Coil Gets “Amazon Prime for the Internet” Comparison for Web Monetization

On August 27th, top executives from Coil met at Blockchain at Berkeley for an open discussion.

Coil uses an open API called Web Monetization in order to paysites in real-time. This way, sites can securely provide rewards to any users who have Web Monetization enabled, creating a self-sustaining economy.

Coil includes an extension that works in Google Chrome. This allows the company to donate to creators on Youtube and Twitch, as well as other sites like Wikipedia that accept donations. There's limited support on other browsers, including mobile, allowing you to use sites that integrate the Web Monetization standard themselves.

Coil isn't an ad blocker, but creators may disable ads for their viewers who support them via Coil. The company expects this will be just one of the ways that creators reward their Coil subscribers, in addition to exclusive access to high-quality content.

When the creator of Coil gave a presentation about the product to Apply, the Trillion dollar company called it the Amazon prize for the whole internet. The main thing is that web monetization underlying standards still open so unlike a lot of other platforms, you don’t have to adapt or you don’t have to compulsorily use their product in order to use it. In fact, you can start your own impenetrable coil.

The question arises. How is Coil different from something like Patreon or Flattr?

Patreon allows support to a few creators with higher amounts of money. This can be great for your favorite creators but doesn't let you support everyone. Flattr distributes your subscription between the sites you browse and pays out at the end of the month. Coil, on the other hand, pays out a fixed bandwidth per second that goes to the creator instantly. This means the creator can securely distribute paid content to Coil subscribers.

Right now Coil has one plan for $5/month. You need an invite code to subscribe. In the future, registration will be open and multiple tiers of subscription will be offered. You can sign up and verify your credit card in order to join the waiting list.