> paying for content [...] The worst possible approach is to require biometric or government ID,

IMO a good middle-ground is a "proof of stake", where you just need to prove you're an entity that has some meaningful incentive to follow the rules and be nice, because you'll take some damage if the site tries to terminate the relationship.

That differs from other options like paying the site money (perverse incentive problem) or proving a relationship to a unique human (privacy dangers) or that you're a human and not a robot (difficult to test.)

Imagine a vending-machine at city-hall, where anyone can spend $5 to a legally-recognized charity of their choice. In exchange, they get some anonymous tokens [0] can be loaded into a web browser for use.

The point is we can all benefit by strategically relaxing requirements.

[0] Technical details of the anonymity and deterring resale etc. are important, but I'm gonna shelve them for the moment in the interests of space/brevity.