Chicago Sun-Times Bitcoin Paywall Testing Trial Goes Live
As planned, the Chicago Sun-Times has put in place a paywall, as originally reported in January. The paywall, which isn't much of a paywall at all, to be honest, is a 24-hour testing trial that allows users to donate bitcoin to the Taproot Foundation. Users are able to "donate" a tweet or donate bitcoins in the amount of their choosing. But a donation is not required to view Sun-Times content, at this time. San Francisco-based bitcoin paywall company BitWall is behind this, and the Sun-Times has become the start-up's biggest client thus far. The trial is designed to provide both the....
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Readers who visit the Chicago Sun-Times today will notice something they aren't likely to have seen before: a bitcoin paywall separating them from their content. The Chicago Sun-Times is the ninth-largest newspaper in the United States, and the first major US publication to trial a bitcoin paywall. Instead of paying for a subscription, as patrons of the The Wall Street Journal or the Financial Times do, Chicago Sun-Times readers who visit the site on 1st February will be asked to donate bitcoin payments to the Taproot Foundation, or tweet about the nonprofit, in order to read articles. The....
Bitcoin paywall provider BitWall is partnering with the Chicago Sun-Times to conduct a 24-hour bitcoin paywall test. The experiment, the first of its kind for a major US publication, will happen on the Sun-Times website on 1st February. Readers accessing articles during this time will see an overlay "wall" before accessing an article. They will be given the option to pay to see the article with bitcoin, or to tweet the story for access. "We continue to experiment and test new technologies that we believe engage our readers and look forward to being the first major USA newspaper to test a....
The 9th most popular newspaper in the United States - the Chicago Sun-Times - will reportedly trial a bitcoin paywall for a 24-hour period on February 1st, making the publication the first major news media outlet to do so. Readers of the publication will be prompted to either donation bitcoin or tweet in support of the Taproot Foundation (a non-profit that offers a number of marketing and management services to other non-profits) in order to gain access to the Sun-Times content. It's all coming together with a partnership with BitWall, the San Francisco-based start-up that builds bitcoin....
The Chicago Sun-Times and BitWall have released new metrics regarding their 1st February bitcoin paywall test, revealing that Sun-Times readers contributed more than 700 donations to the Taproot Foundation as part of the 24-hour trial. Conducted last Saturday, the introductory partnership found the ninth-largest US newspaper teaming up with an emerging San Francisco startup as a way to explore its own monetization options. BitWall, on the other hand, received its first chance to launch a large-scale test of whether bitcoin micropayments could deliver for mainstream publishers. Speaking to....
On 7th January, the temperature in Chicago was -4 degrees Farenheit (that's -20 degrees Celsius). That evening, a Tuesday, nearly 40 people ventured out in to the Arctic conditions and gathered at the Atlas Brewing Company for beer and food. The reason? Bitcoin. In a city with a population of 2.7 million, 40 people at a bitcoin meetup is clearly a drop in the ocean. But bitcoin's Chicago cheerleaders say it's a sign of a dedicated community, one they say is growing. What's more, they argue, the city is ripe to host a flourishing bitcoin economy. Experimenting with bitcoin. At the end of....