Bitcoin Forum

http://www.coindesk.com/cash-strapped-multibit-developers-charge-transaction-fee

Why don't they just ask for donations or do some crowdfunding rather than doing this?

I dont think they received much from donatoin...

Well that's their problem. I dont think its right making people pay a fee to them.

Well.. now they have more than a million users. Even if 50% of the users might dump them, the other 50% are going to stay. Actually, this is the modus operandi for a lot of the successful firms.  ;D

its only a half of a cent  ::) . for such a good wallet, its pretty fair i think.

But why anyone should use it, when better wallets are available for free? Their thinking is very clear. They have got a large number of users. Now the time has come to profit from this popularity.

they have to be better than the others of course. more features and service. lets see how this will play out...

multibit is quite a good tool. it is well tested by a large number of users. no other light-weight wallet can beat it at this moment.

Electrum

I'm glad to see some of these tools and services start to be monetized.  It still undercuts fees charged in the legacy financial system and funding is necessary for further development and support.  It will produce a stronger system in the long run.

They just need to add donations in the wallet apps.

Multibit is far cry from a high quality client and to force people to "donate", should show it. I am going to call it what it is, a GUI on top of bitcoinj.

I think Jim and Gary should sit down and go how are we going to monetize it without a users being forced to "donate".

1) They could get a company to sponsor them. Look at how well that worked for Jeff at Bitpay, he doesn't even upstream anything anymore...

2) They could explore if you want customer service you have to purchase a plan. I know some people would take but Jim then doesn't need to insult people like he did on reddit.

3) Build a plugin store, allow people to build plugins and sell them. Then take a commission.

4) Ads... I actually don't mind ads but I would know people who hate them and would get a plan to remove them.

1. Will be a good idea, but it is going to take a lot of effort to find some one who is willing to sponsor them.
2. They could sell premium accounts, with added functionalities.
3. Good idea.
4. Very bad idea.

This is actually quite interesting and depending on how this goes for them I think it might set a precedent going forward for other wallets to consider charging users similar fees in addition to the standard miners fee.

If the wallet can not be supported on donations alone then in a sense it's now completing with other wallets since users will now have a financial incentive(albeit a very small one) to switch to other free wallets.

I wonder if this will lead to Multibit adding additional features in order to entice new users to use their product. Now that they have a potential stream of revenue they have more reason to do so.

It would have been better for them to add a new paid service, with added functionalities than to stop the free service all together. From now onward, they are not going to get many new users.