Oli Lipski
Philippines-based blockchain company Intimate has launched a WordPress plugin for its payments platform that it hopes could alleviate some of the pains of the financial exclusion businesses in the adult industry experience.
Intimate co-founders Leah Callon-Butler, Reuben Coppa, and Nathan Smale partnered with vibrator company Smile Makers to test the API live on CryptoSmiles Store ahead of the wider launch. Smile Makers had previously been blocked by the mainstream Square money service.
Adult sites wanting to use the ITM crypto-token system can install the app for free from the WordPress repository. Intimate then charges between 1 and 2 percent of each transaction to process the payment for businesses, which is considerably lower than the 20 percent or more levels Intimate claims much of the adult industry is subjected to.
There are many reasons why customers would prefer to not pay via Credit Card or PayPal, from fraud prevention to privacy, particularly considering the sensitivity of adult content.
Smale told SEXTECHGUIDE that Intimate provides “pseudo-anonymity which means the transactions between wallets is trackable, but the connection between the wallet and your personal information is for you to choose to disclose or not.” Of course, if a customer is buying a physical item, not disclosing the address is going to make “the goods are hard to deliver,” Smale rightly noted.
So while Intimate offers a viable route to receiving payments for adult sites, it’s not necessarily going to help out consumers if they’re buying physical products that need shipping.
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