When users are given the choice between Ad-supported free, Ad-subsidized lower payment, and No-ads full payment. Ad-supported free dominates by far, with ad subsidized second, and full payment last.
Consumers consistently vote for the ad-model, even if it means they become the product being sold.
The other option is everything just keeps moving more and more into these walled gardens like Instagram where everyone uses the mobile app and watches ads, because the web versions of those apps just keep getting worse and worse by comparison.
Any viable micropayments system that wants to even have a remote chance of toppling ads has to have near zero cognitive setup cost, absolutely zero maintenance, and work out of the box on major browsers. I need to be able to push a native button on my browser that says "Pay $0.001" and know that it will work every time without my lifting a finger to keep it working. The minute you have to log in to this account, or verify that E-mail, or re-authenticate with the bank, or authorize this, or upload that, it's no longer viable.
HN is a huge echo chamber of opinions of highly-compensated tech workers, and it seems most of their friends are also tech workers. They don't realize how cheap a lot of the general public is.
