Hello, Hacker News! I'm Elias, and I've been thinking about this problem. Developers often need to build entire companies to monetize their software, and it shouldn't be this hard.
So, I've built https://PayPerRun.com to offer a simpler solution. It's a platform where developers can monetize their services in a pay-per-use model. I invite you to give it a try!
The platform operates on pre-purchased internal credits - 'Joules'. Users buy Joules, which carry no transaction fees and have minimal latency, and spend them on the diverse range of services available on the platform. Each service is extremely affordable, with 1 Joule worth 1/1'000'000 of a US dollar.
Developers can cash out when they've accumulated enough Joules (still deciding on a limit, but leaning towards ~$100 worth). PayPerRun only earns when developers cash out, taking a 10% fee (plus transaction costs) - this is designed to stimulate more services being built on top of existing ones.
A 'service', as per our platform, could be any function or object that can be represented in Python or JavaScript.
PayPerRun utilizes a Python/JS library I developed, Telekinesis, to streamline the interaction with functions and objects running on other computers. A service can simply return a Telekinesis object, acting as a web pointer to a particular object or function. Check it out here: <https://github.com/telekinesis-inc/telekinesis>.
The website is live and ready for exploration. It's still a work-in-progress and likely has bugs, but I'm hoping this is the start of a meaningful conversation that can lead to something remarkable.
I'm available to answer any questions, and I have a couple for you:
- What service would you like to monetize on this platform?
- Which services would you prefer to pay-per-use, without subscription plans or commitments?
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!
P.S. I welcome feedback and ideas - reach out at [email protected]. Also, if you're looking for something to hack, try to steal e-neuman's Joules or data, then share how you did it (that's my personal profile). Together we can make PayPerRun secure!