Hi dig,
The consumer angle's the way I see them doing it, just like with WXP. That's what I thought I read in the CC anyway. Offer this as a service to folks who use Facebook, Twitter etc. Establish demand for free in the consumer space. Grow that market to critical mass. Then, having proved their point, they would charge a subscription for an integrated group-defined trusted service in the enterprise market.
Having built a market in the consumer space, I expect WXP hoped to charge for premium content, which would have been secured using a TC chip. But I'm sure you see the flaw in that logic sequence - it's hard to get from A to B when the content you are serving is crappy.
The problem with employing a similar model in the scrambls market is that establishing a critical mass with consumers is going to be difficult. You know the idea that the more participants there are in a network, the greater the value of the network. Well, that implies that in its original state, the network is not very valuable. So there is a great big hump of cost to absorb upfront in generating the market and protecting your stake in it. And with scrambls, this occurs at exactly the moment Wave cannot afford it.
Not only that, but while Wave is trying to persuade companies like Facebook, Google and Yahoo to permit the use of TC as a form of authentication, scrambls is out there trying to undermine their business models. Pure Guinness.
Having said that, I do think Wave has an opportunity to establish a long tail on its contracts with enterprises. And I guess, along with maintenance, it is this kind of service which will provide it.
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