Chicago Sun-Times to test paywall that accepts Bitcoin, tweets

By Mike Flacy Published October 28, 2020

Detailed by the San Francisco Chronicle earlier today, the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper and a company called BitWall are partnering for an experimental paywall that accepts Bitcoin in order to view articles. Starting on February 1, 2014, Chicago Sun-Times readers will be prompted to offer a donation to the nonprofit Taproot Foundation using the digital Bitcoin currency. If the reader offers up a donation, the paywall will be removed and the article will become available for all users of that computer. Newspaper representatives did not indicate if a specific donation level was required to access the content on the site.

In addition, users will be able to remove the paywall by tweeting about the Taproot Foundation rather than contributing Bitcoin to the organization. It’s likely that the Bitcoin donations will be converted to U.S. currency through an exchange service like Coinbase. Similar to the New York Times paywall, BitWall can limit access to a specific time period such as a monthly or weekly basis. In addition, BitWall can limit access to a specific number of views. This could be ideal for students that only require access to a single article as a source rather than paying for an entire month of newspaper access.

Recommended Videos

Speaking about the experiment, Chicago Sun-Times publisher Jim Kirk stated “We continue to experiment and test new technologies that we believe engage our readers and look forward to being the first major USA newspaper to test a Bitcoin-based paywall.” It’s likely that the Chicago Sun-Times will publish the results of the experiment, somewhat similar to Overstock.com’s CEO tweeting about Bitcoin related sales. Going live last week, Overstock.com became the first major online retailer to accept Bitcoin as payment for retail items that mainly included electronics and home goods.

Contributing Editor

By day, I'm the content and social media manager for High-Def Digest, Steve's Digicams and The CheckOut on Ben's Bargains…

Topics

Social Media

Social media pals aren’t necessarily making you feel less lonely, finds research

Me and my Discords buddies feel attacked

Social media apps on smartphone

While social media is a tool in connecting people, a new study suggests that it's not actually surrounding you with the people you care about or doing much for loneliness. Researchers at Oregon State University studied more than 1,500 US adults between the ages of 30 and 70, and looked at how different types of social media connections relate to loneliness. The findings? People you don't know in real life may actually be making things worse.

Why online strangers could be the problem

Social Media

The best life advice I ever followed was deleting Instagram, and it soothed my frustrated soul

Instagram

I won’t lie, I got addicted to Instagram. And for a long time, I didn’t even realize how much it was messing with my head. It sounds dramatic when you say it out loud, but it really crept up on me. I got so used to watching Instagram reels all the time that my brain just stopped having patience for anything longer. A full YouTube video felt like a commitment, and reading something without checking my phone in between felt impossible. And the worst part was, I knew exactly why it was happening.

I tried fixing it the usual ways — set app timers, try apps that stop you from doomscrolling, and tell myself I’d cut down. Some days it worked, most days it didn’t. I’d still find myself opening Instagram without even thinking about it. So one day, I stopped trying to control it and just deleted the app from my iPhone. And honestly, that one small decision did more for me than everything else I had tried.

Social Media

Internet’s favorite app Vine is back from the dead, and it’s called Divine

The six-second videos that launched a thousand creators are back, and this time, they're here to stay.

Divine app open on iPhone

Vine is back, and if you're already feeling nostalgic, you're not alone. Divine, a Vine reboot backed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, is now available on the App Store and Google Play. The app brings back roughly 500,000 archived Vine videos and lets creators post new six-second looping videos once again.

As reported by TechCrunch, Dorsey's nonprofit, "and Other Stuff," financed the project. He's not looking for a return on his investment here. His goal is simpler: to undo the mistake he made when he shut down Vine back in 2017.