The world’s first porn industry-targeted cryptocurrency. Photos courtesy of Titcoin
With over 275 cryptocurrencies currently trading on the market and new ones popping up seemingly every week, it can be hard to keep track of which ones are scams and which ones are simply doomed to fail. By now, you must be acquainted with some of the more mainstream coins, such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, and one of our personal favorites, Dogecoin. But the cryptocurrency world is about to get a proverbial boob job thanks to the arrival of Titcoin, the first porn industry-targeted cryptocurrency. Hailing from the minds of startup and finance wizards Edward Mansfield, Richard Allen, and a third gentleman who prefers to remain anonymous, Titcoin is designed to easily facilitate payment for your daily jack-off sessions.
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On the 21zst of June, people who sign up early for a Titcoin wallet will get first dibs at mining what will eventually be 69 million Titcoins (why not have fun with this?) three hours before the official launch at noon that day. Evidently, the incentive to get in on Titcoin is already very real, so I called up one of the co-founders, Mansfield, to talk about why Titcoins are the tits and their fake viral video that jokingly advertised Titcoin as a barter system based on flashing.
VICE: The first time I had heard of Titcoin was the fake spec ad that was made for a contest to become Pornhub’s creative director. That video made it seem as if Titcoin was a way for girls to pay for things by flashing their tits. That’s not actually how your currency works, but would it ever be possible for me to use Titcoin that way in the near future?
Edward Mansfield: Anything is possible. It’s funny because it’s tongue and cheek and it’s meant not to be reality at the same time. I don’t think we would advocate for flashing your tits. That market already exists to some level.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure if a girl flashes her tits at the bar she’s gonna wind up getting a free drink anyway.
That’s pretty safe to say. Titcoin is mainly an idea that we came up with because we wanted to be very business minded. Sometimes we feel a bit uncomfortable talking about this matter because we’re not trying to promote pornography per se. We’re trying to promote a currency that is a conduit for that. We are walking that thin line. We are not really pornographers – we are basically business guys who are bringing in a currency which caters to a specific audience.
I must say Titcoin is a very catchy name. Was it a no-brainer for you to name it that way?
Yes, Titcoin was a no brainer. Just to give you an idea of what happened in the beginning, it was just myself and one of our partners chatting about digital currency as a whole. We’re at a bar, and somehow we start thinking about what if there was an industry-targeted currency, not one that was generic and covers a wide spectrum but something that was very specific. The adult entertainment industry quickly came to mind. I think within seconds we thought of Titcoin as sort of the perfect name. Everyone knows what Bitcoin is, and Titcoin has a very similar spelling. It’s really to capitalise on the branding.
OK. Now onto serious business. What am I going to be able to buy once I mine a fat stack of Titcoins?
Digital currency is pretty much like cash – you can’t really control what people do with cash. The partners that we are targeting are primarily online websites that have subscription-based services where you pay monthly fees for content. But there are other e-commerce sites that may benefit as well, mostly those that sell toys or adult packaged products. But we also have a lot of entertainers who have contacted us. One in particular, he’s a friend of a friend. I don’t want to give you his name because he’s actually one of the famous porn stars out there. He’s very interested in being a partner as well. Having his name on this would definitely skyrocket the notoriety of Titcoin.
How would having this mysterious person’s name attached to Titcoin help you?
It would bring things into the mainstream and help legitimise the currency. I think legitimising the currency is the most important component in creating value in the long run. This person that we are talking to, his name is big enough that the average person will know who he is without being someone who buys porn all the time.
Mansfield (left), anonymous finance guy (middle), Allen (right)
Have you been contacted by other entertainers?
We have been contacted by a lot of performers who do webcam streaming. They’re particularly interested in Titcoin as a way to get “donations” from their viewers. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with how it works. It’s like when you go to a strip club and you throw dollars at the strippers, but online, instead of throwing dollar bills, you could throw digital currency at performers on the webcam. Viewers would pay to watch, but they could also throw Titcoins at performers.
That sounds great! Now, when it comes to who is going to be accepting Titcoins, are we talking big sites like Brazzers and Pornhub?
Yes, largely. But the ones that have reached out to us are generally some of the smaller, fringe websites, which are more than welcome to join us. We have been talking to a few of the really big players in the industry. We have talked to Brazzers at some point. In fact, we were talking to them before they started accepting Bitcoins. We kind of feel like we nudged them in that direction. But some of the other ones we are talking to are very suspicious of digital currency as a whole. It’s not surprising. These types of industries are very technologically advanced when it comes to media content and video streaming. But I feel that when it comes to the financial aspect of subscription-based services, they tend to be a little bit gun-shy.
What’s going to make Titcoin stand out from the other cryptocurrencies, aside from having a catchy name and a sexy logo?
I don’t think we see ourselves as competitors to Bitcoin per se. The way that we see it is that it gives users various payment options, like using Visa, MasterCard, or Amex. In the future, if we can imagine a world where digital currency is more mainstream, you might have a Bitcoin account with your spouse. You may not want them to see you purchasing products or subscriptions on adult sites, because perhaps this is something you’d rather keep to yourself, so having an industry-specific coin has certain advantages for consumers when they want to keep things a bit more private than they would with a Bitcoin account. Fundamentally there is no significant difference. It’s all in the branding.
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