bitcoin-enabler, which is arguably even more important at this stage of the game.

Shortly after I posted the article about StrongCoin, I was contacted by its developer. Here is a snippet of the email he sent me:

"I think you're wrong though... the killer app for Bitcoin is [redacted]. I'm hoping to get a demo running in a few weeks."

The Bitcoin Trader is even more excited, especially since this is his 100th post!

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Bitcoin's Killer App is Here

What if there was an application that gave you a completely secure Bitcoin wallet, made downloading the client and blockchain a thing of the past, and required the computer skills of your average Facebook user?

Ladies and gentlemen, it's here. The app has arrived that will sweep the Bitcoin community off its feet: StrongCoin.

Features:

- Web-based e-wallet - no more client or blockchain downloads;

- Client-side private key generation and encryption - invulnerable to hackers as long as you choose a strong password for your wallet (as with your normal online banking). StrongCoin does not know your password and cannot access your wallet;

- Imports your offline-generated and encrypted private key, if you so desire;

- Printable paper wallet with encrypted private key for safe and secure backup;

- Address book;

- Send/receive Bitcoins;

- QR code generation;

- Encrypted keys are backed up every 24 hours to a fully redundant data storage infrastructure;

- Access your Bitcoins from any device, including Kindle.

What's the catch? A 1% fee, up to a maximum of 1 BTC, on all outgoing transactions. WELL worth it.

I think we all agree that downloading a client is not the way to go for most people. It's slow, difficult for grandma to install, and not secure unless you take the proper steps which can be very technically demanding.

Finally, we have an app that will open up Bitcoin to a whole new segment of society. This is exciting. The Bitcoin Trader is excited.

Edit: if you'd like to be walked through StrongCoin, click on "Simple Bitcoin Guide" at the top of the blog.

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