So, never thought i would suggest a form of crypto or token, but it struck me that one of the best ways to help people pay for hosting services would be to create a de-centralized crypto token that when awarded to a user it is send on the back end to their instance.
If we put this token on some of the exchanges then people could pay with either real money by buying tokens and gifting/awarding them, or converting other crypto into Fediverse tokens.
We could even use the same blockchain to allow minting of one off or limited run tokens where users can create their own.
Would also be cool if awards attach to the profile and are federated, but with the ability to make tokens private by the user.
Just a thought, because someone wanted to give me gold for a post, and I linked to our donation page, but man it would be easy if they could have just purchased a token and sent it right then and there without having to go through all the different instance donation methods.
Sadly, I am not a programmer so hopefully this idea is worth a shit and one of you smart people takes it and runs.
Why not just send donations in real money?
Reasonable question and my response is barrier of entry, and everyone likes fun!
If every instance has a different funding model thats fine, but if I want to reward a user or instance I have to essentially track down how to donate to them. With something like an award/token I can in theory buy in my own currancy, and gift. If we build it into the fediverse its self it becomes a low friction method of supporting good content.
Awards, tokens, NFTs can be fun, why not have a system for them, and in the process create a real financial value behind it that is not just profit taking.
Real money has the advantage of actually being useful for the people who receive it, and not having to engage in a crime-driven pseudo-economy.