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Bitcoin Startup 21 Inc Launches Micropayments Marketplace

21 Marketplace Screenshot (EconoTimes)

21 Inc., a bitcoin startup and creator of the 21 Bitcoin Computer, has announced a new offering – 21 Micropayments Marketplace – that will allow buyers and sellers to trade in digital goods using micropayments, initially specifically focused on APIs for developer use.

In an online post, the company explained that users having a 21 Bitcoin Computer will be able to explore the marketplace at 21.co/mkt; while those without access to the computer need to sign up for the forthcoming free client at 21.co/free and will be able to access the marketplace soon.

The micropayments marketplace specifically addresses two quantifiable developer “pain points”: the cost for buyers to sign up and pay for an API, and the cost for sellers to publish and receive payment for a new paid API:

  • It simplifies the process of buying APIs and enables instant API purchases without signup or credit card. It eliminates the fixed cost of sign up for any listed API. Using just bitcoin wallet, users will be able to do a “one-shot purchase” of a listed API, or set up a micropayment channel to do many purchases.
  • It also facilitates instant selling of APIs without a bank account. Within a matter of seconds, one will be able to publish an endpoint in the 21 Marketplace that anyone with bitcoin can purchase.

However, the marketplace currently has some limitations and the startup is working to eliminate them. The company said that at present a user will need a separate micropayments channel for each API, adding that it will soon add support for each client to open single long-running payment channel to 21.co to cover micropayments for all APIs. Also, the marketplace has a limited set of first party APIs and will be adding many more APIs shortly.

"Even with these limitations, we think the 21 micropayments marketplace is an important step towards making digital currency useful for developers," the company said.

21.co has released some apps on the service such as Social Sentiment Analysis, Zip Code Data, Twitter Influence Ranking, Part of Speech Tagger and others.

  • Market Data
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