For years I’ve been chasing what others have called my paywall dream. You might even say it’s my version of the white whale.
I remember it was back in late 2017 that I first experienced what they call magic Internet money. In a way, it changed my life, because it was only at that moment that I finally understood what crypto was all about. I’ve been on a mission to try and get others to experience the same feeling ever since.
The transaction in question was made on the Bitcoin Cash network, which happened to be the cheapest Bitcoin fork to use at the time. I sent a little BCH to unlock an article someone had posted on this blogging platform called Yours.org, and I remember being filled with delight as the paywall disappeared mere seconds after I clicked send.
Not only was it fast, and not only did it just work, but it did so without me having to provide my name, address, or credit card number. I knew right away that this was something totally new, and I’ve been obsessed with the idea of peer-to-peer electronic cash ever since.
Unfortunately, Yours.org as I experienced it then no longer exists. It became one of the many casualties of the BCH/BSV hash war that occurred in late 2018. Still, no matter how much time went by, I never forgot that magical feeling of what it was like using electronic cash in the real world.
Year after year I waited. Surely, someone would come along and build an even better version, I thought. It seemed like such an obvious crypto use case to give content creators the ability to charge digital cash for their digital content:
Yet more than 16 years after the Bitcoin genesis block was mined, a solution to this simple problem had yet to come forward…until now.
I’m sure we’ve all experienced it before. You click on a link to some article and halfway down you’re faced with a paywall that requires signing up for a subscription to read the rest. You think to yourself, why can’t I just pay for this one story? Why do I need to go through the painful process of subscribing to a random service just to read a few paragraphs?
For the last several years it’s been my dream to show people there’s a better way. And now with the new PayButton Plugin, I can.
So how does it work? If you are a WordPress user, all you need to do is install the plugin, add a bit of shortcode to any post, and it will hide whatever comes after it behind a paywall. Users can unlock the content by paying the required amount of eCash (XEC) using their eCash wallet of choice. Users can also “login” using their Cashtab.com wallet and the site will know which articles have already been paid for, all without giving up their privacy.
But enough explaining. To continue reading, use the PayButton below to send 100 XEC. It works on both mobile and desktop (using the Cashtab extension), and remember to turn the volume up on your device for the best experience.