In a nutshell: Cryptocurrency has a long history of being linked to shady activity on the Internet. In recent years, however, various virtual currencies including Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum have made substantial strides in becoming a viable alternative to fiat currency.
It has taken Pornhub less than a week to replace Visa and Mastercard as its primary payments processing providers.
Decrypt recently noticed that the adult content platform is now only accepting cryptocurrency for its premium membership. The site appears to be taking a wealth of different virtual currencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin, among others.
A Pornhub premium membership sells for $9.99 per month and affords multiple benefits. Subscribers get access to exclusive content as well as faster and higher quality streams. Ads are also eliminated as part of a paid membership.
It’s been a roller coaster of a year for Pornhub. After experiencing an influx of traffic attributed to the ongoing pandemic, the adult content site found itself at the center of a New York Times exposé highlighting non-consensual and abuse videos. The aforementioned payments processing companies quickly distanced themselves from the site, and earlier this week, Pornhub removed millions of videos from its site that were uploaded by non-verified accounts.
PayPal late last year also stopped accepting payments for thousands of Pornhub performers.
Image credit: Max Sky
https://www.techspot.com/news/87978-pornhub-turns-cryptocurrency-premium-service.html
