Posted on April 12, 2018
Why VR Porn Is Leading The Way When It Comes To Cryptocurrency - And How It Matters To You
Since the birth of pornography, there has been a need for privacy - from hiding copies of Playboy under your bed in the past to password-protected porn folders on your smartphone, an individual’s stash of adult material is something very personal.
With this in mind, in the modern era, paying for porn can be a stressful experience - will a friend or family member spot the payment on your credit card statement? Will you have to explain the transaction to your bank manager while asking for a loan?
And it’s an even greater issue when it comes to VR porn.
Most modern VR porn sites, such as WankzVR work on a subscription basis, charging a monthly or yearly fee for unlimited access to every scene they produce. These regular payments help support the technological advances that keep the VR porn scene improving in quality year on year. But for the consumer, this means more transactions on your bank statement, and an increased risk of being caught out by snoopers.
This is where cryptocurrency comes in.
Put simply, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin and Monero, are forms of digital money that allow you to make payments with almost complete anonymity. Bitcoin first rose to prominence due to its use in purchasing illegal products on illegal online markets such as Silk Road, but has since become a more legitimate form of currency, in part thanks to the adoption by the porn industry.
In recent years, many standard porn sites started to accept cryptocurrency payments, but it turns out the adoption rate is much higher when it comes to VR porn users.
“Crypto use on on WankzVR far outperforms our non-VR sites and this is largely due to the advanced technical knowledge of our VR users”, says Bradley Phillips, managing director of WankzVR. “Like crypto, many users dabbling in virtual reality are forward-thinking and early adopters of new technology, so it stands to reason that those investing in blockchain-based currencies overlap with those embracing virtual reality.”
There are parallels with the past. The VHS VS Betamax war of the early 1980s was eventually won by VHS, not because it was the superior format - Betamax was a more reliable, better quality system - but because unlike Betamax, VHS was willing to let porn companies release material on their tapes. It’s a similar story with BluRay - the format that is adopted by porn is usually the one that succeeds.
Along with the experience itself, this close relationship with anonymity is partly why the virtual reality porn scene is in such rude health. There are many dozens of VR porn studios, with new production companies popping up all the time. It is widely reported that over 50% of all current VR content is porn-based, with the VR porn industry estimated to reach over $1bn by 2025, beaten only by videogames and the NFL.
And it’s not just the consumer who benefits from cryptocurrency payments. Banks and credit-card companies take a dim view of the adult industry, treating these businesses as high-risk if not black-listing them completely. Crypto payments reduce this reliance on the mainstream banking system, proving especially useful for up-and-coming, small-scale VR porn studios.
There are even crypto coins designed specifically for VR porn. VR production company Me Mento have created RedBUX, a payment system for its social network-based porn brand VRXcity, while the Czech cryptocurrency OKCOIN focuses on full anonymity when it comes to purchasing VR adult content.
Of course, the world of cryptocurrency is relatively new and notoriously unpredictable, with even established coins experiencing huge fluctuations in value - indeed, many existing coins may not be around in a few months. However, what will exist is the demand for porn - an industry which grows dramatically, year on year - and the subsequent need for privacy and anonymity when purchasing it. Currently, tech-savvy VR porn users are leading the field when it comes to anonymous payment systems - it’s only a matter of time before the rest of the world catches up.
By David Chapman Contributing Writer