The Interledger Foundation, is awarding a $200,000 grant to the Social Web Foundation (SWF) to research sustainable revenue models for creators and publishers on decentralized social platforms.
Creators and publishers face impossible economics: declining ad revenue, subscription fatigue, and a choice between paywalls, platform dependence, or giving content away free.
As audiences move to decentralized platforms the problem intensifies, as these platforms often lack monetization infrastructure.
Interledger’s Grant for the Web program funds research into practical solutions, including Web Monetization, a streaming payment system that lets audiences pay creators directly as they consume content.
“Successful online communities and strong digital economies both rely on open, connected efforts,” said Briana Marbury, CEO at Interledger Foundation. “Social Web Foundation’s work is essential, looking at how decentralized interoperable systems can create safer and more sustainable online spaces.”
The Social Web Foundation will continue its research on sustainable revenue and operating models for digital publishers and community-run platforms.
The Social Web Foundation will focus on four key areas:
- How individual creators build and maintain audience relationships without relying on centralized social media platforms
- How Web Monetization can support podcasts, video and other multimedia content. Sustainable revenue and governance models for community-run servers legal and operational challenges of collectively-owned and operated community infrastructure.
“Challenges for the Social Web in 2026 are more social and economic than technical. The network has grown by leaps and bounds, it’s true, but participants need more funding mechanisms and organizational tools to sustain it,” said Evan Prodromou, research director at the Social Web Foundation. “Thanks to this grant from the Interledger Foundation, we can work with the community to put existing services on a solid footing, identify and clear barriers to growth for the Social Web, and make the network a positive factor of even more people’s lives.”
The Interledger Foundation’s Grant for the Web program has awarded $400,000 in 2025 to content publishers and platforms exploring new monetization models.
