Comments on: Bitpass Shutting the Doors http://www.evilgeniuschronicles.org/wordpress/2007/01/20/bitpass-shutting-the-doors/ A journal of geekery, music and joy Sat, 13 Mar 2010 03:59:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 hourly 1 By: Winnie http://www.evilgeniuschronicles.org/wordpress/2007/01/20/bitpass-shutting-the-doors/comment-page-1/#comment-35287 Winnie Mon, 22 Jan 2007 06:53:37 +0000 http://www.evilgeniuschronicles.org/wordpress/2007/01/20/bitpass-shutting-the-doors/#comment-35287 I did indeed work for Bitpass, and they were actually making pretty good money until stakeholders from their rounds of VC funding pressured them to get out of the adult content business, neglect indie content creators and spend all of their resources on going after big media. It's conceivable that a mircopayments company that is allowed to grow organically can succeed, but when investors are knocking at your door offering tens of millions of dollars, it's very hard to resist selling out. I did indeed work for Bitpass, and they were actually making pretty good money until stakeholders from their rounds of VC funding pressured them to get out of the adult content business, neglect indie content creators and spend all of their resources on going after big media.

It’s conceivable that a mircopayments company that is allowed to grow organically can succeed, but when investors are knocking at your door offering tens of millions of dollars, it’s very hard to resist selling out.

]]> By: dave http://www.evilgeniuschronicles.org/wordpress/2007/01/20/bitpass-shutting-the-doors/comment-page-1/#comment-35193 dave Sun, 21 Jan 2007 17:29:32 +0000 http://www.evilgeniuschronicles.org/wordpress/2007/01/20/bitpass-shutting-the-doors/#comment-35193 Winnie, did you work for Bitpass? It seems from your blog like you might have? Seems to me that one way or another, either going out of business or leaving the micropayments business is effectively the same thing. It pains me to agree with Clay Shirky, but it does appear that crossing the threshold to any purchase takes an energy and once you've built up that activation energy you are wasting it by only collecting pennies. Like I say, I think giving a few people something big to buy makes more sense than taking a nickel from everyone. Ewan, that is really the only interesting thing about SL. In order to do that, there has to be some sort of control that prevents Linden from just minting more money. A floating exchange rate that drops if they flood the market or something must exist. Winnie, did you work for Bitpass? It seems from your blog like you might have? Seems to me that one way or another, either going out of business or leaving the micropayments business is effectively the same thing. It pains me to agree with Clay Shirky, but it does appear that crossing the threshold to any purchase takes an energy and once you’ve built up that activation energy you are wasting it by only collecting pennies. Like I say, I think giving a few people something big to buy makes more sense than taking a nickel from everyone.

Ewan, that is really the only interesting thing about SL. In order to do that, there has to be some sort of control that prevents Linden from just minting more money. A floating exchange rate that drops if they flood the market or something must exist.

]]> By: Winnie http://www.evilgeniuschronicles.org/wordpress/2007/01/20/bitpass-shutting-the-doors/comment-page-1/#comment-35153 Winnie Sun, 21 Jan 2007 10:02:00 +0000 http://www.evilgeniuschronicles.org/wordpress/2007/01/20/bitpass-shutting-the-doors/#comment-35153 Re: I guess the closing of Bitpass kind of cuts the legs out from under this argument. As far as I know, Mr. McCloud's argument still stands. There were many factors contributing to Bitpass' demise, but at the time of its death, Bitpass was no longer a "micropayments" company. Re: I guess the closing of Bitpass kind of cuts the legs out from under this argument.

As far as I know, Mr. McCloud’s argument still stands. There were many factors contributing to Bitpass’ demise, but at the time of its death, Bitpass was no longer a “micropayments” company.

]]> By: Ewan Spence http://www.evilgeniuschronicles.org/wordpress/2007/01/20/bitpass-shutting-the-doors/comment-page-1/#comment-35152 Ewan Spence Sun, 21 Jan 2007 10:01:41 +0000 http://www.evilgeniuschronicles.org/wordpress/2007/01/20/bitpass-shutting-the-doors/#comment-35152 You have to hand it to Linden Lab, one of the unsung successes of Second LIfe is the Linden Dollar - which is one of the few widely used microcurrencies on the internet (roughly 300 L$ to one US dollar). Okay it may be in a closed environment at the moment (ie only in their virtual world) but wouldn't it be interesting if Paypal (for example) aded it to their roster of currencies? You have to hand it to Linden Lab, one of the unsung successes of Second LIfe is the Linden Dollar – which is one of the few widely used microcurrencies on the internet (roughly 300 L$ to one US dollar). Okay it may be in a closed environment at the moment (ie only in their virtual world) but wouldn’t it be interesting if Paypal (for example) aded it to their roster of currencies?

]]>