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>(coinbase payment processor and accept cryptocurrencies?) https://www.coinbase.com/legal/prohibited https://www.coinbase.com/legal/prohibited

adriancr 5y ago
Oh damn... I wasn't expecting this from them... > Adult Content and Services: Pornography and other obscene materials (including literature, imagery and other media); ...
- LudwigNagasena 5y ago
  Why would a service that desperately tries to get normalized shoot itself in the leg like that and allow something controversial?
  - d3nj4l 5y ago
    A lot of th epromise of crypto to a lot of enthusiasts is freedom - freedom from traditional oversight. This can be both good, like being able to send money to people in countries with awful currencies, or bad, like when you don't have regulations to protect people. So it is kind of disappointing to see Coinbase basically reinvent traditional banking but on the blockchain, because then, what's the point?
    - fleddr 5y ago
      You don't need Coinbase to move crypto. Sex workers were some of the first to use Bitcoin as an alternative payment. Meaning, a direct wallet to wallet payment. However, some have indicated that it's not great. Many of their customers supposedly are drunk men. They greatly struggle to make the payment this way, and you can imagine that in this context it can't take too long, or the "mood" is gone.
  - x86_64Ubuntu 5y ago
    They are trying to get normalized with mainstream America, not get normalized with the usual crypto fanatics. That means they need to have access to fiat financial systems which in turn means they need to not be associated with anything the old guard generally doesn't like. That includes adult content.
  - XorNot 5y ago
    Sex work isn't controversial, it's just a magnet for fraud. The first thing someone does with a stolen payment method is usually go and spend it on porn - or if you're advanced, sets up a money laundering scheme to spend it on "porn" and circulate it back to themselves. It's just the nature of the business.
    - actually_a_dog 5y ago
      Really? The first thing someone does with a stolen credit card is to go pay for porn? I would guess so few people pay for porn willingly that that would be a great way to trip all sorts of fraud alarms. Anecdotally, I had a credit card number get compromised a few years ago. They used it at a Babys-R-Us on the opposite coast. I'm pretty sure they weren't buying porn.
      - XorNot 5y ago
        A stolen credit card number doesn't generally go and "spend big" - they go buy luxury items they want. There's no end of "my credit card got done and they went and spent $50 on gas and beer" stories. At the other side of that there is equally no end of "went and signed up for premium porn content" or PPV cable or whatever - and that's what payment processors tend to get unhappy about. EDIT: Or more accurately, the relative ratio.
        AnimalMuppet 5y ago
        Gas, especially. Because you can pay at the pump, you can see if the card is still live without ever seeing a human being. Thieves love that. On the other hand, if the cops were actually interested in prosecuting such things, they left their license plates on the security camera...
        actually_a_dog 5y ago
        That makes sense. I've tripped fraud detection alarms on one or another of my cards a few times, and, almost every time I can remember, it was at a gas pump.
vmception 5y ago
Its only a matter of time before better merchant ux is done all client side, and the crypto funds arent linkable by exchanges to curb cashing out

adriancr 5y ago

Oh damn... I wasn't expecting this from them... > Adult Content and Services: Pornography and other obscene materials (including literature, imagery and other media); ...

LudwigNagasena 5y ago
Why would a service that desperately tries to get normalized shoot itself in the leg like that and allow something controversial?
- d3nj4l 5y ago
  A lot of th epromise of crypto to a lot of enthusiasts is freedom - freedom from traditional oversight. This can be both good, like being able to send money to people in countries with awful currencies, or bad, like when you don't have regulations to protect people. So it is kind of disappointing to see Coinbase basically reinvent traditional banking but on the blockchain, because then, what's the point?
  - fleddr 5y ago
    You don't need Coinbase to move crypto. Sex workers were some of the first to use Bitcoin as an alternative payment. Meaning, a direct wallet to wallet payment. However, some have indicated that it's not great. Many of their customers supposedly are drunk men. They greatly struggle to make the payment this way, and you can imagine that in this context it can't take too long, or the "mood" is gone.
- x86_64Ubuntu 5y ago
  They are trying to get normalized with mainstream America, not get normalized with the usual crypto fanatics. That means they need to have access to fiat financial systems which in turn means they need to not be associated with anything the old guard generally doesn't like. That includes adult content.
- XorNot 5y ago
  Sex work isn't controversial, it's just a magnet for fraud. The first thing someone does with a stolen payment method is usually go and spend it on porn - or if you're advanced, sets up a money laundering scheme to spend it on "porn" and circulate it back to themselves. It's just the nature of the business.
  - actually_a_dog 5y ago
    Really? The first thing someone does with a stolen credit card is to go pay for porn? I would guess so few people pay for porn willingly that that would be a great way to trip all sorts of fraud alarms. Anecdotally, I had a credit card number get compromised a few years ago. They used it at a Babys-R-Us on the opposite coast. I'm pretty sure they weren't buying porn.
    - XorNot 5y ago
      A stolen credit card number doesn't generally go and "spend big" - they go buy luxury items they want. There's no end of "my credit card got done and they went and spent $50 on gas and beer" stories. At the other side of that there is equally no end of "went and signed up for premium porn content" or PPV cable or whatever - and that's what payment processors tend to get unhappy about. EDIT: Or more accurately, the relative ratio.
      - AnimalMuppet 5y ago
        Gas, especially. Because you can pay at the pump, you can see if the card is still live without ever seeing a human being. Thieves love that. On the other hand, if the cops were actually interested in prosecuting such things, they left their license plates on the security camera...
        actually_a_dog 5y ago
        That makes sense. I've tripped fraud detection alarms on one or another of my cards a few times, and, almost every time I can remember, it was at a gas pump.

vmception 5y ago

Its only a matter of time before better merchant ux is done all client side, and the crypto funds arent linkable by exchanges to curb cashing out