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Topic: Bitcoin and Porn - page 108. (Read 214612 times)

sr. member
Activity: 406
Merit: 250
June 26, 2015, 08:19:06 AM
Actually, I'd prefer it if Bitcoin and pornography remained separate for now. Bitcoin still has a reputation for being associated with shady and often illegal activities such as drugs, gambling, hackers, assassinations, money laundering, ISIS, etc. Do we really need to add pornography to the list?

Of course fiat can be used to purchase porn and drugs too but fiat can also be used to pay your electricity bills or groceries at the supermarket - i.e. legitimate stuff. BTC doesn't quite have the same level of support yet. Businesses that accept BTC are still quite rare and having pornography become such a large part of the fledgling Bitcoin industry at this stage is probably going to hurt society's perception of the currency and possibly negate whatever economic benefits it may provide.

Anyway, that's just my opinion.

I like your perception, but I think the purpose of why bitcoin can be used in pornography and gambling site is almost internet users like the sites. I mean, we can buy groceries or any stuff what we need openly in market, yeah real life market surely. But for gambling and pornography, people love it and will spend their money just to get some pleasures from there. The problem for them, they don't want their family or relations know about it, [...]

Their families and relations can still know about it if the wallet/addresses they use for those activities can still be linked to their known wallet/addresses.

True. Besides, the technology to link addresses is also improving rapidly and any improvements in the field can be applied retroactively. Even if someone used coins to pay for porn or drugs using a method that the best technology in 2015 can't trace, he/she could still get into trouble several years down the road.

Actually, I'd prefer it if Bitcoin and pornography remained separate for now. Bitcoin still has a reputation for being associated with shady and often illegal activities such as drugs, gambling, hackers, assassinations, money laundering, ISIS, etc. Do we really need to add pornography to the list?

Of course fiat can be used to purchase porn and drugs too but fiat can also be used to pay your electricity bills or groceries at the supermarket - i.e. legitimate stuff. BTC doesn't quite have the same level of support yet. Businesses that accept BTC are still quite rare and having pornography become such a large part of the fledgling Bitcoin industry at this stage is probably going to hurt society's perception of the currency and possibly negate whatever economic benefits it may provide.

Anyway, that's just my opinion.

I like your perception, but I think the purpose of why bitcoin can be used in pornography and gambling site is almost internet users like the sites. I mean, we can buy groceries or any stuff what we need openly in market, yeah real life market surely. But for gambling and pornography, people love it and will spend their money just to get some pleasures from there. The problem for them, they don't want their family or relations know about it, [...]

Their families and relations can still know about it if the wallet/addresses they use for those activities can still be linked to their known wallet/addresses.

It's not difficult to make a new address for each payment though. Most exchanges pay you from a different address than the one you use to send them Bitcoins. it's easy to send your Bitcoins from your exchange account to a new address each time you want to buy porn. The only downside is waiting an extra hour for your transaction to a fresh address to confirm.

Most exchanges keep records of transactions, IP addresses, email addresses, browser signatures, etc. I would prefer to use a service like Bitmixer.io if I wanted to mix coins properly (and even then, I still wouldn't feel completely safe because of the above).

Also, Coinbase has been shutting down accounts associated with gambling, so there's another danger there as well.

Actually, I'd prefer it if bitcoin was adopted by the porn industry, because it shouldn't be shameful to use it with anything. You can also pay your bills with bitcoin and if you can buy porn and drugs with fiat cash then why not bitcoin? If we want bitcoin to succeed as a currency then people should be able to buy absolutely anything they want with it... even illegal stuff and that's just up to the authorities to police. 

Oh, and fuck the ignorant perception of society. They'll change their mind over time, but then it'll be too late for them anyway.

I agree with the principle that people should be able to buy anything they want with Bitcoin.

My concern was that if Bitcoin were primarily used for underground purposes then it could sour public perception of the currency and possibly delay it from achieving mainstream adoption. Some people might think that this is a legitimate concern, while others might think that this isn't really a huge concern at all because Bitcoin's technical strengths will allow it to eventually prevail in the end.
legendary
Activity: 3514
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June 26, 2015, 07:27:18 AM
Actually, I'd prefer it if bitcoin was adopted by the porn industry, because it shouldn't be shameful to use it with anything. You can also pay your bills with bitcoin and if you can buy porn and drugs with fiat cash then why not bitcoin? If we want bitcoin to succeed as a currency then people should be able to buy absolutely anything they want with it... even illegal stuff and that's just up to the authorities to police. 

Oh, and fuck the ignorant perception of society. They'll change their mind over time, but then it'll be too late for them anyway.

As long as there is some taboo associated with watching porn, bitcoin is a natural fit for the porn industry. Credit card companies and banks sometimes have hesitation in dealing with porn companies. No such issues with bitcoin. I think the proportion of porn sites accepting bitcoin should be already high.

The majority of these people have no clue how to use Bitcoin to make it anonymous, so they should stick to the traditional payment methods and be done with it. The only positive side, as you have stated in your post, is for the porn industry. The credit card companies have no more control, on what they will support and what not.
If the porn site make use of payment processors, they could be in the same position. These companies can also block payments to these sites through their service.
legendary
Activity: 1554
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★Nitrogensports.eu★
June 26, 2015, 06:30:55 AM
Actually, I'd prefer it if bitcoin was adopted by the porn industry, because it shouldn't be shameful to use it with anything. You can also pay your bills with bitcoin and if you can buy porn and drugs with fiat cash then why not bitcoin? If we want bitcoin to succeed as a currency then people should be able to buy absolutely anything they want with it... even illegal stuff and that's just up to the authorities to police. 

Oh, and fuck the ignorant perception of society. They'll change their mind over time, but then it'll be too late for them anyway.

As long as there is some taboo associated with watching porn, bitcoin is a natural fit for the porn industry. Credit card companies and banks sometimes have hesitation in dealing with porn companies. No such issues with bitcoin. I think the proportion of porn sites accepting bitcoin should be already high.
full member
Activity: 165
Merit: 100
June 26, 2015, 05:56:59 AM
Actually, I'd prefer it if Bitcoin and pornography remained separate for now. Bitcoin still has a reputation for being associated with shady and often illegal activities such as drugs, gambling, hackers, assassinations, money laundering, ISIS, etc. Do we really need to add pornography to the list?

Of course fiat can be used to purchase porn and drugs too but fiat can also be used to pay your electricity bills or groceries at the supermarket - i.e. legitimate stuff. BTC doesn't quite have the same level of support yet. Businesses that accept BTC are still quite rare and having pornography become such a large part of the fledgling Bitcoin industry at this stage is probably going to hurt society's perception of the currency and possibly negate whatever economic benefits it may provide.

Anyway, that's just my opinion.

Actually, I'd prefer it if bitcoin was adopted by the porn industry, because it shouldn't be shameful to use it with anything. You can also pay your bills with bitcoin and if you can buy porn and drugs with fiat cash then why not bitcoin? If we want bitcoin to succeed as a currency then people should be able to buy absolutely anything they want with it... even illegal stuff and that's just up to the authorities to police. 

Oh, and fuck the ignorant perception of society. They'll change their mind over time, but then it'll be too late for them anyway.
sr. member
Activity: 406
Merit: 250
June 26, 2015, 01:34:32 AM
Gambling, porn and drugs are not shady unless abused, like anything else.  There is nothing morally wrong with doing any of them, however they are categorized as "sinful" from a religious perspective which has made its way into law.  They are considered illegal or crimes in many places, to which there is no victim.

If you look at it from the wider perspective of society as well as the beliefs of those who occupy positions of power and make the laws, then that is a minority opinion. Whether we like it or not, most people still believe that those things are wrong even if most members on these forums (including me) might not subscribe to that belief. If Bitcoin wants to become mainstream rather than being merely confined to libertarian circles then from a marketing point of view at least, I think it makes sense to de-emphasize those aspects.

Quote
It's interesting to see that you mention Just-Dice and Canadian gambling laws.  What's funny is that the we have lottery and gaming corporations in Canada run by the government.  They are even able to market and encourage lottery and gaming to the mainstream through TV commercials, radio, internet ads, etc.

We have state-sanctioned lottery games here too. Usually the revenue generated from those go to schools and community projects. As I said, gambling is probably the least controversial out of the so-called "sinful" activities that I listed.

There is nothing morally wrong though, as it brings harm to no one.  So whether or not these things are taboo or against what certain people stand for, doesn't mean anything to anyone else.  It's a belief system that needs to be subscribed to.

Porn/prostitution with consenting adults has no victim.  Gambling has no victim.  Drugs has no victim.  You can argue that people that abuse these things can harm themselves, but you can harm yourself with anything done outside of moderation.

So to say that gambling is wrong, but if the government owns the corporation, then everything is fine and it's not wrong anymore, is exposing an incredibly stupid mindset.  If someone thinks its wrong, then simply don't do it.  But to take freedom away from everyone else that doesn't share that same thought, doesn't make any sense.

A vegan thinks it's wrong to eat meat/dairy, so should eating meat be illegal for people that don't share that belief?  As stupid as it sounds, it's as legit an argument as gambling/porn/drugs, or maybe even more so as animals are being killed.

Anyways, back to bitcoin, to start restricting its use based on what the transaction is for doesn't make sense to me.  Pre-bitcoin all shady transactions were done in FIAT, and it's likely still a significant majority that's done in FIAT, and it doesn't give FIAT a bad name.

I do think that there is some rationale for the banning of certain hard drugs which have a much greater potential for harm vs. soft drugs like marijuana or even LSD but other than that, you are pretty much preaching to the choir. Not once did I say that I personally believe any of those mentioned activities to be morally wrong.

Bitcoin sees very little economic activity compared with fiat. Fiat is used to buy your baked beans at the supermarket. Fiat is used to pay the mortgage for your house. Fiat is used to pay for your children's college educations. Bitcoin isn't. Until recently, the vast majority of the Bitcoin economy was comprised of "underground" elements and this association was only beginning to be shed from the beginning of last year. Fiat, on the other hand, has much more varied set of uses and the "underground" elements only comprise a minority of the fiat economy. Since this association has hurt mainstream adoption of Bitcoin in the past and is something that the Bitcoin community is trying to distance itself from, is it really wise to be actively encouraging underground markets to adopt BTC at this point in its evolution?

I'm not a vegan myself but if I lived in a society where 95% were vegans who opposed meat/dairy consumption, I would not like to see Bitcoin being targeted towards livestock and poultry farms, slaughterhouses, and butcheries - especially if the (presumably) taboo meat/dairy industry already comprises a significant share of the Bitcoin economy.

Society is irrational and illogical, but if Bitcoin wants to be mainstream then unfortunately, it must pander to society's views and expectations.
legendary
Activity: 3472
Merit: 10611
June 25, 2015, 11:18:16 PM
Actually, I'd prefer it if Bitcoin and pornography remained separate for now. Bitcoin still has a reputation for being associated with shady and often illegal activities such as drugs, gambling, hackers, assassinations, money laundering, ISIS, etc. Do we really need to add pornography to the list?

Of course fiat can be used to purchase porn and drugs too but fiat can also be used to pay your electricity bills or groceries at the supermarket - i.e. legitimate stuff. BTC doesn't quite have the same level of support yet. Businesses that accept BTC are still quite rare and having pornography become such a large part of the fledgling Bitcoin industry at this stage is probably going to hurt society's perception of the currency and possibly negate whatever economic benefits it may provide.

Anyway, that's just my opinion.

I like your perception, but I think the purpose of why bitcoin can be used in pornography and gambling site is almost internet users like the sites. I mean, we can buy groceries or any stuff what we need openly in market, yeah real life market surely. But for gambling and pornography, people love it and will spend their money just to get some pleasures from there. The problem for them, they don't want their family or relations know about it, [...]

Their families and relations can still know about it if the wallet/addresses they use for those activities can still be linked to their known wallet/addresses.
it is much easier for your family to know what kinky stuff you did on the internet by checking your history and last site you visited rather than checking your bitcoin address and see where you spend your coins.
also there is credit card bills that will reveal all of that to your family.
hero member
Activity: 560
Merit: 500
June 25, 2015, 07:31:18 PM
sure but always the smallers companies adopt bitcoin then medium and them big companies will enter ,soo we reached the small already medium will be on the next months ,maybe years then big will join almost instant
full member
Activity: 176
Merit: 100
June 25, 2015, 01:48:09 PM
Actually, I'd prefer it if Bitcoin and pornography remained separate for now. Bitcoin still has a reputation for being associated with shady and often illegal activities such as drugs, gambling, hackers, assassinations, money laundering, ISIS, etc. Do we really need to add pornography to the list?

Of course fiat can be used to purchase porn and drugs too but fiat can also be used to pay your electricity bills or groceries at the supermarket - i.e. legitimate stuff. BTC doesn't quite have the same level of support yet. Businesses that accept BTC are still quite rare and having pornography become such a large part of the fledgling Bitcoin industry at this stage is probably going to hurt society's perception of the currency and possibly negate whatever economic benefits it may provide.

Anyway, that's just my opinion.

I like your perception, but I think the purpose of why bitcoin can be used in pornography and gambling site is almost internet users like the sites. I mean, we can buy groceries or any stuff what we need openly in market, yeah real life market surely. But for gambling and pornography, people love it and will spend their money just to get some pleasures from there. The problem for them, they don't want their family or relations know about it, [...]

Their families and relations can still know about it if the wallet/addresses they use for those activities can still be linked to their known wallet/addresses.

It's not difficult to make a new address for each payment though. Most exchanges pay you from a different address than the one you use to send them Bitcoins. it's easy to send your Bitcoins from your exchange account to a new address each time you want to buy porn. The only downside is waiting an extra hour for your transaction to a fresh address to confirm.
hero member
Activity: 546
Merit: 500
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June 25, 2015, 11:46:35 AM
Actually, I'd prefer it if Bitcoin and pornography remained separate for now. Bitcoin still has a reputation for being associated with shady and often illegal activities such as drugs, gambling, hackers, assassinations, money laundering, ISIS, etc. Do we really need to add pornography to the list?

Of course fiat can be used to purchase porn and drugs too but fiat can also be used to pay your electricity bills or groceries at the supermarket - i.e. legitimate stuff. BTC doesn't quite have the same level of support yet. Businesses that accept BTC are still quite rare and having pornography become such a large part of the fledgling Bitcoin industry at this stage is probably going to hurt society's perception of the currency and possibly negate whatever economic benefits it may provide.

Anyway, that's just my opinion.

I like your perception, but I think the purpose of why bitcoin can be used in pornography and gambling site is almost internet users like the sites. I mean, we can buy groceries or any stuff what we need openly in market, yeah real life market surely. But for gambling and pornography, people love it and will spend their money just to get some pleasures from there. The problem for them, they don't want their family or relations know about it, [...]

Their families and relations can still know about it if the wallet/addresses they use for those activities can still be linked to their known wallet/addresses.
sr. member
Activity: 369
Merit: 250
June 25, 2015, 11:13:34 AM
Hacked or "shared accounts" or you're throwing your BTC away. Actually... either way you're throwing them away. Porn is free guys!  Wink
hero member
Activity: 896
Merit: 1006
June 25, 2015, 02:03:51 AM
There is one big network that is accepting BTC: pimproll. They own a couple hundred sites
legendary
Activity: 1036
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Thug for life!
June 25, 2015, 02:02:19 AM
So after a good few hours of looking at the big free website most of us may know, i just want to be clear the visit was strictly for investigatory purposes  Grin, none of them accept bitcoin could this money making giants are too stuck still in the dyno age or could it be that they are scare of the tax man?

bitcoin and porn for independent content creators is more of what i see now days.
sr. member
Activity: 364
Merit: 252
June 25, 2015, 01:17:07 AM
Gambling, porn and drugs are not shady unless abused, like anything else.  There is nothing morally wrong with doing any of them, however they are categorized as "sinful" from a religious perspective which has made its way into law.  They are considered illegal or crimes in many places, to which there is no victim.

If you look at it from the wider perspective of society as well as the beliefs of those who occupy positions of power and make the laws, then that is a minority opinion. Whether we like it or not, most people still believe that those things are wrong even if most members on these forums (including me) might not subscribe to that belief. If Bitcoin wants to become mainstream rather than being merely confined to libertarian circles then from a marketing point of view at least, I think it makes sense to de-emphasize those aspects.

Quote
It's interesting to see that you mention Just-Dice and Canadian gambling laws.  What's funny is that the we have lottery and gaming corporations in Canada run by the government.  They are even able to market and encourage lottery and gaming to the mainstream through TV commercials, radio, internet ads, etc.

We have state-sanctioned lottery games here too. Usually the revenue generated from those go to schools and community projects. As I said, gambling is probably the least controversial out of the so-called "sinful" activities that I listed.

There is nothing morally wrong though, as it brings harm to no one.  So whether or not these things are taboo or against what certain people stand for, doesn't mean anything to anyone else.  It's a belief system that needs to be subscribed to.

Porn/prostitution with consenting adults has no victim.  Gambling has no victim.  Drugs has no victim.  You can argue that people that abuse these things can harm themselves, but you can harm yourself with anything done outside of moderation.

So to say that gambling is wrong, but if the government owns the corporation, then everything is fine and it's not wrong anymore, is exposing an incredibly stupid mindset.  If someone thinks its wrong, then simply don't do it.  But to take freedom away from everyone else that doesn't share that same thought, doesn't make any sense.

A vegan thinks it's wrong to eat meat/dairy, so should eating meat be illegal for people that don't share that belief?  As stupid as it sounds, it's as legit an argument as gambling/porn/drugs, or maybe even more so as animals are being killed.

Anyways, back to bitcoin, to start restricting its use based on what the transaction is for doesn't make sense to me.  Pre-bitcoin all shady transactions were done in FIAT, and it's likely still a significant majority that's done in FIAT, and it doesn't give FIAT a bad name.
sr. member
Activity: 406
Merit: 250
June 24, 2015, 10:09:17 PM
Gambling, porn and drugs are not shady unless abused, like anything else.  There is nothing morally wrong with doing any of them, however they are categorized as "sinful" from a religious perspective which has made its way into law.  They are considered illegal or crimes in many places, to which there is no victim.

If you look at it from the wider perspective of society as well as the beliefs of those who occupy positions of power and make the laws, then that is a minority opinion. Whether we like it or not, most people still believe that those things are wrong even if most members on these forums (including me) might not subscribe to that belief. If Bitcoin wants to become mainstream rather than being merely confined to libertarian circles then from a marketing point of view at least, I think it makes sense to de-emphasize those aspects.

Quote
It's interesting to see that you mention Just-Dice and Canadian gambling laws.  What's funny is that the we have lottery and gaming corporations in Canada run by the government.  They are even able to market and encourage lottery and gaming to the mainstream through TV commercials, radio, internet ads, etc.

We have state-sanctioned lottery games here too. Usually the revenue generated from those go to schools and community projects. As I said, gambling is probably the least controversial out of the so-called "sinful" activities that I listed.
hero member
Activity: 560
Merit: 500
June 24, 2015, 04:25:21 PM
well bitcoin is being used on this industry ,soon it will reach others industry and well the bump all waiting to happen will come
sr. member
Activity: 364
Merit: 252
June 24, 2015, 01:12:16 PM

I was thinking from the perspective of society rather than from my own personal beliefs. For instance, I gamble at Primedice sometimes and have CLAMs invested at Just-Dice. Yet Primedice recently closed off access to its US-based users and Just-Dice abandoned BTC in response to Canadian gambling laws. Online gambling is outright illegal here in New Zealand so it's quite clear that the society that I live in doesn't approve of what I'm doing.

And I would say that gambling is still considered to be shady. It's just that "shadiness" is a spectrum with dice sites like PD on one end of the spectrum and assassination markets and terrorism on the other end. Drugs and pornography probably lie somewhere in the middle.

If you read news reports from mainstream news sites, then it's clear that they often lump all of those things together in order to make Bitcoin seem like something that is "underground":


Gambling, porn and drugs are not shady unless abused, like anything else.  There is nothing morally wrong with doing any of them, however they are categorized as "sinful" from a religious perspective which has made its way into law.  They are considered illegal or crimes in many places, to which there is no victim.

It's interesting to see that you mention Just-Dice and Canadian gambling laws.  What's funny is that the we have lottery and gaming corporations in Canada run by the government.  They are even able to market and encourage lottery and gaming to the mainstream through TV commercials, radio, internet ads, etc.
legendary
Activity: 1638
Merit: 1163
Where is my ring of blades...
June 24, 2015, 06:20:42 AM
I have only seen girls going wild on reddit and getting tipped through changetip but that subreddit is not so popular even.
sr. member
Activity: 406
Merit: 250
June 24, 2015, 01:41:43 AM
Actually, I'd prefer it if Bitcoin and pornography remained separate for now. Bitcoin still has a reputation for being associated with shady and often illegal activities such as drugs, gambling, hackers, assassinations, money laundering, ISIS, etc. Do we really need to add pornography to the list?

Of course fiat can be used to purchase porn and drugs too but fiat can also be used to pay your electricity bills or groceries at the supermarket - i.e. legitimate stuff. BTC doesn't quite have the same level of support yet. Businesses that accept BTC are still quite rare and having pornography become such a large part of the fledgling Bitcoin industry at this stage is probably going to hurt society's perception of the currency and possibly negate whatever economic benefits it may provide.

Anyway, that's just my opinion.

This extremely closed minded of you. How is pornography shady? It was only shady in the first place because of society and now society accepts amateur porn as a way to show intimacy with your partner. To lump drugs, gambling, hackers, laundering money in with assassinations that is insane. You go from money laundering to assassinations, which is like going form 0-100 in 5 seconds. I disagree with ISIS but I don't see them hurting bitcoin's reputation.

Just like rocket scientist use their minds that they were born with or train, porn stars use their body that they were born with or train. To say some people don't deserve the benefits of bitcoin is the opposite of why satoshi create bitcoin. To take the power the elites had over us and controlled what we do with our money. Also bitcoin is helping these people make a living, which we all should be able to do, without judgement. I was speaking to a model who would have to cam 16 hrs a day cause transaction fees took half of her earnings. With bitcoin she is able to to feed her family and actually live her life.

To be honest most people view bitcoin as a speculation currency and not something that will be used in real life transactions. Far from this picture you painted as a currency that is "shady". So you are so out of touch with people's view of bitcoins.

I was thinking from the perspective of society rather than from my own personal beliefs. For instance, I gamble at Primedice sometimes and have CLAMs invested at Just-Dice. Yet Primedice recently closed off access to its US-based users and Just-Dice abandoned BTC in response to Canadian gambling laws. Online gambling is outright illegal here in New Zealand so it's quite clear that the society that I live in doesn't approve of what I'm doing.

And I would say that gambling is still considered to be shady. It's just that "shadiness" is a spectrum with dice sites like PD on one end of the spectrum and assassination markets and terrorism on the other end. Drugs and pornography probably lie somewhere in the middle.

If you read news reports from mainstream news sites, then it's clear that they often lump all of those things together in order to make Bitcoin seem like something that is "underground":

Quote from: Fox News
But the anything-goes nature of Bitcoin has also made it attractive to denizens of the Internet's dark side.

One of the most prominent destinations for bitcoins remains Silk Road, a black market website where drug dealers advertise their wares in a consumer-friendly atmosphere redolent of Amazon or eBay -- complete with a shopping cart icon, a five-point rating system and voluminous user reviews. The site uses Tor, an online anonymity network, to mask the location of its servers, while bitcoin payments ensure there's no paper trail...

Drug dealers aren't the only ones cashing in on Bitcoin. The hackers behind Lulz Security, whose campaign of online havoc drew worldwide attention back in 2011, received thousands of dollars' worth of bitcoins after promising followers that the money would go toward launching attacks against the FBI...

It went on to warn that bitcoins might become "an increasingly useful tool for various illegal activities beyond the cyber realm" -- including child pornography, trafficking and terrorism...

Many in the Bitcoin community are frustrated at the attention paid to the shadier side of the virtual economy.

Atlanta-based entrepreneur Anthony Gallippi said the focus on drugs and hacking misses the "much bigger e-commerce use for this that's growing and that's growing rapidly."

Link: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/04/11/bitcoin-electronic-cash-beloved-by-hackers/

Quote from: The Observer
There has also been a lot of hand wringing about the dropping financial value of bitcoin- though it traded at a high of $1,150 per unit in December 2013, it ended last week trading at only $237 per unit, largely thanks to bitcoin’s criminal connotations. (Many bitcoin alternatives have sprung up as well).

But a growing number of investors wants to help bitcoin shed its bad reputation. The most high-profile bitcoin backers are Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss- they may be best-known for suing Mark Zuckerberg, but in recent years they have been two of bitcoin’s most ardent defenders. (In fact, they own one percent of all the bitcoin in the world).

Link: http://observer.com/2015/06/bitcoin-can-be-a-legitimate-currency/

Quote from: The Guardian
Dale doesn't exactly look like an international crypto-criminal. He's soft-spoken, baby-faced, and a senior at an Ivy League college. But every couple of weeks the political science major logs onto the Silk Road, an online black market that has been described as an "amazon.com of drugs" to buy wholesale quantities of "molly" (also known as MDMA, a particularly "pure" form of ecstasy), LSD and magic mushrooms...

While Dale prices his party favours in dollars, he pays for them the only way you can pay for anything on the Silk Road: by using Bitcoins, an untraceable digital currency founded in 2008 by the pseudonymous "Satoshi Nakomoto"...

Unless you're a major tech geek or a regular patron of the shadowy computer underworld known as the dark web, you've probably never heard of – let alone used – Bitcoins. But below the "real" economy of legal tender and federal reserves, Bitcoins fuel a shadow economy that connects students, drug dealers, gamblers, dictators and anyone else who wants to pay for something without being traced. It has found a niche as the currency of internet vice, digital "pieces of eight" for modern-day pirates.

Despite these unsavoury associations, Bitcoin is increasingly winning a place on the internet as a legitimate currency, albeit one that will probably never quite shake off its dodgy past.

Link: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/mar/04/bitcoin-currency-of-vice

Quote from: The New York Times
The currency known as bitcoin - a much-hyped and much-doubted type of digital cash that can be bought with traditional money - has mostly attracted attention for its popularity in the black market, and for its wildly gyrating valuation.

But some entrepreneurs, investors and even merchants are eyeing a far more mainstream use for it. They are convinced that bitcoin, though not widely understood, offers a path to lower payment processing and more secure transactions. Instead of using bitcoin to buy illegal guns in the recesses of the web, they say, ordinary consumers will use it to buy legal goods from legal retailers - and as easily as they now swipe their credit cards or exchange paper bills.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/31/technology/bitcoin-pursues-the-mainstream.html

Note the two articles above are from 2013. Certainly the entrance of legitimate and mainstream businesses like Overstock and Microsoft into the Bitcoin economy in 2014 really helped Bitcoin enormously as it allowed it to shed some of these unsavory associations in the eyes of the public. My belief is that if Bitcoin wants to find mainstream success then it should be looking towards finding acceptance in places like supermarkets, retailers, and airports rather than the "underground" aspects of society which it is still largely associated with.
legendary
Activity: 1498
Merit: 1000
June 23, 2015, 08:28:23 PM
Actually, I'd prefer it if Bitcoin and pornography remained separate for now. Bitcoin still has a reputation for being associated with shady and often illegal activities such as drugs, gambling, hackers, assassinations, money laundering, ISIS, etc. Do we really need to add pornography to the list?

Of course fiat can be used to purchase porn and drugs too but fiat can also be used to pay your electricity bills or groceries at the supermarket - i.e. legitimate stuff. BTC doesn't quite have the same level of support yet. Businesses that accept BTC are still quite rare and having pornography become such a large part of the fledgling Bitcoin industry at this stage is probably going to hurt society's perception of the currency and possibly negate whatever economic benefits it may provide.

Anyway, that's just my opinion.

This extremely closed minded of you. How is pornography shady? It was only shady in the first place because of society and now society accepts amateur porn as a way to show intimacy with your partner. To lump drugs, gambling, hackers, laundering money in with assassinations that is insane. You go from money laundering to assassinations, which is like going form 0-100 in 5 seconds. I disagree with ISIS but I don't see them hurting bitcoin's reputation.

Just like rocket scientist use their minds that they were born with or train, porn stars use their body that they were born with or train. To say some people don't deserve the benefits of bitcoin is the opposite of why satoshi create bitcoin. To take the power the elites had over us and controlled what we do with our money. Also bitcoin is helping these people make a living, which we all should be able to do, without judgement. I was speaking to a model who would have to cam 16 hrs a day cause transaction fees took half of her earnings. With bitcoin she is able to to feed her family and actually live her life.

To be honest most people view bitcoin as a speculation currency and not something that will be used in real life transactions. Far from this picture you painted as a currency that is "shady". So you are so out of touch with people's view of bitcoins.
hero member
Activity: 560
Merit: 500
June 23, 2015, 05:52:03 PM
well is very easy to understand those industry is taking the first steps soo we will see shops big compaines ,google apple joining when they see they cant run anymore from bitcoin Grin
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