Will Microsoft Launch an Alternative to Paypal?

From CNNMoney.com:

Microsoft...is developing on an online payment system that will be cheaper than credit card transactions, making it possible for companies to charge small fees for Web-based content and services they now offer for free.

Microsoft's move into Internet payments could threaten credit card companies' online profits. Gates described a system that would undercut credit card fees, making it profitable for an online newspaper to charge small fees for individual articles, for example.

"If you want to charge somebody $0.10 or $1 a month, that will just be a click...you won't have to manage some funny thing or pay some big credit charge, where half of it goes to the clearing," Gates said.

Sounds interesting. I wonder if it's only meant to be a sort of micro-payments system for content publishers, or if it'll be an online payment service similar to Paypal? I mean, it'll be cool if I can create "premium" blog posts and charge people 5 cents to gain access to them, but it'll be even better if I can save up all those nickels and use them to pay my hosting bill. Or even use my MSPAY (or whatever they want to call it) debit card to buy writing supplies.