Episode 140
Nick Malster: Liberating Creators from the Attention Economy
Published
"It can sound very deep and philosophical at first — this idea that if you find value in something, you can send some value back. But it really comes down to the creator: How much do you want that freedom?"
On this week's podcast, I sat down with Nick Malster.
Nick is the co-founder of Fountain, a value-for-value podcasting app that enables Bitcoin micropayments. In this conversation we discuss the changing nature of work, critique popular economic views, and trace Nick’s journey from advertising to launching Fountain.
The discussion focuses on how the attention economy distorts content creation and how Fountain aims to realign incentives by letting listeners directly reward creators. We examine the challenges of moving away from traditional advertising, the promise of decentralized platforms like Nostr for content ownership, and the importance of community-driven models and subscriptions for long-term creator sustainability.
Enjoy the conversation.
Audio version
Includes Timothy Allen’s introduction and additional commentary not included in the video.