Coil, a browsing extension similar to the defunct tipping service Changetip, now allows their users to tip content creators on YouTube, Twitch and Wikipedia.

The idea behind Coil is that users sign up for a fixed monthly subscription, and when they visit a website that supports Coil payments through their API called Web Monetization, Coil will donate a small amount of money to the content creator in real-time. Coil is a project founded by Stefan Thomas, the previous CTO of Ripple Inc. and co-creator of Interledger and in an article on Medium he describes his vision for his new project.

In the article, he says that while many people have discussed the potential of micropayments to leave the current ad-supported web and various subscription services, not many have managed to capture the huge variety of content available on the web. By using Coil, he is hoping that the industry can circumvent methods such as paywalls, ads and the selling of user data.

While micropayments and subscriptions always has been closed system, Thomas believes that the web needs an open marketplace which makes it easy for both the curators, the creators and the users. He believes that blockchain can not only be used for this, but he also believes entire new industries will be built using blockchain technology.

While regular payments are usually slow and require multiple steps for authorization, using cryptocurrencies such as Ripple is much easier, which can handle up to 1500 transactions per second.

The project is currently in beta and the launch date is still not known.

Image Source: “Flickr”