Pay as you browse: Microcomputations as micropayments in web-based services

Ghassan O. Karame, Aurélien Francillon, Srdjan Čapkun

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

    Abstract

    Currently, several online businesses deem that advertising revenues alone are not sufficient to generate profits and are therefore set to charge for online content. In this paper, we explore a complement to the current advertisement model; more specifically, we propose a micropayment model for nonspecialized commodity web-services based on microcomputations. In our model, a user that wishes to access online content offered by a website does not need to register or pay to access the website; instead, he will accept to run microcomputations on behalf of the website in exchange for access to the content. These microcomputations can, for example, support ongoing computing projects that have clear social benefits (e.g., projects relating to HIV, dengue, cancer, etc.) or can contribute towards commercial computing projects. We argue that this micropayment model is economically and technically viable and that it can be integrated in existing distributed computing frameworks (e.g., the BOINC platform). We implement a preliminary prototype of a system based on our model through which we evaluate its performance and usability. Finally, we analyze the security and privacy of our proposal and we show that it ensures payment for the content while preserving the privacy of users.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationProceedings of the 20th International Conference on World Wide Web, WWW 2011
    Pages307-316
    Number of pages10
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2011
    Event20th International Conference on World Wide Web, WWW 2011 - Hyderabad, India
    Duration: 28 Mar 20111 Apr 2011

    Other

    Other20th International Conference on World Wide Web, WWW 2011
    Country/TerritoryIndia
    CityHyderabad
    Period28/03/111/04/11

    Keywords

    • Distributed computing
    • Microcomputations
    • Micropayments
    • Monetization
    • Privacy

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