The freemium revenue model is the go-to-market strategy for many web-based software companies. Cryptocurrency mining offers a new way for users to pay for premium products in what could become the standard for freemium 2.0.

Mineful is a B2B payment solution that offers application developers an alternative to monetize their free tier users. With its payment framework, a user exchanges their spare computing power called hash power for a product’s premium service such as Spotify Premium. Mineful aggregates hash power, mines cryptocurrency, converts to fiat and then pays its clients a profit share.

Mineful was founded in June 2018 and recently went through Acceleprise a SaaS-based New York City accelerator. The company launched coinstash, the first cryptominer-integrated application on the Mac App Store, a direct-to-consumer app targeting Fortnite PC users to earn V bucks and an application for points prizes users to earn online points. Mineful has the chance to drive adoption for cryptocurrencies by distributing its mining software to millions of users via a small number of publishers.

In this episode, Zack Pelka, CEO, and Connor Swofford, COO, co-cofounders of Mineful join me for a conversation about the company, cryptocurrency mining and the future of alternative payments.