INTRODUCTION
I will be right to infer that many of you, at some point in your lives, have viewed pornographic contents - this is not to talk about some people that have premium subscriptions in adult entertainment websites like Pornhub, xvideos etc. While making this review, I did a little systematic survey with my friends and I was shocked that many of my friend have premium subscriptions in at least one adult entertainment website. Maybe these figures will give you a little insight; according to research, there was a total of 28.5 billion views of adult contents in 2017 [ref]. Asides the viewership, an estimated amount of $13 billion is generated by adult entertainment companies every year in the U.S alone [ref]. However, with all these monies generated by these companies from premium subscription, a greater percentage go to middlemen while those directly involved with the entertainment are left with little for their efforts. This is the reason an idea was raised to incorporate blockchain technology into the adult entertainment world - this is how Spankchain was initiated.
OVERVIEW OF SPANKCHAIN
Spankchain is an Ethereum-based platform that was created by Ameen Soleimani (Spanktoshi Nakabooty) to bring decentralization to the adult entertainment industry, thereby eliminating the excesses from middlemen, while at the same time rewarding contributors in cryptocurrency. This is definitely the long-awaited update in adult entertainment industry. Blockchain has really proven to be applicable in almost every field of human endeavour; including pornography.
Asides the fact that blockchain technology has come to cut operational costs, it has also provided a new and improved security for the entire platform. For people into adult entertainment, you will agree with me that the payment methods are not absolutely immune to cyber attacks but with the new method of paying for services with cryptocurrency, you will be fully assured that your transactions are secured immutably within the Ethereum blockchain.
Let's draw a little comparison here: I will cite Pornhub because it is among the most popular adult entertainment companies. The subscribers of Pornhub will confirm to the fact that Pornhub's subscriptions are done through a centralized payment protocol directly to the company. With Spankchain, there is a difference; instead of paying directly to the company, you have the option of tipping the individual entertainers directly with cryptocurrency and also interact with them in real-time. To make you appreciate this, here are some statistics for you: A porn-statistics review has shown that 50% of the total of about $13 billion generated by adult entertainment companies go to centralized platform, intermediaries and marketing personnels (the likes of LiveJasmin et al). This is the problem which Spankchain has come to solve.
To make the system even more effective, the internal ecosystem of Spankchain is powered by two Erc tokens; Spank Token (SPANK) which gives you a stakeholder's right and the "Booty" Token which you will use to perform transactions within the ecosystem (including subscriptions, tipping of entertainers, payback etc). SPANK is currently trading on major exchange platforms like IDEX and at the time of making this review (9/5/2019), it is trading at $0.0085 on CMC. Your influence within Spankchain ecosystem and the services you can have access to is dependent on the amount of SPANK you have.
There are many other uses of SPANK apart from using it for subscription. This is where the people that neither watch nor subscribe for adult contents can come in - you can stake your SPANK in a "SpankBank" and you will be rewarded with interests which you can trade for other cryptocurrencies or fiats. However, if you are a porn lover, you can request for your rewards to be in Booty for payment of entertainers and tippings. All these are done without any middlemen, which means "less money for more entertainment".
One very good feature of Spankchain is anonymity. Porn viewers can attest to the fact that their online presence in some popular traditional entertainment websites can be traced and their true identity can be revealed, but with Spankchain, you can choose to remain perfectly anonymous and enjoy your adult contents - even the payment option is anonymous (no KYC required and it is done with cryptocurrency). More so, Spankchain is fully decentralized and as such, no one can have access to your account and no one can freeze or block your account. In some traditional adult entertainment websites, you are not absolutely responsible for your accounts and it can be frozen without your permission but with Spankchain, your account is absolutely yours. I believe this is one of the reasons Spankchain earned an enviable position in StateOfTheDApps featured ranking.
There is also an option of live-cam in Spankchain for those that do not want to stay anonymous and for those that want to have a live sex-chat with adult entertainers. I believe this is what some porn lovers are waiting to see, now you have it in Spankchain. I'm sure some of your are piqued to know how to get started with Spankchain.
GETTING STARTED WITH SPANKCHAIN AND ENJOYING REVOLUTION IN ADULT ENTERTAINMENT
Here, I will strongly advice only 18 years and above to proceed with the steps. Firstly, you need to sign up and create account in Spankchain portal. You need to follow the on-screen instructions to create your account and your internal wallet, then you will proceed to the exchange platform to make purchases of your SPANK which will grant you access to the services provided by Spankchain. For the purpose of this review, I had to create an account with Spankchain to have a first-hand experience of blockchain being incorporated into adult entertainment industry.
While signing up, you will be given an option to either be a user or part of the community and to become a model. Unlike other adult entertainment companies where performers will have to convene in a place and video scenes will be recorded and uploaded, performers in Spankchain are fully independent - they can stream their own videos directly to their audience from the comfort of their homes and receive tips from them without being present in any centralized location. No doubt, decentralization has finally arrived in adult entertainment industry. I'm sure you want to see a video overview of what Spankchain represents and the services they provide, here's one for you. viewer discretion is strongly advised.
CONCLUSION AND REVIEWER'S COMMENT
I will give a big kudos to Spankchain for their idea to incorporate blockchain and cryptocurrency into adult entertainment industry. No doubt, this will lead to more mainstream adoption of blockchain. However, there are some areas that need more upgrade: They should work to increase their video content base and include more categories, so as to give viewers more options to choose from. To make Spankchain more adopted, a mobile App would suffice so that users can enjoy their adult contents conveniently on-the-go. On the overall, I give Spankchain a rating of 4/5.
Disclaimer: The content of this article is not meant to serve as financial advice, please do your own research.
