Mozilla, Coil, and Creative Commons Join Hands to Pump $100M for Web Monetization

UTC by Bhushan Akolkar · 3 min read
Mozilla, Coil, and Creative Commons Join Hands to Pump $100M for Web Monetization
Photo: Grant for the Web / Twitter

The web monetization program dubbed Grant for the Web that is proposed by Mozilla, Coil, and Creative Commons is aimed at creating a web economy with more space for smaller players and publishers.

With the massively exploding global internet user-base, the web is cluttered with a lot of information and companies providing web services are facing severe challenges in segregating the useful information and getting it to their users.

Taking a step towards effective web monetization, open-source web browser Mozilla, Ripple-backed content platform Coil, and non-profit organization Creative Commons have pledged a whopping $100 million for a program dubbed Grant for the Web that aims at monetizing the web.

The basic goal of web monetization is to independently reward the content creators while eliminating the payment providers and other third-party intermediaries. One of the proposed standards is how browsers can stream payments to websites with the help of Interledger.

The total funding shall be distributed over a period of five years, with each year spendings at $20 million. These three organizations behind the Grant for the Web program have already set an advisory council to determine the distribution of the grant money.

 Coil CEO Stefan Thomas commented:

“Creators want more choice and control over how their content is monetized and distributed […] Web Monetization provides a solution that is more fair, open and inclusive for creators and fans around the globe.”

Besides, the web monetization program also aims to privacy comprising platform and ads as mishandling of user data and privacy has been the key concern in recent times. Even the giant platforms like Facebook have struggled to provide better user data privacy.

Mark Surman, executive director of the Mozilla Foundation, said:

“We’re at a point where it’s clear there’s kinds of negative side effects for people and even for democracy of the data-driven ad economy that funds the internet”.

The founders of the web monetization program are convinced that at present, the web has major challenges like privacy abuses, invasive ads, data mining, unethical sponsored content and demonetization to appease the advertisers.

Ryan Merkley, CEO of Creative Commons noted:

“The business models of the web are broken and toxic, and we need to identify new ways to support creators and to reward creativity. Creators have told us through our own user research that gratitude is a core element of why they choose to share their work, and micropayments may be an excellent way to display that gratitude.”

It’s also worth mentioning that over the last year, the blockchain-based decentralized Brave browser has seen massive growth in the number of publishers which indicates the increasing interest to such projects.

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