Bitcoiners are always griping that the e-currency needs more users, not more publicity. The intersection of Bitcoin and porn, however, is likely to bring both. But the question is a logical one: if Silk Road brought Bitcoin into use by letting people buy drugs and other useful things semi-anonymously, perhaps taboo-but-legal sites could do the same. “Bitcoin won’t be popular until porn sites start accepting it as a discrete alternative to credit cards, which are a huge barrier to entry I think for many of their potential customers,” writes one user over on Reddit. Another pointed out that porn sites have been early adopters of technology before: “Porn used SD video cameras like the Sony VX1000 that proved small chip video was good enough for the small screen. The VCR, the DVD all owe their success, at least partially, to porn.”
It’s not that it hasn’t been tried: Wetcoin.co.cc launched back in July, an “adult-orientated website” that charged small amounts of BTC for downloads and required no registration. (The site is now defunct.) Cam4.com was another experiment, now defunct, which allowed users to tip amateur girls with proprietary “tokens,” which could be bought on the secondary market at xxxcoin.com (defunct), for Bitcoins.
The blog Bitcoin Porn is a Tumblr with information about Bitcoin interspersed with porn. There are no purchases possible, but you can support the site with a BTC donation. There is an associated podcast as well as a Twitter.
There is the argument that the fledgling currency should try to associate itself with more acceptable ecommerce like bit-strawberries rather than be thought of as the medium of exchange for drugs and porn. But needless to say, if Bitcoiners could get enough adult sites to accept Bitcoin, the e-currency would gain access to a massive audience. “That was actually the idea I had in mind when I bought titcoins.com, but I haven’t had any time to bring it to fruition,” another Bitcoin-Redditor commented.
