OK.

What is this about?

I've never collected a nickel from Medium.

I think, instead of charging a price for admission to all the crap on the platform, they should have micro payments.

Read an article, and if you like it, hit 'pay' and the writer gets something.

I don't have a clue whether that would work or not, but trying to make any money on Medium is rather funny to me. I do not paywall anything.