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Can someone explain to me why there hasn't been a crypto payments use case that solves this? Of all the fields that crypto should be able to gain adoption in, o

Can someone explain to me why there hasn't been a crypto payments use case that solves this? Of all the fields that crypto should be able to gain adoption in, one where people don't want their standard accounts and credit reports to reflect they subscribed to any porn, however bland, seems like the ideal (legal) use case.

dogman144 4y ago
The volatility is the elephant in the room. In my opinion, vol slowly smooths out as adoption increases, happens with most currencies. But this slowly might be a long time. You are one of the few comments ITT that bring this up though. On one hand, it shows how the tech’s real purpose hasn’t really permeated the general or tech public yet. On the other, it is literally the only digitally native payment solution that offers cash-but-online and solves the specific risk of payment censorship . There might be other innovations down the road though, but for now caring about these events means caring about cryptocurrency, if you care about solving the problem with today’s tech vs what’s still to come.
- atlasunshrugged 4y ago
  But if transactions settle immediately with crypto shouldn't you be able to just convert to fiat or a stablecoin to avoid the volatility? Or do you mean volatility for a consumer that holds the currencies beforehand? It's just surprising it hasn't been adopted somewhere yet as this isn't a new problem facing the industry and I wonder if there are bigger barriers I'm not seeing. I think Coinbase had a payments function similar to a Stripe integration but maybe they also don't allow such use cases? https://commerce.coinbase.com/ https://commerce.coinbase.com/ - I'll dig into their TOS out of morbid curiousity Edit w/update: It is indeed not allowed in their TOS, "Adult Content and Services: Pornography (including literature, imagery and other media); sites offering any sexually-related services such as prostitution, escorts, pay-per view, or adult live chat features." is under the 'Prohibited' section
  - dogman144 4y ago
    Without an easy way to interact economically with the currency beyond one time use cases, it’s more like a gift card that is very volatile with heavy compliance requirements. I could spend all my money via gift cards, but the process of buying gift cards constantly is annoying. Using crypto for one time uses is like this, but with the added requirement of compliance teams evaluating what you’ve used the giftcard for (the crypto to fiat swapping process). However, where there exists consistent market worth staying in crypto, you do see adoption. Unfortunately, this is darknet markets so not great for marketing further adoption. But good proof of concept.
kkielhofner 4y ago
The number of people interested in paying for content not permitted by Visa/MC and who can actually figure out how to use crypto for anything other than trading on an exchange is tiny. Not surprisingly the only resources online about porn payments and cryptocurrency are a variety of high profile CSAM stories. Yet another of one of the many problems with crypto adoption - it’s so frequently used/cited/associated with illicit activity that (again other than gambling on an exchange) many (most?) law abiding people associate it with criminals outside of the Disneyworld playpen that is Coinbase.
louloulou 4y ago
> Can someone explain to me why there hasn't been a crypto payments use case that solves this? There has - most porn sites accept payment in bitcoin. https://lifehacker.com/how-to-pay-for-porn-with-crypto-and-why-you-should-1848003447 https://lifehacker.com/how-to-pay-for-porn-with-crypto-and-w...

dogman144 4y ago

The volatility is the elephant in the room. In my opinion, vol slowly smooths out as adoption increases, happens with most currencies. But this slowly might be a long time. You are one of the few comments ITT that bring this up though. On one hand, it shows how the tech’s real purpose hasn’t really permeated the general or tech public yet. On the other, it is literally the only digitally native payment solution that offers cash-but-online and solves the specific risk of payment censorship . There might be other innovations down the road though, but for now caring about these events means caring about cryptocurrency, if you care about solving the problem with today’s tech vs what’s still to come.

atlasunshrugged 4y ago
But if transactions settle immediately with crypto shouldn't you be able to just convert to fiat or a stablecoin to avoid the volatility? Or do you mean volatility for a consumer that holds the currencies beforehand? It's just surprising it hasn't been adopted somewhere yet as this isn't a new problem facing the industry and I wonder if there are bigger barriers I'm not seeing. I think Coinbase had a payments function similar to a Stripe integration but maybe they also don't allow such use cases? https://commerce.coinbase.com/ https://commerce.coinbase.com/ - I'll dig into their TOS out of morbid curiousity Edit w/update: It is indeed not allowed in their TOS, "Adult Content and Services: Pornography (including literature, imagery and other media); sites offering any sexually-related services such as prostitution, escorts, pay-per view, or adult live chat features." is under the 'Prohibited' section
- dogman144 4y ago
  Without an easy way to interact economically with the currency beyond one time use cases, it’s more like a gift card that is very volatile with heavy compliance requirements. I could spend all my money via gift cards, but the process of buying gift cards constantly is annoying. Using crypto for one time uses is like this, but with the added requirement of compliance teams evaluating what you’ve used the giftcard for (the crypto to fiat swapping process). However, where there exists consistent market worth staying in crypto, you do see adoption. Unfortunately, this is darknet markets so not great for marketing further adoption. But good proof of concept.

kkielhofner 4y ago

The number of people interested in paying for content not permitted by Visa/MC and who can actually figure out how to use crypto for anything other than trading on an exchange is tiny. Not surprisingly the only resources online about porn payments and cryptocurrency are a variety of high profile CSAM stories. Yet another of one of the many problems with crypto adoption - it’s so frequently used/cited/associated with illicit activity that (again other than gambling on an exchange) many (most?) law abiding people associate it with criminals outside of the Disneyworld playpen that is Coinbase.

louloulou 4y ago

> Can someone explain to me why there hasn't been a crypto payments use case that solves this? There has - most porn sites accept payment in bitcoin. https://lifehacker.com/how-to-pay-for-porn-with-crypto-and-why-you-should-1848003447 https://lifehacker.com/how-to-pay-for-porn-with-crypto-and-w...