{"id":2058,"date":"2014-01-14T21:00:21","date_gmt":"2014-01-15T03:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=2058"},"modified":"2014-01-14T21:50:32","modified_gmt":"2014-01-15T03:50:32","slug":"sun-times-to-put-bitcoins-on-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2014\/01\/14\/sun-times-to-put-bitcoins-on-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Sun-Times to put bitcoins on trial"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Sun-Times-sign.png\"><a href=\"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2014\/01\/14\/sun-times-to-put-bitcoins-on-trial\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2059\" alt=\"Sun-Times sign\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Sun-Times-sign.png\" width=\"773\" height=\"304\" \/><\/a><\/a>This is a test. This is only a test.<\/p>\n<p>For 24 hours on Feb. 1, visitors to<a href=\"http:\/\/www.suntimes.com\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\"> suntimes.com <\/a>will be invited to participate in a social media experiment using a new kind of paywall technology to access content.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>They\u2019ll be asked either to donate bitcoins (a form of digital currency) as micro-payments or tweet about the Taproot Foundation, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that brings professionals together with other nonprofit organizations on a pro bono basis. Proceeds from the experiment will benefit the foundation.<\/p>\n<p>Billed as the first mainstream trial of such a system, it\u2019s being watched closely by technology experts. \u201cMake no mistake about it, the eyes of cash-strapped publishers around the world will be affixed on their Chicago competitor,\u201d Michael Carney of <a href=\"http:\/\/pando.com\/2014\/01\/14\/why-the-chicago-sun-times-bitcoin-paywall-experiment-is-more-than-a-desperate-attempt-to-look-cool\/\" target=\"_blank\">pando.com<\/a> wrote Tuesday. \u201cIf the Sun Times\u2019 BitWall experiment bears fruit, expect to see it duplicated elsewhere. Both the publishing and the bitcoin ecosystems would be better off for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sun-Times parent company Wrapports LLC is working with BitWall, a San Francisco-based content monetization company, on the test, which may turn out to be more difficult to explain to readers than its tech-savvy champions realize.<\/p>\n<p>Typical of the jargon that accompanied announcement of the trial was this statement from Josh Metnick, chief technology officer of Wrapports: \u201cUsing this frictionless payment technology in concert with BitWall's software allows us an innovative feasible micro-transaction and time-based access revenue models.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jim Kirk, publisher and editor-in-chief of the Sun-Times, was clearer in explaining that the one-day paywall won\u2019t stop readers from accessing the website for free. \u201cIt\u2019s not a hard wall,\u201d he said. \u201cWe just want to see whether something like this is viable going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The last effort by the Sun-Times to maintain a metered paywall in 2011 failed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is a test. This is only a test. For 24 hours on Feb. 1, visitors to suntimes.com will be invited to participate in a social media experiment using a new kind of paywall technology to access content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2058"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2063,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058\/revisions\/2063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}