What If People Who Want To Send You Unsolicited Mail Should Pay For That? Now It's Possible :)
A couple of days ago I wrote a small announcement about 21.co token launch. It seems that the company had some aces up their sleeves, because they started to roll out some very interesting features, probably to drew attention towards this launch (which doesn't have an ICO, by the way).
One of these features is what they call "Gmail integration".
How does this work? Well, suppose you get some email on your Gmail address for somebody who isn't in your contact list. This integration makes that email bounce back, with a short message containing a link at which those people can contact you, if they pay a certain fee, in Bitcoin. As you may have guesses, that link it's actually your 21.co profile, where you can already ask money from people who want to get in touch with you.
I briefly tested the technical implementation and I think it's quite interesting, 21.co will insert itself as a Gmail app, which will then intercept each email which comes from an address outside your address book and bounce it back. I have no idea how this actually works out, i.e. if using this will make people pay for getting in touch with you, but I'm quite eager to learn from your own experience (if you have any).
From a more philosophical point of view, this feature fits in the same niche as Steemit: it tries to monetize attention. A part of me thinks this will really have a future, like in people will really start to use this, but another part of me thinks that it won't: there are so many ways to get around it, if you really want.
But I'm curious to see how this will play out, you can learn more about this from here.
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
https://steemit.com/~witnesses
If you're new to Steemit, you may find these articles relevant (that's also part of my witness activity to support new members of the platform):
Nice!! I didn't know about the gmail integration! Thanks
I thought this thing was not viable, but I installed the last week and I got 25$ dollars just for responding messages ^^
Nice! Care to share more? From where those messages were, etc...
Yes of course, I got some from ICO's projects, some feedback and so for their projects. I also got some questions about cryptocurrency investment. And also some surveys. I should go back to my inbox to pick the names ^^
Wow this is great information.
By this we can earn by ads company who sends us mail..
I think it's cool but has the potential to be a PR nightmare for anybody who uses it. Makes the most sense for very high profile folks who can't sort through the noise any other way, but even then they might be smart to donate all proceeds to charity.
Hello my friend, can you help and upvote my post with my son, on 4-th it's her birthday and I want to give a little gift.
https://steemit.com/family/@cobran/my-boy
Thanks!
I looked into this back in April. It's a direct competitor for linked-in, but with the idea of allowing you to monetise parts of your CV.
Back in April the idea was you could put yourself onto lists (the CEO list, the Python developer list etc) and add a price for how much it would cost for you to reply to an email (for people that want to survey 100 CEOs, or who want to recruit a Python developer etc).
The set-up was slow though. It took them an age to process the validation of my CV (I assume this is to prevent people from signing up as CEOs of non-existent Python development companies) which they then refused. By which time I had lost interest. I could see it catching on though if they improve the service.
The token sale is a new development though. I still have $2.50 worth of Bitcoin over there so maybe I'll invest that!
Reminds me of the classic "Fat Protocols" article that discusses the coming wave of value stored in the protocol layer vs. the application layer. This is one such application of these protocols! Thanks for sharing @dragosroua!
Article: http://www.usv.com/blog/fat-protocols
@dragosroua - Sir, technically wise I didn't get your point correctly. But it looks like an interesting news Sir. Nice you shared such valuable information related to 21.co.
+W+ [UpVoted & ReSteemed]
Hello my friend, can you help and upvote my post with my son, on 4-th it's her birthday and I want to give a little gift.
https://steemit.com/family/@cobran/my-boy
Thanks!
amigo #resteemia at your service
if their 1st project looks so brilliant, i can assume about the rest. fantastic news @dragosroua
ReSteemia
'UpVoted ReSteemed Commented'
I think it's a WONDERFUL idea..thank you for bringing it to my attention..
Make Spam expensive for the spammer....excellent.
Hello my friend, can you help and upvote my post with my son, on 4-th it's her birthday and I want to give a little gift.
https://steemit.com/family/@cobran/my-boy
Thanks!
New To Steemit? Follow Begging Will DESTROY You: DO - NOT - DO - IT! Here's Why..
Actually the first thing I had in mind was exactly that, for this to be implemented to Steemit. Would help towards the wallet spammers... And we could use some kind of way in which we PM each other with this feature, where the individual sets the price for PM's, except for their followers/friends list (which would be free).
Haha cool stuff. I also want to try 21.co out. Thank you