Playboy Enterprises, the Beverley Hills-based company behind the famous magazine, is suing a blockchain company for breach of contract, according to the L.A. Times.
Compensatory and punitive
Global Blockchain Technologies is the defendant in this case. According to its website, it is a blockchain investment company based in Vancouver.
The partnership was announced on March 31. Under the terms of the deal, Global Blockchain Technologies was to work with Playboy Enterprises on the development of a digital wallet that would hold a cryptocurrency called the Vice Industry Token and integrate it into Playboy.tv, which is a media website.
Playboy Enterprises claims that Global Blockchain Technologies has not “made good on the deal” and also failed to pay $4 million to Playboy, which it claims was part of the deal.
It is seeking unspecified damages, both compensatory and punitive, at the Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Global Blockchain Technologies said to The Times: “Global believes it has a strong defense to the action and will be vigorously defending same.”
Get Paid To Watch Porn™
The Vice Industry Token, slogan “Get Paid To Watch Porn™”, is a fork of Steem, which is a blockchain-based social media platform that pays people for engaging with it. The VIT token is designed to work in the same way. That is, it gives people VIT in return for active participation in the media that they view (by which they mean upvoting or commenting).
According to its website, it will also reward people for curating their favourite strains of cannabis and supports a peer-to-peer betting website (“get paid to gamble!”), although it does not explain these feature in any detail.
VIT is ranked 736 among cryptocurrencies, with a market capitalisation of $1.5 million according to coinmarketcap.com.
The sex industry has been connected with cryptocurrency for a long time, as consumers of such services are generally eager to hide their identities. Escort services have been accepting Bitcoin since as long ago as 2013. Late to the party, Pornhub, the world’s predominant pornography website, began accepting Verge in April 2018 and Tron in June.
Turns out Verge's super expensive partnership was PornHub. “we think it has gained enough steam for us to penetrate the market.” penetrate. 😂@Pornhub, enough with the foreplay. Time to accept the real cryptocurrencies like BTC, LTC, and XMR. 🚀
https://t.co/9IboL6LnNn— Charlie Lee [LTC⚡] (@SatoshiLite) April 17, 2018
