adf

[skull88]

It would also rock at poker, sure, but I don't think any of the established sites will want to venture a government action because they allow 'anonymous money' to go in.

http://www.pokerth.net/

could be a winning combination...

[1714105595]

1714105595

[1714105595]

1714105595

[joechip]

Why does the government hates internet gambling?

B/c they can't tax it.

Ta,

[em3rgentOrdr]

Why does the government hates internet gambling?

B/c they can't tax it.

Ta,

DING! DING! DING! DING! DING!

[Insti]

Why does the government hates internet gambling?

B/c they can't tax it.

Ta,

DING! DING! DING! DING! DING!

The UK government seems to be doing an OK job of it.

[The Madhatter]

I'll say this from experience.. a lot experience.. Don't ask.

The online adult market won't adopt Bitcoin easily. The type of person who buys online porn is a 'revolver' of credit. They don't have money to spend on porn. They *need* credit. That's why credit cards work so well.

Bitcoin is too difficult for the average guy to use. He wants porn. He doesn't care about hashing/encrypting/p2p. No amount of convincing will tell him that Bitcoin is better than a credit card. Also, the thought of downloading and installing an application is scary to an experienced porn customer. They've all had their fair share of viruses, excessive popups from CJ sites, and other general web annoyances.

Porn sites won't adopt Bitcoin because it is a waste of time. It can't do recurring billing. That is their bread and butter. Being able to silently just keep billing someone's credit card, until they cancel, is what fuels their affiliate programs and their promises to pay $150-$200 per sale (aka "join") to affiliates.

Lets say that you solved some of these problems by directing porn customers and merchants to a web interface system like MyBitcoin. Let's also say that they have a working shopping cart system for the merchants. I'll explain the problems with that next...

You could get porn customers to use it. But, you'd end up with the problem of funding the wallet. Assuming that the customer doesn't easily give up. (They *buy* porn because finding it for free is too much of a hassle. They are *LAZY*.) The customer will seek out PayPal or credit card to Bitcoin exchangers. (They stick with what they know.) The liabilities would be held by the exchangers. The levels of chargebacks will slowly increase on these exchangers until they are out of business.

After that happens, it would grind to a halt. Merchants would drop it like a hot potato. They are used to dropping payment options. It is their first reaction when something goes wrong. The online adult industry is riddled with bank/Visa/whatever freeze-ups.

From the merchant side, you'd have the problem of "cashing out". The porn merchants don't give a damn about your virtual currency. They want dollars. MyBitcoin, in this example, would have to guarantee to buy (under contract) every single Bitcoin or no merchant in their right mind would use it. Sure, they could pass the Bitcoins to their affiliates/promoters to alleviate some of their liabilities. This would require some serious adoption (and convincing) across the entire industry.

The only viable option for Bitcoin in the adult arena is the micropayment one. Period. You'd have to supply absolutely *all* of the web technology. (Customer AND merchant.) It would have to be entirely web-based. You'd have to guarantee, in writing, to buy each coin back. This would only work on a few sites. Sites that sell porn per image, video, software download, etc. Sites that don't rely on recurring revenues.

Personal reservations aside; the fastest way to encourage adoption would be a dumbed-down HYIP.

[Anonymous]

 I wouldnt sell porn directly with bitcoins.What I would do is setup an adult verification service using bitcoins that has agreements with other avs companies to accept your avs as acceptable. Customers could then use their sites without having to reveal identity or credit card info.

 

[The Madhatter]

Just an FYI: AVS is a scam. They don't verify anything. AVS has nothing to do with verifying someone's age.

They came about to skirt the Visa regulations on selling porn. (Around 2001) They claim to Visa that they are selling an age verification service and not porn. This evolved into "ticket service providers" who would sell tickets that could be redeemed for porn, and many other systems that 'skirt' the banking rules.

Are you really going to verify the age of the customer? You are going to sell them an anonymous currency and then ask for ID? Do you really think that current AVSes want Bitcoins? They rely on selling recurring billing.

Sorry to burst your bubble. I'm not trying to be mean. I'm just being realistic.

[Babylon]

I think bitcoin poker will really establish the BTC.

I disagree.  All you can get with bitcoins by playing poker is bitcoins.  Gambling is also nowhere near as big a market as porn and it does not really benefit as much from the possibility of micropayments.

I think bitporn would be an excellent idea and if someone starts developing it I hope they will contact me. 

[thrashaholic]

I think bitcoin poker will really establish the BTC.

I disagree.  All you can get with bitcoins by playing poker is bitcoins.  Gambling is also nowhere near as big a market as porn and it does not really benefit as much from the possibility of micropayments.

I think bitporn would be an excellent idea and if someone starts developing it I hope they will contact me. 

Why not replace SharingMatrix/MegaUpload/et. al with a (user friendly) bitcoin based file host, and get all the "free" porn sites (like adultbay, for instance) to use it instead. I'd actually pay for the increased bandwidth and concurrent downloads if I didn't have to risk my personal and CC details and those evil, evil automatic recurring payments.

This way we can use porn (and music blogs) in a roundabout way.

[kiba]

I think bitcoin poker will really establish the BTC.

I disagree.  All you can get with bitcoins by playing poker is bitcoins.  Gambling is also nowhere near as big a market as porn and it does not really benefit as much from the possibility of micropayments.

I think bitporn would be an excellent idea and if someone starts developing it I hope they will contact me. 

Why not replace SharingMatrix/MegaUpload/et. al with a (user friendly) bitcoin based file host, and get all the "free" porn sites (like adultbay, for instance) to use it instead. I'd actually pay for the increased bandwidth and concurrent downloads if I didn't have to risk my personal and CC details and those evil, evil automatic recurring payments.

This way we can use porn (and music blogs) in a roundabout way.

Yeah, Bitcoin serve as good captcha.

[satoshi]

Bitcoin would be convenient for people who don't have a credit card or don't want to use the cards they have, either don't want the spouse to see it on the bill or don't trust giving their number to "porn guys", or afraid of recurring billing.

[em3rgentOrdr]

Bitcoin would be convenient for people who don't have a credit card...

Hmm...teenagers maybe

[kiba]

Bitcoin would be convenient for people who don't have a credit card...

Hmm...teenagers maybe

Through online gaming, they discovered bitcoin. Then they learn bitcoin can be used to purchase physical goods and real life services, thus beginning their career in the bitcoin economy.

[S3052]

Building on the online gaming idea:

Who knows folks in this industry? I have recently played "penguin fly game" which is very addictive, but to really get to the highest level you have to buy some additional help toys.. if i could have bought some with bitcoins, I'd still be playing.

Maybe someone who is connected and knowledgable can contact some folks in this industry to allow bitcoin payments?

[kiba]

Maybe someone who is connected and knowledgable can contact some folks in this industry to allow bitcoin payments?

While I am not connected to the industry, I am considering building a bitarcade. In my game sketchbook, I try to figure out the simplest game that I could humanely implement while still being somewhat fun. This is somewhat inspired by sweepmine, a facebook game.

[The Madhatter]

Please see: http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=30.msg14368#msg14368

[Timo Y]

Been there, done that in terms of getting tied up with the porn industry.  Some of the people involved on a full-time level in the "porn industry" certainly are folks you would not want hanging around your kids, or for that matter even being around at all.  I'm sort of lucky I'm even still alive frankly for even having been however briefly associated with this crowd.  Money is to be made, but there is a price to be paid.  Make sure you are willing to pay the price and know very well what the price is that has to be paid when getting into an enterprise like this.

The guys that make you pay don't care about courts, and many are into.... let's just say other enterprises of questionable legality.

You don't have to associate with the "industry" in order to run an adult site. Set up a studio, place some ads in your local newspaper, sell the movies on a .onion site that only accepts bitcoin. Even if some Pron Gangsta guy, presumably in California, decides to "make you pay", well he is going to have a hell of a hard time to find out who you are in the first place. And even if he does, will he bother coming after you if you don't live in California but Finland? or Brazil? Not likely, as long as you keep a low profile. 

Or maybe I'm being naive here. The thing is just, there seems to be a growing cottage industry of "Erotica by Amateurs for Amateurs" on the web, and I find it hard to believe that these people are all getting death threats from the Pron Mafia.

[The Madhatter]

Dave? Dave! Is that you? I didn't mean to try to break your kneecaps the other day. I told you to keep a low profile and you just started running your mouth to the wrong people. What else was I supposed to do? Come back to the pr0n studio bruddah! I have urgent work for you!

</satire>

[TiagoTiago]

Not that i would approve (necessarilly), but illegal porn services would probably the ones to be more sucessfull with offering payments in bitcoins, much safer than credit cards that are used all the time to trace customers of illegal porn services.

[AllYourBase]

Bitporn, hmm.  I was thinking it would be fun to use an exponential function of some time type for this.  The first image of someone is free, the next is .01, then next .1, etc. etc. until it's like 500btc for the next picture