I believe that you are correct in seeing money as similar to energy: it is neither created nor destroyed. In other words, all the money exists in others’ wallets (the Network’s, app’s, or the users’) and it needs to come out of those wallets to be able to be put into yours.
An interesting inference that @whiteoutmashups makes is that the meaningfulness of the content is where it derives its value from. This means that it’s not the Network’s responsibility to dole out rewards (as it must do so equally), so we can cross that off of our list of subsidizers.
So then it’s left to the user’s and the app’s wallets. As you accurately stated, the app wallet is meant to be used the subsidize the app development. But what spurs app usage to create the opportunity for app dev rewards? Content. So we have a bit of a chicken and the egg problem.
The way to solve a chicken and the egg problem is to combine the two into one. This may seem super zen, but it’s not that difficult in this context.
Say a wallet kind is introduced - an app wallet. This wallet can autonomously allocate payments to the developers as well as rewards for content on the app.
That wallet, however, is under the governance of the app devs themselves. They are the ones who can decide (design/code) what ratio is paid out to themselves, and how much is paid out to the content that is put onto the app.
Now, you might say that they will only choose to pay themselves. There may be many situations where that would be the smart choice! For example, (my new favorite) SAFEsex. Why would any user need to be rewarded by the content that they put up?!?! I think the reward is in and of itself. wink
But for the casino example, the app wallet might want to pay out. The developers would then pay that out of their app wallet. OR, perhaps they would choose to only use the pool of the money that was put in. But which (similarly-functionable) app would be more popular, one where you could potentially win others’ money, or one where you could potentially win others’ money and some of the money in the app wallet?
This then can create a free market for an app with the best potential rewards. With FOSS ideals, forking an existing app and creating a better reward system would gain you more users, but you better be able to support the app, or else it’s back to the better functioning/more featureful/better maintained, but less rewarding app.
IIRC n99 acts according to this principal, although it sets the bar pretty high. If it becomes the de-facto music(?) content aggregation app though, that risk of low dev rewards per usage will have paid off.
The above is best used with a Pay Per PUT system, and I can go into that in detail later if need be. The above is the most pertinent aspect of that in regards to this discussion though.
But what about the user’s wallets?
Nobody said that all existing business models are going to be abolished by the Network. Paywalls and subscriptions will be infeasible (IMO) given the nature of the Network, but tipping, merch, etc. are all still valid ways to have a user-to-user payment economy.
An oblique to this discussion that is to be considered is the reputation that content creators aim to achieve. Hell, that’s why we have personas in the first place. Take this forum for instance - (without thinking that likes = money) how many “likes” do @dirvine’s posts get vs my own? (or any of ours for that matter) His reputation spurs users to action. It may not be monetary action, but it is action nonetheless.
Converting that into money, we see that an established name in the safe-sphere would be more successful in cultivating donors for crowdfunding, or patronage. Promising results can only work if you have a past to back you up. Establishing reputation at a lower reward rate can translate into bigger rewards if the content creator proves that they are able to provide quality content consistently.
The main thing to take away from this is that you can’t leave rewards for subjective content to the Network. So you need to find ways to take money out of others’ wallets and put it in your own. Provide a good or service and there will be a business model for you to use. Provide a quality good or service consistantly, and the possibilities are endless.