Protocol operators running "full nodes" are paid in tokens for performing the service outlined in the protocol. The protocols are ultimately developer tools for user facing apps. Most of the user facing apps aren't mature enough to be notable, just like the internet wasn't all that exciting in the early 90s.

> just like the internet wasn't all that exciting in the early 90s.

Anyone who believes this probably wasn’t alive then.

Everything we take for granted is built on open and free (as in beer) protocols. The people who created and supported TCP/IP, HTTP, XMPP, etc. figured out ways to have successful careers without a micropayment scheme for basic participation.

That is true. And then we ended up with Facebook, Amazon and Google et al to handle the rest. I'll take micropayment schemes over centralized megacorps. At least for now.

And personally, I remember a simultaneous mix of excitement and disappointment from the internet of the 90s.

In bitcoin, miners receive coins in proportion to their computational power. A cloud storage protocol might work by paying out coins to miners in proportion to the storage they provide. Storage users get storage by paying coins to the "miners".