Microtransaction industry moving forward

[Stephen Gornick]

A couple examples of microtransaction-based services:

Torrent Traveler:
You upload a torrent file and Torrent traveler will retrieve the download for you.  When the torrent download has completed, you then can pay $0.25 (per GB) to retrieve the download over the web:
  http://torrenttraveler.com/avpzaqvbpxgz4rukk3cgqoxvf

Here's an ebook, where chapters are sold individually, $0.25 USD each:
  http://project7alpha.com/2011/03/chapter-1/

Minno allows buyers to top up a wallet balance by charging to a credit card:
  https://www.minno.co/account#buy-credit

Minno is in closed beta right now but was featured on Tech Crunch:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/28/minno-hopes-theres-a-place-in-this-world-for-a-small-simple-e-wallet

Bitcoin already has two bitcoin-powered download services
  http://Ubitio.us.com and http://BitcoinService.co.uk
and shopping cart interfaces
  http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Category:Shopping_Cart_Interfaces
to compete against minno, however the differences include:
  - immediacy  (There's no waiting for a block or two to confirm on minno before releasing the goods)
  - slick API / integration

There's no reason Minno couldn't accept bitcoins as a "funding" method.  There's really no reason why Torrent Traveler can't use using bitcoins directly.

PayPal competes with their PayPal/X microtransaction payment platform

It is great to see attention brought to microtransactions and the virtual goods industry.

It will be interesting to see where Bitcoins fits in these areas.

[casascius]

A couple examples of microtransaction-based services:

Torrent Traveler:
You upload a torrent file and Torrent traveler will retrieve the download for you.  When the torrent download has completed, you then can pay $0.25 (per GB) to retrieve the download over the web:
  http://torrenttraveler.com/avpzaqvbpxgz4rukk3cgqoxvf

This is a service I would probably pay for today - especially if the downloaded torrents could just be mailed to me on DVD-R.  Some of us don't have the bandwidth to spare - or our usage is metered in such a way that it would cost more than $0.25/GB just to download whatever it was.

[Stephen Gornick]

#1 on Hacker News right now is a new microtransaction link sharing service GumRoad:
  - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2406614

Of course, Bitcoin is already there:
  - https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade#Virtual_goods

[MoonShadow]

A couple examples of microtransaction-based services:

Torrent Traveler:
You upload a torrent file and Torrent traveler will retrieve the download for you.  When the torrent download has completed, you then can pay $0.25 (per GB) to retrieve the download over the web:
  http://torrenttraveler.com/avpzaqvbpxgz4rukk3cgqoxvf

This is a service I would probably pay for today - especially if the downloaded torrents could just be mailed to me on DVD-R.  Some of us don't have the bandwidth to spare - or our usage is metered in such a way that it would cost more than $0.25/GB just to download whatever it was.

DVD-R's are a pain in the ass.  What about a mailable USB drive with return postage and an address label?

I can see a usage based opp here for some teen with cheap bandwidth.