Not too long ago at least 50% of my GM/GN replies were unzappable or failed for one reason or another. Now maybe one or two out of twenty fail, and it's mostly because it's a new npub that hasn't set up a lightning address. Progress.
And now realize that the same is true for any bank, neo or not. Either you control the keys, or someone else controls you.
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No prisons, no limits.
It doesn't make sense to put a jpg or a blog post behind a paywall. If it's good, it will be available for free in no time. Someone will right-click save the thing, or take a screenshot, and send it around or republish it. Trying to fight that is stupid. Putting chunks of data behind prisons is stupid.
All data can be reproduced at zero marginal cost, leading to infinite supply. That's why market prices are ridiculous for blog posts, and why it's equally ridiculous to try to sell a single blog post. What you CAN sell is access to an exclusive club or community, as well as access to the author. That's what all Twitch/YouTube/OnlyFans have figured out. But make no mistake: they're not selling JPGs. They might sell early-access (in the case of OnlyFans) which is fair, but it's not selling a JPG as you would sell an apple. Early access because if the stuff is any good, it will be available for free to anyone everywhere.
Here's the thing: people love to support other people, so let them. No limits. The success of Patreon and Substack does not come from paywalls, but from the inherent willingness of people to support others. Lean into that. Let people give without limits.
Social signaling is important. Community is incredibly important too. Do that right, and we can 100x the whole space just like a switch from $50 per game to free-to-play 100x'd the gaming industry, selling cosmetics and social status only.
Computers are copying machines. Information yearns to be free. People want to support the stuff they love, and they're willing to pay for it. Not all people, but ~4% of them. And that is enough.
I wrote about all that at length in the past, e.g. here:
"Copying something at zero marginal cost leads to a virtually infinite supply of that thing. It doesn't matter if that thing is a JPG, a blog post, or an mp3 file. If it can be copied by anyone quickly, perfectly, and for basically free, the supply of said thing quickly approaches infinity. We move from the analog world of scarcity into the digital world of abundance. Markets don't work in this world. In the words of Jaron Lanier: "Markets become absurd as supply approaches infinity.""
https://dergigi.com/2022/12/18/a-vision-for-a-value-enabled-web/
That's fine. My point is a general one: there is a better way to monetize than charging $0.02 for a blog post (or participating in the surveillance machinery), we just have to figure it out.
Who defines hate? Who defines truth? All centralized platforms will inevitably be forced to be the arbiter, willingly or not. It's an impossible problem.
The only solution is to remove central control and push it to the edges. It's messy, it's imperfect, but it's much preferable to the alternative.
Community notes are great. A step in the right direction for sure. The community notes that I'd love to see emerge would be along the lines of "people who usually disagree with each other agree on XY" - we can absolutely do that, and I think it would be powerful.
Be the network effect you want to see in the world.
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Why jump to conclusions that quickly?
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