Pornhub Suggests Crypto Payments After Paypal Censors Model Payouts

On November 14, the leading adult video sharing site on the internet, Pornhub, revealed that payment processor Paypal has blocked the company’s live performer payouts. In a blog post written on Thursday, Pornhub recommended alternative payments like writing a check or using the digital currency verge.

Also read: Walk Like Nakamoto: 7 Anonymous Personalities in the Crypto Space

Paypal Blocks Pornhub’s Live Performer Payouts — Crypto Advocates Suggest Accepting More Digital Currencies

The adult entertainment web portal Pornhub is having issues with the payment processor Paypal. Pornhub has revealed Paypal has blocked model payouts for live performers who leverage the site’s platform. The company announced the issues using Twitter and a blog post that describes what payment methods are offered for live models. “Our currently available payment methods are Paxum, check, verge cryptocurrency and direct deposit,” explains Pornhub’s post. The adult site also explains in the notice that in order to accept verge (XVG), models need to obtain an XVG accepting wallet. On Twitter Pornhub wrote:

Urgent: Paypal has stopped all Pornhub model payouts. If you had PayPal as your payout method please change to direct deposit/SEPA, or payment by check in your settings.

After the Twitter announcement and blog post, the price of XVG saw a small rise in value but the cryptocurrency is down 2.5% today and 9.4% for the week. In response to Pornhub’s Twitter post, many crypto community members used the opportunity to ask the company to accept more digital currencies like BCH, BTC, and ETH. One BCH supporter wrote: “Bitcoin Cash is there to help you and your customers.” “All models should contact Brenna Sparks to help them accept crypto payments,” another person tweeted.

For years now many cryptocurrency advocates have proposed that the adult industry combines forces with the crypto industry. Last spring Pornhub started accepting XVG but also told the public it would also accept ZEC and TRX. Since adding verge to the payment support list, reports detailed last year that only 1% of purchases are made using XVG and the other alternatives (ZEC, TRX) are not yet supported.

Financial Incumbents Have Been Blocking the Adult Industry for Years — Censorship-Resistant Money Is Needed

Paypal and other major credit card companies have been blocking sex workers and applications that help them get paid for years now. In 2014, the porn star Teal Conrad was banned from Paypal immediately after a slew of other adult industry stars were also barred from using financial institutions like Chase. A few users on Twitter mentioned that Pornhub should have fought harder against SESTA/FOSTA, a U.S. Senate and House bill that became law on April 11, 2018. “Gee, if only Pornhub used their massive budget to lobby against SESTA/FOSTA and fight for credit card companies to stop putting pressure on apps to ban sex workers maybe this wouldn’t have happened,” a user replied to Pornhub’s Paypal blockade tweet on Thursday.

Digital currency advocates have been slowly penetrating the adult industry to a degree and a few porn stars have promoted crypto on various occasions as well. According to a market research report created by the adult film studio Vogov, around 470 adult video sites have exposure to digital currencies. In the overall scheme of the massively lucrative porn industry, that doesn’t even scratch the surface. As more pressure from financial incumbents rises against the adult industry, the friction may push other leading firms and performers toward censorship-resistant cryptocurrencies.

What do you think about Paypal blocking Pornhub’s live performer payouts? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Image credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Pornhub, and Twitter.

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Jamie Redman

Jamie Redman is a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open source code, and decentralized applications. Redman has written thousands of articles for news.Bitcoin.com about the disruptive protocols emerging today.