Earlier this week, developer Ryan X Charles released a video previewing the production version of his Money Button project. The platform currently is in beta but still allows users to create their own payment button and receive Bitcoin Cash. The final release will include several more features including support for other cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies.
Instant Tipping on the Internet
Ryan X Charles, the founder of cryptocurrency social media platform Yours.org, has been working on a new tipping plugin that could be easily integrated into any website or app. This project came to be known as Money Button and allows users to receive Bitcoin Cash over the internet by copy and pasting some code into their website.
Charles explained his ideas and talked a little about the concepts in an article published early in the summer. In the opening paragraph, he talks about the relations between publishers and end users, saying:
Ads don’t work well for most publishers and they are irritating to end users. Subscriptions are an improvement in some cases, but subscriptions require that users make a long-term commitment to a publication which is not always desirable for the user. Now that we have blockchain technology, we should revisit the idea of using micropayments on the internet.
The whole Money Button idea stems from Charles’s Yours.org. The site lets readers tip and leave likes on content they enjoy using on-chain Bitcoin Cash payments. Originally, Yours.org used on-chain Bitcoin payments for their website. As transaction backlogs and rising fees became more common, they began working on a payment channel network similar to the Lightning Network to allow people to send micropayments on the site once again. After several months of work, they decided to use BCH instead and explained the reasoning here.
Easy Payment Processing
Charles imagined the same exact system built as a plug and play solution that people can add to their website with ease and got working on the Money Button. The platform is still in the early stages of development, but you can go and try a working prototype for yourself right now. At moneybutton.com, you can go link a Bitcoin Cash wallet and generate your own button by adding your Bitcoin Cash address and webhook data. You can then add the button to your website just by copy and pasting.
Charles released a video last week showcasing the finished product on the Money Button YouTube channel, announcing that the production-ready version of Money Button will be available in the coming weeks. The development team will charge a small fee for larger business or websites but will be completely free for small publishers and content creators.
He showed off some features that will come with the final release, including conversions to any local currency along with support for fiat and other cryptocurrencies. Users can opt to use a personal wallet or use the built-in wallet in the Money Button interface.
Money Button could be used by stores as check out option next to traditional credit and debit services, or it could be used by news sites prompting users to pay a small amount of cryptocurrency in order to read the article.
This sort of app marks an ongoing change away from traditional online advertising. Due to the common use of ad blockers, many websites have lost ad revenue and resorted to subscription-based services to keep the money coming in. Online payment portals, especially when paired with cryptocurrencies, could truly change how we surf the web.
How do you think this will change cryptocurrency usage online? Would you use Money Button to support content creators over viewing ads? Let us know in the comments below!
Images courtesy of Money Button, YouTube/Money Button and ShutterStock.