SANTA MONICA, Calif. —SKWEEZ Media has joined the bitcoin bandwagon, announcing that it has started accepting the digital currency, in addition to traditional credit card payments.
“Bitcoin is a perfect payment option for our customers,” said Mike Kulich, SKWEEZ executive vice president of content and marketing. “Our site does not rely on recurring billing, which seems to be an issue for most paysites. SKWEEZ relies specifically on per-day purchases of streaming access, so any fluctuations that may occur with bitcoin valuations are also a non-issue.”
Dubbed “the iTunes of porn” by CNBC.com, SKWEEZ offers full-length titles in an unlimited-streaming-per-day format on multiple platforms, using a system akin to Hula Netflix.
Bitcoin is the first peer-to-peer payment system introduced as an “open source” payment option, attractive for many who prefer anonymity when conducting adult transactions, the company said. Bitcoin, often referred to as “cryptocurrency” since it relies on cryptography to control the creation and transfer of money.
“Anonymity is a great aspect of Bitcoin,” adds SKWEEZ President Jamey Kirby. “Credit card payment processing has always been a sticky subject for many adult consumers. Removing adult purchases from credit card statements, as well as mitigating charge disputes, makes paying with Bitcoin the perfect currency for the adult entertainment market, both for consumers as well as producers.”
The news comes less than a week after porn powerhouse Naughty America announced its decision to accept the controversial currency — a move that some predicted could pave the way to adult-industry wide adoption.
“We’re in the business of helping people find their fantasies, and our goal is to turn that fantasy into reality without reality getting in the way. For us, that applies to how you’re going to process the transactions as well as the type of content that is available,” Naughty CEO and co-founder Andreas Hronopoulos told CoinDesk.
Though Bitcoin has come under scrutiny due to its lack of consumer protections, a recent U.S. Senate meeting found it to be a legitimate monetary instrument. SKWEEZ reps say that the decision resulted in over 1,000 brick-and-mortar businesses and over online 35,000 merchants, including Overstock.com, Zynga and Virgin, integrating bitcoin payment options into their businesses.
