A bid to save online journalism? Europe's largest digital publishing house to trial crypto payments

Layer 1s • January 31, 2019, 8:26AM EST
UPDATED: January 31, 2019, 11:22AM EST
The Block

Axel Springer is launching a pilot scheme which will allow users to pay news outlets in crypto via the SatoshiPay wallet, they announced in a joint press release. The move could help resuscitate online journalism after a month of mass layoffs and poor revenue streams at major online newsrooms. 

This will be SatoshiPay's first major partnership, having launched in 2014. SatoshiPay uses the Stellar blockchain for secure worldwide payment processing in a matter of seconds. Users can purchase a bulk of Lumen tokens in euros or dollars, and then use the credits to purchase individual online stories or specific content in just one-click. The wallet will load automatically on every publisher site that has integrated it.

"As one of the few companies with a market-ready blockchain payment solution, we are focused on bringing this technology from laboratories and into the mainstream... A partner with the tremendous reach of Axel Springer gives us the opportunity to deliver on this promise," said Meinhard Benn, Founder and CEO of SatoshiPay.

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A spokesperson added that the benefit of using crypto rather than fiat is that it breaks the traditional subscription model, allowing one-off payments as small as 1 cent, as well as facilitating fee-free cross-border transactions.

Axel Springer, which hosts leading multimedia news brands such as Business Insider, Bild, and Die Welt, said that they hoped blockchain payments would provide cost efficiency and a better monetisation system for online content. This follows in the footsteps of the likes of publica.com, which currently use blockchain payments to share book licenses which rewards authors immediately. 

The partnership is being funded by Stellar Development Foundation. 

About Author

Isabel is The Block's London and European reporter. She previously reported for Reuters in Madrid and London, following on from her time as a freelance journalist for the Guardian and the New York Times. She has a Bachelors in War Studies from King’s College London and a Master of Philosophy from the University of Oxford. Conflict of Interest: Edward Woodford, the CEO of SeedCX, is Isabel's brother. She does not report on any issues related to Seed or advise other authors in any regard.

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