OnlyFans is one of the most popular platforms for posting content, including pornographic, for access to which you need to pay a subscription. The platform has previously released new placement rules.
In accordance with them, adult content will soon be banned, as many banks that process transactions of OnlyFans users do not like this. Now, CEO Tim Stokely, in a recent interview, explained the difficulties with such a content distribution model. Let’s talk about what is happening in more detail.
Note that this is not the first time this situation has happened. In December 2020, it became known that Visa and Mastercard had stopped cooperating with the largest porn site in the world called Pornhub.
This happened after the alleged discovery of prohibited content on the platform. Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham said at the time that such activity by card issuers would make cryptocurrencies a much more attractive means of making payments. An expert’s point of view can be found in this article.
How cryptocurrency can help the world
A few days ago, OnlyFans released new terms of use, according to which adult content will be banned on the platform from October 1st. Stokely himself noted that they «had no other choice.» The main reason for this decision is the dissatisfaction of the banks. Three banking giants Bank of New York Mellon, Metro Bank and JPMorgan Chase have refused to provide their services to OnlyFans.
Subscription model to unblock content on OnlyFans
Stokely noted that the banks refused to cooperate due to the «reputation risk» of being associated with a platform that hosts sexually explicit content. According to sources, JPMorgan is “aggressively closing the accounts of sex workers” or any other business that “supports” the industry.
Here is Stokely’s quote on this, in which he shares his attitude to what is happening. The replica is provided by Cointelegraph.
We pay over one million content creators around $ 300 million every month. You need to be aware that these funds will reach the recipient through the banking sector.
This means that in this case, the consequences of the banks’ activity were first of all felt by the authors of the videos on the platform, who were cut off from the possibility of earning money. Accordingly, the «reputation» for the banks turned out to be more important than someone’s income.
CEO of OnlyFans Tim Stockley
However, by now the company was able to come to a mutual agreement with its banking partners – OnlyFans will continue to work as usual. However, this does not negate the fact that if a certain company may not like the banks in some way, they will immediately “cut off the oxygen” in the form of financial transactions.
And here the need arises for the introduction of full-fledged cryptocurrencies, which are decentralized, that is, they do not depend on banks, governments and entire countries. Accordingly, with them, various platforms will not depend on the whims of banks, which sometimes behave very strangely. For example, last week it became known about the blocking of accounts of the company Compass Mining, which maintains and controls client miners. It was done by JP Morgan bank.
With the help of coins, companies will be able to try to develop in the desired direction and not risk facing financial problems. Still, in the case of OnlyFans, it was not only about creating inconveniences for the company’s management, but also about the impossibility of making payments for the content creators, who essentially provide the client base of the platform. And this can be regarded as a direct attack on the platform.
As a reminder, back in 2018, Pornhub began accepting Verge cryptocurrency as a means of payment. It is not yet known if OnlyFans is going to implement something similar. But in general, this funding model is very successful for those who work with frank content: the crypt can be obtained and exchanged almost anywhere in the world without significant restrictions and huge commissions.
We believe that the current situation has highlighted not so much the need to popularize cryptocurrencies that do not depend on higher authorities, but rather the danger of dependence on banks. Still, financial institutions can at any time create huge problems for the globally popular platforms that millions of people use in one way or another. Moreover, in this case, they will argue their decisions solely by «fear of reputational risks.»
Obviously, the world will not get rid of banks with dubious behavior overnight, but it is worth having an alternative for them now. And it is cryptocurrencies that can be called a full-fledged replacement for centralized financial institutions, which enables people to interact directly with each other.
