Cloudflare introduces cryptocurrency for publisher payments
ASCII art image from the Net Dollar site
Internet backend provider Cloudflare has introduced a cryptocurrency to enable publishers to be paid for AI bots trawling their content.
The currency, Net Dollar, is a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar – meaning that its value does not float independently, but instead maintains a 1:1 relationship with the USD.
Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince described how Net Dollar would allow microtransactions and therefore incentivise original content.
“For decades, the business model of the Internet ran on ad platforms and bank transfers. The Internet’s next business model will be powered by pay-per-use, fractional payments, and microtransactions,” he said in a written statement.
