From founding the controversial site which indexes BitTorrent files which cost him several legal cases, here comes one of the founder of the Pirate Bay with his latest projet called Flattr.  Derived from the word play of flatter and flat rate, Flattr is a new “social micropayment” system that will consumers to flatter content creators with a flat rate.

So how does Flattr actually works? The site Neowin.net explains it as:

Dubbed a “social micropayment” system, users can contribute money into their Flattr accounts and then distribute rating clicks across various sites. These ratings, like Digg, will count up how popular a piece of content is and distribute micropayments accordingly. Consumers will simply top their account up with as little as €2 and each rating they give content creators will assign a portion of their Flattr account balance. If a user places €10 into their Flattr account and then rates 10 different pieces of content each content creator will receive €1 from that user at the end of that month.

Confusing? Actually yes. You might as well watch the attached YouTube video to understand the concept of Flattr and learn how it really works.

Flattr is currently in closed beta and will only be launching to the public in the next few weeks. Its success could probably depend on how social networking sites will perceive the new socia micropayment system. Flattr’s creator is currently talking with social networks although his plan is to maintain Flattr’s openness to everyone.

At its initial launch, Flattr will support various  payment systems including PayPal, Payson and text messages as forms of payment. You may sign up to be able to test the system – here.

Originally posted on February 11, 2010 @ 4:38 pm