Introduction

Thousands of people make a living on eBay, selling directly to customers. But it's much harder for writers, musicians, and other artists to sell digital content online without going through a big corporation. Here is a micropayment design that addresses this problem and does more besides. I developed it while exploring how to sell my own writing online, in ways that help people share paid access with others.

The central innovation is a micropayment code that can make payments online -- but also can reach a Web control center, allowing the code's owner to create any number of new codes that have part of the value of the original, and may be customized with many optional features as well. These new "children" codes can also reproduce, through any number of generations. This simple idea has almost unimaginable flexibility, and endless practical uses.

Any smart-code owner can create new codes online (or by phone) for many purposes, including: paying money; receiving money; admitting friends to movies or events; creating digital gift certificates with expert assistance; sharing paid access to works of favorite artists, which supports them while also giving to friends; licensing content; automatically registering for Web sites; creating instant Web sites and public announcements; reselling customized codes to specialized markets; giving library or other clients limited access to expensive databases; establishing ownership of digital art; having robots negotiate prices and make small purchases automatically; establishing trust/credibility/reputation trees; or assisting fundraising by permanently recording donations to historic causes so they can be sold to collectors. Different code-issuing organizations can provide seamless interconnectivity for users, even if they did not agree in advance on any technical standards. And the estimated cost of processing most financial transactions this way is about a tenth of a cent, regardless of the transaction amount.