Creating an open API, who pays for using it?

General DFINITY
1

Hello fellows!

I know that when I create a canister, for a website for example, and someone visits the website, I have to pay with cycles. Now my question is, what if I only want to create an open API?
I believe many would need an API to look up the name of a town by country and zip. If I were to upload a canister with a function which does exactly that and all on the IC could use it. Would I have to pay cycles or the ones using this function in their code?
Ps. I believe I would at least have to pay for the storage it takes, right?

Cheers,
Moe

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Hey there!

Encourage cooperation of users of your OIS (Open Internet Service)! If your service is useful for public I’m sure they will be glad to support it by donating some cycles to it.

Even more, you could tokenize their loyalty by giving them some of your OIS’s tokens in exchange for their donations. Why would they need tokens for such a simple application? Figure out yourself - it could be anything. From a simple supporter mention at the bottom section of your site, to extended API access.

Or you could find a sponsor. I’m sure, for such a service it would not be that hard.

3

Hey @senior.joinu and thx for the idea!
I take your answer as a “it doesn’t matter who uses your OIS, you have to pay for the computational costs your implemented functions cause”?
I thought that through importing from my canisters maybe the executional cost would be theirs?

4

Unless I am mistaken, an open API doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be free, it can be monetized. And adding to @senior.joinu’s point of giving tokens, it doesn’t need to be only for donations, it can be a means to get a stake in the monetized open service. That can further be of two types, one just as a payment to use the service, the other is to be part of another monetized service by providing a crucial input and thus a stake in it.

I hope that is the case, else there is no financial incentive for doing anything on the IC except for charity and public service! :smiley: Not that its a bad thing of course, but they should both be made possible.

Donations could be for the public service type open API’s.

5

I take your answer as a “it doesn’t matter who uses your OIS, you have to pay for the computational costs your implemented functions cause”?

Yes. But don’t forget that if they already based their dapp on your APIs, they acknowledge the “out-of-cycles” risk and sure will take care of that, if they can.

6

Thank you both very much, your answers helped my understanding of the IC :smile:

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