Castopod's channel

Demo of Castopod ActivityPub support and demo of Mastodon tip jar using Web Monetization

As the social networking landscape evolves, marked by moments of mass migration between platforms—often triggered by political or cultural shifts—open-source ecosystems have a unique opportunity to make a difference. While the values of "libre" and open source resonate strongly within the developer and advocacy communities, broader user adoption is often driven by features and usability rather than philosophical alignment. This is why fairness and sustainability are critical elements in building a future-proof social web.

In this talk, we will focus on the practical implementation of fair monetization within the fediverse. We will demonstrate how Web Monetization allows creators to receive tips from their audience, either proportionally to the time spent consuming content or through one-time contributions.

More importantly, we will show how this is implemented in code, leveraging Castopod (an open-source, fediverse-connected podcast hosting platform) in three different ways: HTML, RSS, and Activity Streams.

Additionally, we’ll present a live demo showcasing cross-platform tipping on another fediverse platform. This demonstration will provide a detailed look at the technical foundation, illustrating how developers can implement and extend these capabilities in their own projects.

Now is the time for open-source developers to seize the moment as users seek alternatives to centralized platforms. We invite projects to integrate and extend these functionalities. Together, we can create a vibrant, sustainable, and open fediverse for everyone.

Sources:

• Castopod source code
• Web Monetization JSON-LD context for Activity Streams
• Mastodon draft pull request

Demo servers:

• Castopod test server: https://monetizationdemo.castopod.org/@futuremoneypodcast
• Mastodon test server: https://demo.interledger.social/
• Mastodon test server user: https://demo.interledger.social/@WebMonetizationTest