At the first sight Bitcoin is ideal for porn since it protects customer privacy and cuts payment processing costs for the provider. Like many in the community I expected for long that Bitcoin will pick up in that industry and kept wondering why it takes so long...
... until today, when I learned from an industry insider why Bitcoin is not accepted at porn sites:
1. Because nearly all porn sites have introductory offers that lead to a subscription with recurring billing on the credit card until the customer explicitly recalls it. The fees are calculated with the assumption that most customers forget to cancel at least a couple of times or not even recognize that they pay for a service that they no longer use.
2. Because affiliates - those who direct traffic to the porn site - want a share of those fees in upfront. An affiliate receives a multiple of the introductory offer immediately if someone he directed to the site subscribes for a plan. Affiliates do not want the site to use bitcoin either.
3. Porn sites have difficulties working with payment processors and are called 'high risk' industries, but not because of their customers or products, but because they themselves misuse the credit card re-bill features (see 1) and cause lots of customer complaints at the credit card issuer.
4. Biggest porn sites therefore have their own credit card processor.
Summary: Bitcoin would be beneficial for customer of porn but will not happen until the industry has any other choice.
