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Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by ramesh31 on Thursday August 19, 2021 @03:08PM (#28237966)
It's not like they have a choice. Their business was only ever viable at the behest of their payment provider. The reason no one has made an OnlyFans before, and the reason why people have tried and failed, entirely comes down to this.
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by rich_sasha on Thursday August 19, 2021 @07:38PM (#28240665)
Nothing particularly noble about porn, but it irks me that payment providers act as unofficial censors of business. Why should legal businesses be denied access to the de facto legal tender of 21st century? And on a whim of unelected CEOs...
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by mdoms on Thursday August 19, 2021 @08:00PM (#28240812)
I suspect it has less to do with their puritanical values and more to do with the enormous amount of fraud in the industry and the customer support load it places on them from the husbands, wives and children who swear up and down they aren't responsible for the charges found on the bill.
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by TechBro8615 on Thursday August 19, 2021 @08:22PM (#28240966)
Affiliate products and rebilling scams solved this problem 15 years ago. You just need a high risk merchant account provider who will accept the extra risk of chargebacks, most likely in exchange for higher fees.

Surely if the risk of fraud is an issue, the processing companies could simply price it into their models and charge the vendor a premium for it.

Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by Uberphallus on Friday August 20, 2021 @02:59AM (#28243393)
This is exactly it. Notably betting sites accept higher fees without issue. Obviously the margins take a hit but they're still profitable.

The main difference is that a gambler will keep throwing money (and encouraged to do so via dark patterns to keep the margins), whereas post-nut clarity is the main barrier to maintain the margins in porn.

Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by TechBro8615 on Friday August 20, 2021 @04:13AM (#28243816)
Makes me wonder how much the payment networks themselves can ultimately make the final call. Even if you find some high risk payment processor in Monaco, that won’t help much if the Amex/MasterCard/Visa cartel blacklists you.

What I don’t understand is the selective enforcement – why doesn’t this happen more often? Who is pressuring the payment networks?

Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by Uberphallus on Friday August 20, 2021 @05:07AM (#28244144)
The card cartel doesn't care as long as they don't lose money in the process.

In general merchants don't deal with client cards directly but through payment processors. The chargeback process is usually manual (meaning it requires non-negligible resources) plus it impacts the fees the card cartel collects (if the chargeback is accepted).

High risk payment processors generally agree to pay card cartels for the fee lost if chargebacks are accepted, and sometimes even perform refunds to stay within a threshold of chargebacks. This, plus extra fraud monitoring/protection makes their service more expensive.

You don't need a processor in Monaco, CCBill or PaymentCloud are US based and offer that. Now, they shave a significant chunk of the transaction in flat+percentage fees, it can be anywhere from 4 to 15% depending on your profile.

Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by banannaise on Friday August 20, 2021 @10:10AM (#28246181)
Even if true, the enormous amount of fraud is in large part a result of their puritanical values. The fraud happens because it's an underground industry, it's an underground industry because of the puritanical values, etc.

This is like saying "drugs are bad because of all the violence" when the violence is mostly a symptom of how we treat drugs.

Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by rich_sasha on Thursday August 19, 2021 @08:06PM (#28240858)
Well, ok, disable credit cards. But debit cards don’t have these protections, transactions are essentially immutable.

I get they are less popular in the US but are probably, hmm, 70% of cards in Europe? So that’s a viable option.

Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by mdoms on Thursday August 19, 2021 @08:51PM (#28241152)
My Visa debit card has all of these protections.
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by yurishimo on Thursday August 19, 2021 @10:45PM (#28241915)
Yeah, Visa and Mastercard debit cards carry the same fraud/abuse protections as a credit card. They usually don't cover all the extra crap the credit cards do (car rentals, etc) but they will absolutely give you your money back and perform chargebacks in cases of fraud or denial of services tendered.
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by SilverRed on Thursday August 19, 2021 @09:24PM (#28241359)
Debit cards have exactly the same fraud protections as credit cards as far as I know in Australia.
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by rich_sasha on Friday August 20, 2021 @01:29AM (#28242947)
Interesting. In Europe, with a credit card, you can effectively just say to the bank “nah I didn’t pay this” and it’s on the bank to prove otherwise (it’s harder/impossible where pin was used but in the web it’s fair game). Debit cards have protection for outright fraud (and even then somewhat limited), certainly no “umm no” simplicity.
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by Beldin on Friday August 20, 2021 @05:32AM (#28244280)
Somewhat. You can have a charge to your account reversed, but it's not a common thing and the process isn't trivialised.

Source: almost accidentally undid an in-shop payment because their processor was based in a different town where i had never been. Realised at the last moment where the charge came from; bank was willing to undo.

Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by toomuchtodo on Thursday August 19, 2021 @03:09PM (#28237972)
Oh god I can’t believe I’m going to say this.

Crypto/Bitcoin, in keeping with the relationship the Internet and adult content have. Congrats Coinbase, Venmo, and others enabling censorship resistant crypto payments on your revenue bump.

Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by rodneyg_ on Thursday August 19, 2021 @03:55PM (#28238552)
Coinbase, Venmo, and others are not enabling censorship resistant crypto payments. Coinbase does track who and where you send your crypto to, so in theory they can control what you do with it. The workaround would be to send your crypto to wallets not associated with them, even still.
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by adrusi on Thursday August 19, 2021 @04:13PM (#28238765)
Coinbase and Venmo's role is analogous to a bank that offers account holders debit cards that can access CC networks, not the organizations in control of the CC networks themselves.
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by stale2002 on Thursday August 19, 2021 @05:09PM (#28239405)
> so in theory they can control what you do with it.

And yet, that isn't happening to the same degree as visa or mastercard.

So, for whatever reason, visa and mastercard are currently, successfully, forcing OnlyFans to do this kind of policy change, whereas coinbase is not.

When the actual rubber meets the road, crypto is defacto, not as censored as visa or mastercard.

Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by lmm on Thursday August 19, 2021 @10:33PM (#28241811)
You could say the same about, say, Amex or Discover being de facto not as censored as Visa and Mastercard. The pressure is on Visa and Mastercard because they're where the vast majority of the money flow comes from.
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by jjeaff on Thursday August 19, 2021 @03:54PM (#28238540)
Hate to break it to you, but all these processors that are facilitating crypto are actively policing what you do with it. They will restrict you or kick you off their platform for using crypto for things they don't want you to use it for.
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by tyingq on Thursday August 19, 2021 @04:06PM (#28238679)
Curious how much work they put into this. Do they follow coinbase->private wallet->multiple payees at different times for lower amounts?
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by grandmczeb on Thursday August 19, 2021 @07:56PM (#28240791)
Coinbase has an extremely advanced chain analysis system. Simple tricks like that are unlikely to defeat it.

https://www.coinbase.com/analytics

Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by SilverRed on Thursday August 19, 2021 @09:26PM (#28241365)
Can you explain what the features on this page are being used for? Are you suggesting that if you buy coins from coinbase and they later detect that you are using them to pay for adult content that they will block your account?
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by tayo42 on Thursday August 19, 2021 @08:25PM (#28240992)
Dark net people are pretty confident about tumbling. Or what about just converting coins.
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by SturgeonsLaw on Thursday August 19, 2021 @11:30PM (#28242243)
Transferring your coins to a tumbler flags your wallet address in tools like Chainalysis. They can't see where you sent them post-tumble, but they can see that you sent them to a tumbler, and that alone will be flagged on your account.
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by paulpauper on Thursday August 19, 2021 @07:46PM (#28240736)
They have very advanced risk compliance. They know about Every trick in the book.. all tracked. You would need to do way more than that.
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by Alex3917 on Thursday August 19, 2021 @03:13PM (#28238027)
Getting a payment provider an adult business using crypto is going to be even harder than getting a payment provider for just an adult business.
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by toomuchtodo on Thursday August 19, 2021 @03:19PM (#28238108)
It took me minutes to setup a Coinbase account to send funds to SciHub. As long as OnlyFans isn’t hosting illegal content and they’re meeting financial regulations (no laundering, robust accounting), I don’t see a blocker. Yes, you’re going to have to meet up with fiat rails somewhere, which is where incumbent crypto exchanges operating legally come in (Coinbase, Gemini, Fidelity Digital Custodial).
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by davesmylie on Thursday August 19, 2021 @03:35PM (#28238310)
It's easy enough for someone with basic tech skills to do this sure.

Onlyfans depends on joe average being able to do this (and not being scared off at the mention of the word "crypto")

I think crypto is about 5 - 10 years away from this point

Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by marvin on Thursday August 19, 2021 @03:39PM (#28238355)
This would be the perfect spark for such a shift.
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by xur17 on Thursday August 19, 2021 @04:07PM (#28238685)
I agree it's a ways off from a user experience point of view, but people are willing to put up with a lot of "effort" if it's something they really want. This very well could be the impetus necessary to make crypto used more broadly for payments.

With current tech this would just be a mobile wallet that holds stablecoins with some sort of built in funding mechanism.

Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by fragmede on Thursday August 19, 2021 @09:32PM (#28241406)
> As long as OnlyFans isn’t hosting illegal content

The service promises huge amounts of money to, lets be honest, young women, to post nude photos of themselves. How much are you willing to be that every single photo, every video, of what has to be in the terabytes, is of someone over the age of 18. That no one 17 or younger, lured in by promises of big money, lied about their age to get it? That the platform's age verification system is 100% bulletproof and can't be fooled by photoshop.

Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by esyir on Friday August 20, 2021 @01:13AM (#28242865)
You're basically asking for perfection. If that's the standard you hold anything to, then you can burn down everything and roll in the ashes.

Rather, the obvious reading of that is that onlyfans isn't primarily or deliberately hosting illegal content.

Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by Alex3917 on Thursday August 19, 2021 @04:26PM (#28238926)
> It took me minutes to setup a Coinbase account to send funds to SciHub.

The issue is getting money from Coinbase into Wells Fargo or wherever, not getting it into Coinbase.

Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by secondaryacct on Thursday August 19, 2021 @07:55PM (#28240779)
But the issue is with traditional payment providers: how do you transfer from crypto to your employees bank account, how do you tranfer to the IRS for tax purpose, etc. Now you have two problems: you look shady as fuck transfer large crypto amounts and you're already flagged for profiteering off underage porn...

As usual crypto is a solution that didnt solve the problem: how do you detect underage porn so that you can mark your profits in general.

Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by toomuchtodo on Thursday August 19, 2021 @08:10PM (#28240877)
But that’s not the problem. The problem is payments for services that aren’t illegal (legal age adult content), merely taboo and unwanted by a payments oligopoly (Visa and MasterCard).

Yes, crypto incurs drag from fees and inconvenience for a platform to transact in it, but it can’t turn your payments off overnight.

(and I make these comments as a crypto skeptic)

Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by ByteJockey on Thursday August 19, 2021 @10:22PM (#28241728)
So, is there a market for a credit card that caters to these things?
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by toomuchtodo on Thursday August 19, 2021 @10:34PM (#28241824)
Such a product could not be a credit card, as it would run on rails of your traditional providers (Visa, MasterCard, etc). If you want to avoid traditional payment rails who can financially deplatform you, it has to be crypto (much to my dismay). Could you use ACH or Instant Payments from the Fed? For as long as the banks that support those payment rails don’t give you the boot.

Think Privacy.com/Lithic.com but using crypto and instant fiat->crypto conversions when the payments are made. No chargebacks, no refunds. The crypto or stablecoin are decentralized rails.

Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by ByteJockey on Saturday August 21, 2021 @12:40AM (#28254246)
> Such a product could not be a credit card, as it would run on rails of your traditional providers (Visa, MasterCard, etc).

You'd have to build your own infrastructure, but you could make an actual credit card. It would have to be super jank at first (you might even have to cut actual physical checks at first). Fundamentally, a credit card is just you paying for somebody's transactions, and billing them at the end of the month (and suing them if they don't pay up).

It would be slow, and the service would be horrible, but the people accepting your money don't have a ton of other options.

Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by lmm on Thursday August 19, 2021 @10:41PM (#28241888)
I think the market for that is growing, but they'd have to thread a very tight needle reputation wise. The credit card business relies heavily on trust, and the major networks like Visa have literally decades of reputation behind them.

And fundamentally the reason that credit cards have that customer trust is that they make it easy for customers to get refunds when the product isn't delivered, which is very hard to do for an Onlyfans-like business where there's no way to "return faulty goods" - standing in the middle between clients who think they didn't get what they paid for and sellers who think someone just wants to copy their pics without paying is not going to be a fun place to be.

Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by bcheung on Thursday August 19, 2021 @03:56PM (#28238571)
But most coins are public ledger. And the "know your customer" exchanges are not allowing privacy protecting coins.
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by abecedarius on Thursday August 19, 2021 @07:25PM (#28240577)
Zcash is on Coinbase, Gemini, Kraken, ...
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by lui8906 on Friday August 20, 2021 @03:23AM (#28243540)
And Zcash is not private by default (though can be shielded). Monero is private by default and is also available on Kraken and others.
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by abecedarius on Friday August 20, 2021 @12:01PM (#28247551)
Good point about exchanges with Monero. (It's also on Coinbase, of the others I listed.)

The "private by default" criticism is misleading:

- While this is important in a design which mixes your transaction with a limited set of other recent transactions, in Zcash the privacy set is all of the shielded transactions ever.

- It's not a "default" technically, it's a choice of transparent and shielded, both of which are useful. "Default" is a wallet UX question. I think the latest reference wallet auto-shields things so you don't have to remember to shield what comes in from a transparent transaction.

Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by 3np on Thursday August 19, 2021 @04:02PM (#28238637)
Maybe OnlyFans talk to these guys and see if they can worm something out

https://spankchain.com/

Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by dj_gitmo on Thursday August 19, 2021 @08:24PM (#28240983)
This is the first time I've seen x-rated Corporate Memphis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_Memphis
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by thinkmassive on Thursday August 19, 2021 @08:14PM (#28240912)
Heh, there are already multiple streaming payments platforms built on the Bitcoin Lightning Network, and they're not oblivious to this market: https://twitter.com/get_zion/status/1428417401297723397
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by cblconfederate on Thursday August 19, 2021 @03:38PM (#28238347)
And as always, porn leads the way
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by bcheung on Thursday August 19, 2021 @03:59PM (#28238597)
Having worked as an adult programmer, they are really far behind technology trends. You're lucky if they use version control and staging servers.
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by rejectedandsad on Thursday August 19, 2021 @04:03PM (#28238649)
Somehow there is this meme that porn sites are technically impressive due to their scale/small video playback enhancements, neglecting that they have a slightly more captive audience that will forgive small hitches than most streaming video providers.

The meme is dumb and should die imho.

Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by Shish2k on Thursday August 19, 2021 @08:13PM (#28240900)
Having worked at a porn site and a FAANG, I’d say my porn work was more impressive — because payment processors / ad providers / hosting companies / etc are so anti-adult-content, getting anything done is a lot harder.
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by gowld on Thursday August 19, 2021 @04:36PM (#28239043)
It's not about quality of product. It's about motivation to deploy new technologies for the experience it enables.
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by gogopuppygogo on Thursday August 19, 2021 @07:19PM (#28240540)
Censorship resistant currencies are more like Monero…
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by mrRandomGuy on Thursday August 19, 2021 @03:11PM (#28237992)
LOL This is would actually work! Holy crap if OnlyFans actually started accepting bitcoin that would be incredible
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by traveltek on Thursday August 19, 2021 @03:15PM (#28238062)
transaction fees would be too high, transactions would take too long, and the transactions would be public.
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by toomuchtodo on Thursday August 19, 2021 @03:16PM (#28238065)
OnlyFans could be the exchange. You send their public wallet the crypto buying a “OF coin” stable coin or similar (gift card funds essentially), they handle the distribution internally.

Best practice would be for patrons and content producers to have dedicated wallets for OnlyFans transactions, to prevent data leakage from ledger analysis.

Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by sureklix on Monday August 23, 2021 @06:00AM (#28273901)
You still have to go through an on-ramp provider or OF does the on-ramp but then probably lots of reg headache. Plus I bet impulse buying is the way to activate OF users. One way to solve this can be to find an on-ramp solution w/ UX on par with card payments and then handle pay-in and pay-outs via Zcash or Monero or using Aztec protocol.
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by cody8295 on Thursday August 19, 2021 @04:34PM (#28239026)
Or just use a private crypto like Monero
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by majewsky on Friday August 20, 2021 @05:17AM (#28244192)
If the problem is scrutiny from investors, I don't think it's a viable solution to become a payment processor and therefore attract additional scrutiny from banking regulators.
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by bserge on Thursday August 19, 2021 @04:27PM (#28238936)
OnlyFanBucks heh. Don't actually need crypto for that, but if it's better, then whatever.
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by glennvtx on Friday August 20, 2021 @08:38PM (#28252980)
Lightning fixes all that.
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by skinnymuch on Thursday August 19, 2021 @03:53PM (#28238532)
It’s not that special. Other adult sites and shadier stuff push crypto or only do crypto
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by gtirloni on Thursday August 19, 2021 @03:37PM (#28238323)
How do sites like Pornhub get paid then? Why can't OnlyFans switch to whatever provider they use?
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by LegitShady on Thursday August 19, 2021 @03:43PM (#28238405)
pornhub is having exactly this issue.

https://bravenewcoin.com/insights/pornhub-crypto-news

from february

Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by dvdkon on Thursday August 19, 2021 @04:21PM (#28238865)
> "This is good for adoption! Next up, Onlyfans."

Sadly it doesn't seem to be working out as the crypto-enthusiast author might have wanted.

Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by istingray on Thursday August 19, 2021 @07:45PM (#28240730)
Source?
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by LegitShady on Thursday August 19, 2021 @11:24PM (#28242198)
literally the link in the post above what you replied to.
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by istingray on Friday August 20, 2021 @01:48AM (#28243062)
ahhhh, I had misunderstood what they were referencing. I had assumed it meant things weren't working out for PH. When the quote meant to refer to how things weren't working out for OF.
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by zzleeper on Thursday August 19, 2021 @03:44PM (#28238419)
Didn't they had the same problem a few months ago or so?
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by lol768 on Thursday August 19, 2021 @03:43PM (#28238400)
> How do sites like Pornhub get paid then?

At the moment I'm pretty sure they don't. At least, not via card-based payment systems.

Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by tshaddox on Thursday August 19, 2021 @03:43PM (#28238399)
Don't pornography companies typically use payment processors that are considered pretty shady? Or, these days I'd imagine most of them accept cryptocurrency.
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by gowld on Thursday August 19, 2021 @04:37PM (#28239064)
They are "shady" only by circular reasoning, because they handle porn.
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by tylerhou on Thursday August 19, 2021 @07:36PM (#28240639)
Objectively, they also charge much higher fees because of the high chargeback rates associated with porn. They also tend to process other unsavory transactions, which also have higher chargeback rates; hence they are "shady."
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by x0x0 on Thursday August 19, 2021 @03:11PM (#28238002)
Right, but... is that 99% of their content, 99.9%, or 99.99%? Cause I bet it's at least 99%.
Re:OnlyFans to block sexually explicit videos starting in Oc... by thaumasiotes on Friday August 20, 2021 @03:21AM (#28243530)
> The reason no one has made an OnlyFans before

Patreon?