Most mainstream credit cards, banks, and payment platforms refuse to process payments for sex work such as live streaming erotic performances on webcams. As a result, performers are limited to only a few adult platforms that are highly competitive and impose high fees and strict rules on them.
By building their SPANK and BOOTY tokens on top of Ethereum, Spankchain has developed an innovative payment system that is unrestricted and free from censorship. Can it help free adult performers from punitive fees? We find out below.
What is Spankchain?
Spankchain’s main product is a website where adult performers can host their webcam shows and viewers can pay directly using Ether and Ethereum tokens. By using Ethereum's smart contracts, Spankchain ensures sex-workers, who regularly suffer from having accounts frozen by traditional banks and PayPal, gain financial independence.
Who Invented Spankchain?
Ameen Soleimani envisioned Spankchain in the spring of 2017 while working as a developer for ConsenSys, the venture capital studio that funds this very website. For the entire porn and acid fueled origin story of Spankchain, check out Decrypt’s recent adventure to the “Spankhouse”. Soleimani has also been working on MolochDAO, which aims to help fund Ethereum infrastructure.
Soleimani’s original idea was to start a separate department at ConsenSys specifically for ‘dark’ or ‘evil’ projects where ventures such as Spankchain could be incubated and run. ConsenSys’s founder Joe Lubin didn’t think the idea fit with the overall vision for the company so Soleimani left to start Spankchain on his own.Did you know?
A brief history
- Halloween 2017, Spankchain launched their ICO and created 1 billion SPANK tokens.
- In April 2018, Spankchain launched the private beta of their webcam site: Spank.live
- BOOTY, their internal payments token is introduced in August 2018.
What’s so special about it?
Spankchain is the first major Ethereum company to specialize in serving the adult entertainment industry, which in the past has been the gateway for mainstream adoption. The home camera, the VCR, and the internet are all recent examples of how the sex industry has fueled the uptake of new technology.
For example, when the camcorder and VCR were introduced in the late 1970s, it was well known to manufacturers that they were mainly used for sexually explicit content. The same pattern happened with 8mm home cameras before and the internet after, where pornography would help establish the early market before more mainstream and general usage followed. Could Spankchain do the same for blockchain?
Adult webcam sites regularly take 50 percent and sometimes even up to 65 percent of a performer’s earnings. Spankchain takes only 5 percent in fees; the rest goes directly to the performers.Did you know?
What else is different?
Besides their real-world use case, Spankchain has developed a unique payment system that allows users to send payments quickly, easily, and in small amounts with low fees. Ethereum and blockchain payments, in general, have been plagued by slow transaction times and relatively high rates. In order to make transactions on the blockchain more seamless, Spankchain has created SpankPay, which uses the SPANK and BOOTY tokens.
How are Spankchain tokens are produced?
The original crypto asset on which the Spankchain network is based is an Ethereum token called SPANK of which 1 billion tokens were created during their ICO in 2017. Using SPANK tokens, users are able to create a stablecoin called BOOTY. The BOOTY token is designed to have a consistently stable value of 1 US dollar and is used to pay performers and cover fees.
How it works is:
- SPANK Tokens are staked or locked in the
- SpankBank, which mints
- BOOTY that users can use for payments
How do you get hold of Spankchain tokens?
SPANK tokens are available to purchase or trade on exchanges, but BOOTY must be created by staking tokens in the SpankBank. Any Ethereum wallet can hold SPANK tokens, but BOOTY tokens can only be used on the Spankchain platform.
What can you do with Spankchain?
Spankchain is currently live so anyone can anonymously create a profile and send or receive payments. Users can sign up to become a model and start performing in shows to earn money. Those who are looking for entertainment can view shows and pay performers in BOOTY.
The Future
Spankchain plans to add new features to their webcam and entertainment site, but their main goal is to continue developing better payment solutions through their SpankPay product. The team hopes that SpankPay will be a simple crypto payment processor that allows merchants to accept crypto payments in a way where they do not have to deal with the complexity or long transaction times of the blockchain. They hope that SpankPay can develop as a solution for other adult entertainment sites and grow to become the “PayPal of porn".
