Big dogs like Valve, Stripe, and Reddit are all pulling the plug on cryptocurrency payments for the time being, but there is a new force gearing up to fill up the gap: Pornhub – and you won’t believe who they’re partnering up with.
The adult entertainment titan has announced it will now accept payments in anonymous cryptocurrency Verge (XVG). This means now you now have the option to pay for your premium subscription without leaving any trails.
“Here at Pornhub, we’re all about convenience and security, which makes cryptocurrency an attractive form of payment for us,” VP Corey Price told Hard Fork. “We’ve been looking at crypto for quite some time and, while overall adoption is relatively low, we think it has gained enough steam for us to penetrate the market.”
“This partnership represents an enormous market with a global reach that will compete with fiat currencies,” said Verge founder and lead developer Justin Sunerok. “It’s huge for Verge and we’re extremely excited to finally be able to announce it.”
The pornography giant said it has been running trials with the payment system internally and testing has gone without any hiccups so far.
What makes the news particularly intriguing is that it also reveals Pornhub as the mysterious partner Verge has been teasing for almost a month now. Indeed, the cryptocurrency startup came under fire after earlier in March it asked its users to donate $3 million worth of XVG to reveal a “potential partnership.”
“In line with our mission to empower people to bring blockchain transactions into everyday life, we are thrilled to announce efforts to establish the largest cryptocurrency collaboration to hit the market,” the fundraising appeal read. “Help us accelerate this crowdfunding effort and reach our target goal.”
The announcement was slated to land on March 26, but Verge eventually postponed the announcement for April 16 – and then one more time for today, April 17. Despite these delays and a healthy dose of skepticism from the larger cryptocurrency community, the partnership is finally official.
In a Medium post from earlier today, Verge said the $3 million it raised from its community will go towards integrating their technology into the Pornhub payment gateway system, marketing, as well as hardware wallet integrations for Ledger and Trezor (even though Ledger says it is not aware of such plans).
Porn and crypto
Pornhub is not the only adult entertainment company to toy around with blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
Webcam platform CamSoda recently teased an interactive platform that makes your sex toys vibrate harder when the price of Bitcoin, Litecoin, or Ethereum soars; it also has plans to launch its own blockchain to let customers exchange nudes and get paid for it.
Unlike CamSoda though, Pornhub has actually partnered with a company that has a working product. Still, the decision to use Verge is an unusual one given its questionable record.
Back in March, Verge got its social media accounts breached after hackers were able to exploit leaked Yahoo databases to access the personal accounts of Sunerok. More recently, Verge was forced to hard fork its blockchain after attackers were able to exploit a bug in its system to perform a 51 percent attack on its network.
Prior to that, reports suggested that Verge might be suffering from a vulnerability that exposes its users’ IP addresses, though the claims were never properly confirmed.
“As with penetrating any industry, there are inherent risks associated,” Price told us. “Nonetheless, we are excited to take this next step to keep current with our community’s payment preferences and offer them this viable alternative.”
Pornhub adds that the cryptocurrency integration will also land on partner sites like Brazzers and Nutaku, which focuses on sex-themed games. Price says that the company intends to continue experimenting with blockchain-powered payments in the future, adding that the functionality will eventually make its way to more services and products.
Meanwhile, those curious can find out more about the Verge collaboration on Pornhub here – it is absolutely SFW by the way.
