Less altruism, more capitalism – Flattr users no longer need to give to receive

Image via CrunchBase

Flattr, the social micropayment startup founded by ex-Pirate Bay associates, is announcing a significant change today.

In a move that represents less altruism and more capitalism, from May 1st onwards Flattr will no longer require new users to add credit to their accounts in order to run the Flattr button on their sites and start receiving payments.

In other words, users won’t be required to give to receive.

It’s a shift that signals Flattr’s clear intention to become a major player in the Internet payments space, de-cloaking bit by bit from something quite idiosyncratic and slightly below the radar to a potentially more mainstream offering. In January, the service began letting users donate specific amounts of cash directly rather than relying solely on the albeit innovate model of simply divvying up a pre-allocated monthly pool of cash (starting from €2), no matter how thinly that’s spread if a user chooses to “Flattr” a high number of sites.