We're working on getting destination link/deeplink + open rate + conversion rate next. But before that we have a lot of advanced analytics features to build on top of the content itself. Product roadmap is quite packed!
Thanks for the feedback! Yes an API is definitely on the roadmap.
The difference with bitcoin enabled micropayments and every other attempt at micropayments in the history of the internet is that Bitcoin is an open, interoperable network. Flattr, Beenz, Flooz, TipJoy, and others that have come before have been closed loop networks where there was significant friction and fees associated with getting onto and off of the network. When on the network, these has also only been one behavior possible-- tipping.
Bitcoin is an open, interoperable network where any amount of money can be sent frictionlessly anywhere on the internet. Perfect for micropayments, we think!
I've not used coinbase yet so forgive the question, from what I remember the smallest bitcoin transaction fee is 5430 satoshis, or about 2 USD cents today. That's 20% of a 10c tip, who "pays" it? (the tipper, coinbase, or the recipient?)
If decentralized microtransactions could be done at sufficiently-negligible (sub $0.01? ) cost, I think it could have a major impact on the web. Nobody's yet figured out how to make it effortless, though. This implementation from Coinbase doesn't appear to be different from Flattr, which hasn't yet taken off.
Edit: With further thought, Coinbase may have more users than Flattr, and they already have real money in their accounts. Those differences alone could be significant.
For what its worth, this is only for convenience purposes for those who want to use Bitcoin without having to handle managing their own keys (ie. grandma and grandpa) or want to avoid transaction time/costs that come with operating on the blockchain.
Coinbase offers multi-sig support which puts control back into the user's hands in the event Coinbase went down or was compromised.
Coinbase is a great service for acquiring coin but I generally move it out to my preferred wallet after I purchase it.
Yes. As I understand things, Coinbase provides at least two major services. They're a major US USD<-->BTC exchange, and they also host wallets.
Those things are separable, as you can make a USD->BTC exchange, then transfer to another wallet for safekeeping, or do the reverse to get back to more-traditional currency.
> Nobody's yet figured out how to make it effortless, though.
I'm working on it; the insight that I and others before me have had is that:
1. It needs to happen without having to think about it,
2. I shouldn't have to decide whether to pay in advance, and
3. I should be able to cap to total.
That requires a model based on tracking usage then dividing out payments at the end of the month. It's rather more difficult to do this securely, which is what I've worked on.
Flattr doesn't seem to be getting much traction unfortunately. I think there might be some growth potential for Coinbase to popularise bitcoin and micropayments (one can hope anyway)
What kind of marketing did you do? It seems like a pretty reasonable idea but I can imagine it would require a heavy investment to get a sustaining userbase.
I did some Adwords ads - spent about $5k. The plan was to get some sense of ROI (positive or negative) and then try raising money with proof of concept and estimated budget in-hand. I tried targeting consumers, thinking that at first if I got even a few leads we could have a call center call the relevant businesses. When no one submitted their videos (despite a dead-simple, two tap submission process) I tried to pivot. I started pitching businesses on a cloud-based service to receive, review, and reply to video from their customers (including automated appointment scheduling etc) through their existing websites/apps. Out of hundreds of businesses I contacted, not a single one expressed even the slightest interest.
It seemed like it would be a great business, but the market told me otherwise. That's why I said these marketplaces sound like better businesses than they are.
I think there's plenty of evidence that humans by nature are uninterested in "politics", except when it might effect them. Then it becomes an object of great importance.
As for the role of the algorithm, I think its just an extension of "garbage in, garbage out".
Stories like this are a nice reminder that every community is also a bubble.
I find this explanation extremely hollow. Most programmers didn't start programming when they were kids. They started when they realized it was a good paycheck.
But the "gendering" of computers affects everyone, regardless of how or when they get to the table. I've known many women who found themselves regularly condescended to and even verbally abused by their CS professors, and many of them just dropped out entirely rather than face an academic discipline that quite vocally didn't want them involved. (Is this the norm? I hope not. Is it common? I fear so.) And once they get into the industry, they continue to face scorn and opprobrium, although some sub-disciplines (particularly database administration, ETL and data modeling) seem to fare better than others. Not distinct to the comp-sci field, as any female executive or high-grade salesperson will attest, but I'd like to think we're better than them.
Hmm.. I wonder if that's true of younger programmers, but I don't think I've met a single one around my age (early 30's, late 20's) who didn't start when they were young. I got my start near the end of high school and I felt _impossibly_ late. I still do, frankly.
> I don't think I've met a single one around my age (early 30's, late 20's) who didn't start when they were young.
This is probably partly confirmation basis and partly insufficient data. I doubt every time you meet a fellow developer you ask them how old they were when they first started programming.
I'm 35 and didn't start coding until about four years ago (when I decided to go back to school and switch careers) - there's another dev on my team that started even later, and I know several that never wrote a line of code before college. So yeah we're out there.
Any data on that? I tried searching for info on when the average programmer started, but couldn't find anything. I always figured most programmers started young, but that might just be because so many in my group started really young.
That you know about. The article shows a drop-off starting in the 1980s, which was when the home computer revolution happened. Computer games magazines at the time printed out programs for users to type in themselves, because for the first generation or two of hardware there wasn't a whole lot of software to buy. Also, pre-built home computers were heavily marketed for their education potential.
I'm another that didn't start programming until one of my required courses as a physics undergraduate student. We did have an 8th grade programming class but everyone took that and obviously it didn't spur me into any interest in programming.
Maybe today that's the case. I doubt it was true in the 80s or even the 90s. I think the "Gold Rush" mentality in programming is a post-1999 phenomenon.
