User Pay-Go Pricing
The Kestrel substructure adopts the uncommon approach of having end-users pay for infrastructure costs imposed by their usage of a given application (plus a premium: see the Fair Compensation documentation). In this way creators don't need to worry about business models or upfront investment - their users pay their own way.
This does of course provide a barrier to adoption, as users effectively cannot test-run a product without setting up some form of payment. We try to address this concern in the following ways:
Nanotransactions
The actual infrastructure costs associated with most cloud-based services are, when looked at from an individual user's perspective, truly miniscule. The concept of "microtransactions" has existed for some time but unfortunately has become something of a misnomer - spending $1, $5, or even $10+ on in-app purchases hardly qualifies as "micro"-anything. Most individual transactions on the Kestrel substructure will be measured in fractions of a cent, or (for recurring storage costs) maybe a few cents per month. Therefore we denote these as "nanotransactions" - costs that for the typical application will be so small as to be barely noticeable.
Micropayment Support
Nanotransactions are handled internally in the Kestrel substructure database to minimize transaction costs. However users still need to transfer actual money into their accounts to get started. Using a traditional monthly invoice method runs into issue for the typical user as processing fees overshadow the actual service fees. To handle this users instead initiate one-time transfers when needed to keep their account active.
Auto-refilling of your account, similar to how electronic car charging apps and toll road pass infrastructure typically works, is planned but not yet supported.
Alternative Business Model Support
The functionality described in this section is not yet implemented, but is planned for implementation.
Finally, although the native transaction scheme of Kestrel is to have end-users pay for everything independently, app creators who want to provide a more traditional subscription-type service with a free tier, or some other novel end-user experience, are still free to do so. Creators can pre-fund their application account and define rules for which user activities can draw from the application pool rather than their personal account. Business minded creators can even fork existing projects and provide their own payment scheme - the original creator will still be compensated appropriately, while any additional revenue will be routed to the new app creator (subject to the Fair Compensation rules).