Another day, another blockchain ‘innovation’
Vice.org (not to be confused with Vice.com) has announced its intention to ‘disrupt’ the porn industry with the creation Vice tokens. Vice.org intends to create Vice tokens as a SMT (Smart Media Token) on the Steem blockchain. SMTs have yet to be developed and where only announced a couple of weeks ago, however already people are coming out the woodwork with designs on utilising the technology.
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Let’s talk Porn… in details
From the look of the website Vice.org (don’t worry there is no porn on there yet, I’ve checked… purely for research purposes) is pitched primarily to Porn content producers, as a means for them to monetise their content better than they do now. It will also have the bonus of rewarding viewers for watching porn on their platform and aims to be ad free. Vice.org sees itself as the evolution of porn. From VHS to digital description to ad-ridden ‘Tube’ sites, now consumer-rewarding ‘Tokenised’ platforms.
Vice.org aims to be literally every teenage fappers wet dream!
Beneath the brochure
Okay. So I may not know as much about porn as I should however I do have a number of questions about any potential Vice token.
Who’s hosting these Porn videos?
So I’m aware there is a plethora of Porn ‘Tube’ sites. They host Porn content, serve up ads (alongside Porn) to viewers and I presume split the ad revenue with content providers based on hits. Unless I’m mistaken Vice.org will also need to host Porn content. I’m not sure if they plan to use a decentralised service, however even if they go the decentralised route, someone will need to pay node providers.
There is no free lunch when it comes to video hosting! I know EOS is planning a new model for storage hosting however that’s not here yet. As of writing, hosting video costs. It would be good to understand how Vice.org plans to overcome this.
Porn payout windows?
The payout window on Steem is 7 days. Votes/ Likes after the first 7 day payout do not receive monetary rewards. I’m not sure whether the payout window (and more importantly the number of payout windows) is a parameter that can be changed by an SMT.
Will the Vice token also have a one-time payout window? Porn is a lot more long tail than Steem content. I’d be interested in Vice.org’s plans for payout windows.
Cutting out Porn middlemen or new Porn middlemen?
The information on the Vice.org website is scant. Let’s be honest a headline like ‘Get paid to watch Porn’ is going to grab the interest of anyone; whether they are porn addicts or Mary Whitehouse converts. Also reading the blog posts there is a lot of talk about paying everyone; content providers, distributors, viewers. There is no talk of what Vice.org gets out of it.
Quick fire questions
According to the Vice.org website,
why would content producers give away their content in exchange for just a share of possible ad revenue, when they can get paid simply based on viewership, with no conditions?
- Does this mean Vice tokens will be non-stake weighted?
- Does it mean rewards will not be allocated on votes at all but on views only?
- How will rewards for views be allocated? On click? On length watched?
I'm intrigued to see how this SMT will be set-up.
Who is buying?
This is the biggest question for me however is this. So far - Content providers get rewarded Vice tokens, Distributors get rewarded Vice tokens. Viewers get rewarded Vice tokens. There will be no advertising on the Vice.org website. This sounds like Porntopia… However the billion dollar question is; who is buying Vice tokens to give it a value of anything other than zero? A token is worth nothing unless someone is willing to pony up and buy it each and every time someone wants to cash out and sell it.
Look, I can feel myself gearing up towards a rant!...
Let’s talk game
There is a lot of talk of SMTs and “incentives.” I've said this already but I'll say it again,
The number one incentive needed for any token is an incentive for someone to buy it.
Otherwise it’s just a worthless token.
There is an assumption (false in my opinion) that SMTs can simply ape the Steem model. However as of right now (October 2017), people are buying Steem for one of two reasons; (1) speculation of how big Steem could become (2) for STEEM Power and more influence on the platform.
In the future should STEEM/ one of it’s platform gain critical mass, the main reason I see for people/ companies buying Steem in the future is for presence and prominence on Steem’s frontends. I..e. As a means of getting their message, product or service to their userbase.
Presence
When it comes to the attention economy, most organisations have a ‘follow-the-herd” mentality. They go where their consumers are. We’ve seen it playout with the current suite of social media site. Name a company and it will have either a Facebook, Twitter or Instagram page or all three.
Let's take Busy.org (I’m tired of using the Steemit example, and it is often misconstrued). If Busy.org gained critical mass, a large demographic of people not on Busy.org will feel compelled to have a presence on the platform. This is what has happened to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Hell, even I created a Snapchat account even though everything from the concept to that child-like yellow logo yelled ‘You’re too old for this shit!’ Yet I signed up anyone. Once the masses begin to flock to a platform, the major organisations follow.
Prominence
Presence isn't enough though. The fact that every man and his dog has a presence on say Busy.org will only create a limited demand for STEEM, the currency in my opinion. What will drive genuine buy demand is the need for prominence on Busy.org. Once organisations realise they can use STEEM Power to increase their influence and prominence on the platform, they will buy it. We can scream until we're blue in the face about the ills of advertising. However the ability of business to get their offering in front of a relevant audience will drive demand for currencies like STEEM.
The key word being relevant audience and that's where the community consensus on what constitutes valued contributions will help weed out the kind of ad spam that is experienced elsewhere. If you're paying for prominence the last thing you want is for the community to vote down your content. Businesses will be forced to be more savvy and relevant with their approach to getting your attention. Communities will become more savvy in how they weed out business that attempt to advertise to them without providing value.
The beauty of the Steem model is that anyone can gain influence. Either through the value they provide to the wider community or to by buying STEEM and locking it up in STEEM Power. Your reputation score will also become a thermometer for your value to your community.
Speaking of communities. Once (or if) Steem introduces communities, this will help people make sense of the Steem eco-system. 'Like' will be competing with 'like' for influence in a given area of interest. Be it Sport or Photography or News. However unlike the current paradigm, businesses will need to compete on a decentralised, censorship resistant blockchain. Everyone will have the opportunity to earn rewards based on the value they provide to a given community.
So what’s my point?
The reason why I’ve taken the time to explain (what I see) as some of the nuances and future economics of Steem is that Vice token as it currently stands has no such incentive for people to buy it.
It almost falls at the first hurdle; why would I (or any other investor) buy Vice token simply so that people who have idled away their time watching porn (and people that provided it to them) can cash out?
As an investor, what the fuck am I supposed to do with all these Vice tokens I’ve accumulated. Fuck! At least the fappers managed to 'knocked one out' in return for their tokens, I don't even get that satisfaction!
Do I even get influence over which Porn flicks get rewarded more on Vice.org? It is not clear.
If I do get influence and if I am able to push my wares to greater prominence, I’d need to be flogging a particular kind of product that would appear appeal the kind of demographic that likely spend a little too much time wanking than doing something construction that can pull in money to spend on my product (sorry to be crass, but you get my point).
Whitepaper please!
The bottom line is this; I like that people are getting amped by SMT and are thinking of new ways to monetise. However the is a reason why the release of Steem was accompanied with a whitepaper that majored on economic incentives. I think that SMT's will also need a similar type mindset. Describing how token rewards will work is the easy part. Explaining how you avoid people gaming the system and how you entice people to buy the token (and give it value) is a completely different ball game.
As for Vice token, I would really need to see a whitepaper (and I don’t mean Kleenex) before I’d even consider investing.
They won't disrupt anybody. Online porn business is a monopoly. Various tube sites have all one owner. The diversity is there to mask the reality.
As for the SMT - it is the same as with every token / asset.
If at least two answers to these three questions aren't a very strong YES then it is not a token. It is just another excuse to draw some money from our pockets.
It's hard work... but someone's got to do it!
Oh, I see what you did there...
Lol.
Why not just upload the porn content to Dtube? The platform, Steemit, and the token, Steem, is already up and running.
Steemit already cut out the middlemen!
But theres kids that may use dtube so another seperate platform makes sense
dtube sucks, lets just dismantle it or upgrade it to something useful
Why do you said that?
I just watched one of boxmining's videos on Dtube today and it was working very well.
the player always glitches for me, always
This goes to the core of SMTs. Pretty much anything that can be done on SMTs can be done on Steem. In this instance efforts could be focused on enhancing a decentralised version of YouTube directly on the Steem blockchain.
Steem has value because it delivers outcomes irl.
Coca Cola buys up a lot of steempower to push their product, so we'll buy a can.
If Coca Cola's social media content WAS the product, they'd have no incentive to buy in and increase their reach.
That's just giving away more of their product.
The only way I could see a porn SMT working is if top end prostitutes wanted to promote their 'work' and attract 'face to face' clients.
Thank you for the in-depth write up.
Isn't this true for all tokens? I believe the first rule when looking at something new is to read the white paper and determine if it makes any sense. The second thing to determine is whether there is a market there or not.
In Vice case, I think they found a market. That said, I agree with you about the token (actually SMTs in general), where is the value coming from. I presume the ones putting this together are going to have to buy STEEM, at least initially, to give their tokens value. That was one thing @ned mentioned in a video, those who develop SMTs will want to buy STEEM to give value to what they are offering as opposed to just some token with nothing behind it.
They could be onto something huge there. There is no doubt that porn is big business and a token based system could be worth a ton. More details are needed but I would consider putting some money in simply based upon the market potential.
Oh, I think to answer your question about the storage of the content, it seems the DTube model is going to be the common one where a percentage of all moneys (I think 25%) generated on the system goes to the housing of content.
Haha in the future your son will be like, dad what crypto coin made you the most money? Bahahaha
Lol I can hear many responses being: "Boy, go to your room!"
People are gonna be extra mad if their porn content doesnt get upvotes now. looooooooooooooooooooooool
Cool. Erm. More details please. Asking for erm... a friend.
I'm not investing in this project, probably won't sign up with an account on this upcoming SMT, but I would wholeheartedly applaud all NSFW material to be moved to dedicated SMT's as to keep Steem family friendly.
I got kids.
True that. Personally, I don’t like the idea of Steem’s reward pool getting distributed to porn. But if it were its own token...
A doubt - if viewers watch and get paid for watching porn, the transactions will be recorded on the block-chain. So, will users retain their anonymity? I guess the anonymity is at the level of the SMT account they create. However - wouldn't that be linked to a phone number or something to validate?@nanzo-scoop - Quite an involved analysis. I agree that 'who will be the buyers' of the Vice token will prove to be the critical question.
Thanks for this detailed review and views. Upvoted Full.
Regards,
@vm2904
That's a valid question... how do they plan to issue rewards without leaving some paper trail on the blockchain.
What happens when watching porn is more profitable than making it or performing in it?
Then the world will have officially entered the twilight zone....
My question is about privacy.
Using Steem-SQL, I would be able to determine every Porn title that @nanzo-scoop upvoted, when he usually watches, how many titles he watches in a session, etc etc.
The appeal of porn on the internet is the anonymity. The transparency of blockchain will be a deterrent.
Just my two cents.
Maybe this is one of the reason they're opting for rewarding for 'viewership' rather than upvotes. It will be fascinating to see how they pull it off because I agree privacy and anonymity will be a big factor for users.
I feel like nowadays they will literally pay you to do ANYTHING ! Kinda scary if you think about it and people are willing to take the offer too
exactly, where has people's integrity gone?
You can certainly give someone a token for anything. Whether that token will be worth much is a different matter entirely!
Actually @journeyoflife, that is the end game for the blockchain.
Down the road, all you online activities will come with compensation. You do a search, you get paid. You stream music, they pay you. Watch an ad...get paid. Turn on porn so some excitement, alone or with another, get paid.
... I will check too.
@nanzo-scoop As you've mentioned, there are many concerns that have yet to be addressed. However, the potential is great. The porn industry is a very competitive market. They are also an industry that has adopted some of the most sophisticated technologies.
With margins shrinking due to competition and some of the strategies of the new players on the block, I believe there will be investors and companies paying close attention to this. I think it is highly likely that as SMTs gain prominence, there will likely be a porn platform eqvivalent. Find more on this topic here
The porn industry is a multimillion dollar business. This is a great opportunity to make your time productive. It's a job that would pay you to watch pleasurably over the internet.
Thanks for letting us know!
Maybe one can "mine" coins by using something like the Pornhub Wank Band?
Now i have watched everything on steem blockchain nothing left lol
amazing
Bahahhahaha!! LMFAO!!! BAHAHA!!
Alot of masterbatiters are gonna become ich from just this one coin LMFAO!!!
Alot of masterbatiters will become rich from this lmfao!!
You adding value to steemit. Love it
Kindly upvote me
@nanzo-scoop https://steemit.com/travel/@mickyscofield/nigeria-has-one-of-the-best-tourist-attractive-destinations-let-s-see-calabar
hello dear friend
how are you?
please,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, give me vote and comment
i want follow you
https://steemit.com/@pritish1122
if this real then i might start watching porn again
Hello sr Nanzo is a great option for keep out of porn here and focus in new things Steemit
Hello sr Nanzo is a great option for keep out of porn here and focus in new things Steemit
wow lol
What is porn ?!
The porn industry will eventually issue their own cryptocurrency to tackle piracy of their products. With a white a paper and capital to pay various fees to manage and run a blockchain. Good article, makes one think about the impact of cryptocurrency in the future.
Who will read posts in steemit?? all will be in vice.org .
if there's no utility, forget about it.
I would invest in a (legit) porn ICO in a heartbeat, because sex sells
Lol. Brilliant headline and intro.
Not exactly sure this is the type of project that’ll constructively serve SMT’s growth, but I guess at least it’s a start. I’ll pass on the investment, though curious to see how it pans out...
I have read all about this supposed launch. The public IPO was supposed to be Jan. 3rd, 2018 but I cannot find any info on where to purchase the coin and they don't have a whitepaper.
Have you or anyone reading this discovered where to by a Vice coin? What exchanges carry it? If you have please tell me.
I'de grab a few just to make me pay attention to its development.
i tried the website severall times, but it s not working. is it vice.org? and do you konw where to buy the tokens? thank you! :)
Thank you for being the converse on this. Since I first read about vice.org I thought it was a good idea but how and who benefits? After reading this post I see this issues with a more critical eye. Thank you for that.
Scammers, new middlemen. Anything to make a buck being the same cyber pimps they've always been. All in the name of blockchain tech