Quick answer: Web Monetization is an official W3C standard that lets websites receive streaming micropayments from visitors through a browser API, instead of relying only on advertising. It is built on the Interledger Protocol (ILP), an open protocol suite for routing payments across different ledgers and currencies. Dassie and moneyd are experimental Interledger implementations, and the World Bank has studied ILP as a way to cut the cost of cross-border remittances.
Updated 07/17/2026. By Jake Claver. Educational content, not investment advice.
Most of the web runs on two payment models: advertising, or large one-off transactions at a checkout. Neither handles small, continuous payments well. A reader who wants to send a creator a few cents for an article has no native way to do it. Web Monetization and the Interledger Protocol are an attempt to add that missing layer: a way to stream tiny amounts of value across the web without locking into a single currency or payment company. This is a payments and web-standards story, not a trade-documents one, and it is worth getting the pieces right.
What Web Monetization is
According to the Web Monetization project and its specification, Web Monetization is a W3C standard implemented as a JavaScript browser API that creates a payment stream from a site visitor to the site. A publisher adds a link to a payment pointer, and a supporting browser or extension streams small payments while the visitor engages with the content. The point is to compensate creators, pay for API calls, or fund web infrastructure through many small automatic payments rather than one large upfront charge or an ad impression.
The Interledger Protocol underneath
Web Monetization only works because of the protocol beneath it. The Interledger Protocol is described by the Interledger Foundation as an open protocol suite for sending payments across different ledgers without being tied to any one company, currency, or payment provider. ILP routes a payment across ledgers and payment systems, even when the sender and receiver are several hops apart, in the same way the internet routes packets across different networks.
On top of ILP sits Open Payments, a higher-level set of APIs. A payment pointer is simply a URL that resolves to an Open Payments API entry point, a JSON resource with the details needed to pay an account. That is what lets a website advertise “pay me here” in a standard, provider-neutral way. The combination is what makes streaming money technically possible: ILP for routing, Open Payments for the account interface, Web Monetization for the browser experience.
Where Dassie and moneyd fit
Standards need implementations, and two open-source projects show the experimental edge of this work. Dassie describes itself as a multi-currency, zero-config, peer-to-peer, Interledger-enabled payment network, aimed at letting developers spin up interconnected nodes without heavy setup. Its GitHub shows active development but no stable release, so it should be read as experimental. moneyd is an experimental ILP provider that acts as a local gateway, letting applications on a machine use funds on a community Interledger network. Its own documentation is explicit that it connects to a community network for testing, not the production Interledger. Naming that limitation is part of using these sources honestly: this is developer-stage infrastructure, not a finished consumer product.
The remittance case the World Bank studied
The clearest real-world stakes show up in cross-border remittances. In a World Bank analysis, the global average cost of sending 200 US dollars was 7.1 percent in the first quarter of 2018, about 14.20 dollars per payment, a level that had barely moved in nearly two decades. The article breaks the cost into four drivers: collection and risk assessment, transmission through intermediaries, currency conversion and liquidity, and final delivery to the beneficiary. It frames the Interledger Protocol as a way to coordinate payments across separate networks and ledgers with atomic transactions, so a debit and a credit happen together, and it points to real deployments built on ILP, including the Gates Foundation’s Mojaloop and bank pilots. The stakes are concrete: the UN Sustainable Development Goal target 10.c calls for cutting remittance costs to below 3 percent, which would materially help the hundreds of millions of migrants who send money home.
For deeper technical grounding, the World Bank also published a Blockchain Interoperability working paper that examines how systems like Interledger connect otherwise-separate ledgers.
Why this matters for market infrastructure
The common thread is interoperability. Payments have always been fragmented across banks, networks, and currencies, and the friction of bridging them is where cost and delay live. A protocol that routes value across ledgers the way the internet routes data is a foundational piece of infrastructure, whether it is used to stream a few cents to a blog or to move a remittance more cheaply. The Bank for International Settlements, in its work on tokenisation and the future monetary system, argues that shared, programmable platforms are where settlement is heading, and interoperability protocols are part of how separate systems would connect. Bodies such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank track this because cheaper, interoperable payments are a development goal, not just a technical one.
What this is not
This is web-payments and interoperability infrastructure. It is not a trade-documents system, and it is not an investment product. Much of it, including Dassie and moneyd, is experimental. The honest read is that Web Monetization and Interledger are standards and tools for streaming and routing payments, with promising but still-early adoption, and any market or token implication should be kept separate from that technical picture.
Common questions
What is Web Monetization?
Web Monetization is an official W3C standard implemented as a JavaScript browser API that lets a website receive a stream of small payments from visitors while they engage with its content, instead of relying only on advertising. A publisher adds a payment pointer, and a supporting browser or extension streams the micropayments.
How does Web Monetization relate to the Interledger Protocol?
Web Monetization is built on the Interledger Protocol (ILP), an open protocol suite for routing payments across different ledgers and currencies without being tied to one company or provider. ILP handles the routing, Open Payments provides the account-level APIs, and a payment pointer is a URL that resolves to an Open Payments entry point.
What are Dassie and moneyd?
Both are experimental open-source Interledger projects. Dassie is a multi-currency, zero-config, peer-to-peer, Interledger-enabled payment network for developers, with no stable release yet. moneyd is an experimental ILP provider that acts as a local gateway to a community Interledger network, and its documentation notes it does not connect to the production network.
How could Interledger reduce remittance costs?
The World Bank found the global average cost of sending 200 US dollars was 7.1 percent in early 2018 and had barely fallen in nearly 20 years. It frames the Interledger Protocol as a way to coordinate payments across separate networks with atomic transactions, which could cut the intermediary and conversion costs that make remittances expensive. The UN Sustainable Development Goal target 10.c aims to bring those costs below 3 percent.
Is this a trade-documents or investment technology?
No. Web Monetization and Interledger are web-payments and interoperability standards for streaming and routing value, not systems for trade paperwork, and much of the tooling is still experimental. Any investment or token implication should be treated separately from this technical infrastructure.
This content is educational only. It is not tax, legal, or investment advice. Check primary sources and speak with a qualified professional before making financial decisions.
