Isn't this the same trick that some newspapers and magazines have been using for ages? Show the title and the first paragraph or two, hide the rest of the article behind a paywall.<p>On the surface, the most noticeable difference is that this uses BTC instead of USD. But since the example amount (0.0005 BTC) is approx. $0.22, which is well within the range of a PayPal micropayment, there's little reason why it can't use USD instead.<p>So the real innovation here is not the choice of currency, but rather that you're using micropayments. If done right, this can eliminates the friction of purchasing a subscription. Since $0.22 is literally pocket change, you might even be able to make people pay a lot without knowing it. All those quarters and dimes can add up to a sizable sum.<p>Realistically, however, it will be too much hassle for readers to shell out money every time, and too much hassle for publishers to manage all those micropayments. So there might be a valid business model for a middleman that lets people keep money in a prepaid account and spend it little by little with participating publishers. You could even automatically deduct a small amount each time someone opens an article and keeps it open for X seconds. At the end of each month, each publisher receives a lump sum that is much easier for them to manage. You, the middleman, deduct a fee for providing the API and some neat statistics.