What is Vice Industry Token (VIT)

Pornography content has been around for decades. In the past, before the internet, porn would be marketed and sold through magazines, tapes, DVDs, and films among others. These methods of circulation were limited by geographical locations. The internet brought about major changes in the porn industry as it created an international market for content producers such that their clients could access content from any part of the world. Thanks to the internet, the porn industry is now among the top-earning industries in the world.

Not all porn content is for sale, some are offered for free. This is good progress in the market considering that before, you could not access porn without paying. However, to access free porn the user has to put up with numerous advertisements – which is a concern.

Though it is uncomfortable for the user, on the other hand, producers have to make some bucks to continue generating free content. They achieve this by generating traffic and advertising with the rate of payment determined by analyzing viewing time and number of clicks made on a site or video. Most producers complain that this model is not profitable as it only earns them about 25 percent of the total revenue with advertisers also earning very little – another concern.

For paying sites, they accept payment methods such as the use of credit cards, PayPal and Skrill. However, users do not like using them much since they leave a record of what was purchased in their bills while most people would prefer keeping that info private.

Furthermore, viewers have to part with more money to cater to fees charged. This can be expensive for people who purchase porn content frequently. To solve this problem, cryptocurrency including the Verge and Tron were created. Verge allows users to pay for porn content using XVG (verge tokens). While Tron makes use of TRX tokens. These cryptocurrencies help in keeping the buyer’s transactions private and anonymous.

To address the issues experienced in the porn industry, and also introduce a new twist to the equation the Vice token was introduced. It was officially released into the market on 20th February 2018. The team behind it comprises of Andrey Kostin, Kelly Holland, Eric Helsel, and Bill Heilmann all under the leadership of Stuart Duncan (CEO).

Vice Tokens and Platform

During its introduction into the market, the token managed to raise about $21million in Ethereum within the first 24 hours of its Initial Coin Offering. Users were very much intrigued by the token’s new concept and couldn’t wait to have a piece of the cake which explains its tremendous success within the first few hours.

The introduction of Vice Tokens is a wonderful dream come true for all stakeholders in the porn industry. It solves most of the concerns and problems that have been around for years. It enables viewers to access quality free porn without having to put up with pointless ads. As if that is not enough it pays them for viewing the uploaded content. Additionally, viewers can enjoy watching porn anonymously through the Vice’s platform. All its discussion groups are kept private and members can only participate once invited.

The platform also takes care of producers and content creators by handsomely rewarding them for every content they produce. The most viewed content is highly rewarded which encourages creators to only come with quality content, to the benefit of the user.

To pay viewers, the platform measures their engagement through clicks made in the site, viewer time and social media interactions i.e. comments and likes. Tokens earned will depend on the frequency and amount of time spent viewing content. The site monitors time spent to ensure it meets their requirements before VIT is created. Users will need a digital wallet to store tokens earned.

The platform also creates a direct link between content producers and viewers thereby eliminating third parties. Creators can take advantage of this link and analyze token data to establish what most viewers prefer. This can help them come up with more relevant content. The platform also provides them with viewer engagement data which they can resell to other parties interested in such information such as advertisers. In the case of many creators, with each uploading several pieces of content, the Vice’s technology can divide earnings accurately according to the terms and conditions of the platform.

The platform has partnered with Tube 8 (a subsidiary of Porn Hub) which receives over 6 million visitors daily. Vice transfers content uploaded into Tube 8’s website to the platform where it analyses all interactions and uses the info to issue tokens. This is called ‘Proof of Viewing’ POV made possible by the Steem blockchain. The platform can handle about 100,000 transactions per second. Vice has also created affiliation partnerships with adult sites such as Exxxtacy, DDbusty, AnalX, Playboy Tv and StormyDaniels.com.

Others Services

Vice not only caters to the needs of the porn industry but has also ventured into the betting world. Here, it is used to facilitate peer to peer betting without the need of a bookmaker. Its architecture encourages users to bet against each other while securely holding their wages in Escrow. The release of funds is programmed according to the set betting terms. VIT tokens can be used for transactions in online gambling sites that accept them.

Another industry Vice has penetrated is Cannabis. Users can use the token to sell or buy cannabis of their choice.

Setbacks faced by Vice

• Limited Viewership

The use of Vice tokens has not been fully embraced by the porn industry. It is still limited to Tube 8 and a few other affiliates. This is an inconvenience as most porn viewers prefer viewing content from a variety of platforms hence has limited the number of users willing to sign up on the platform. If only the platform could strike more deals with different sites then maybe more people would be interested.

• Raw Deals Leading to a Go slow

In August 2018 the Vice industry token’s company was at crossroads with both Global Blockchain Technologies – BLOC, and Playboy enterprise. BLOC is a company which specializes in helping existing businesses build their blockchain applications and cryptocurrency base. All three companies were to mutually benefit from each other. Both BLOC and Playboy had entered into a deal whereby BLOC was tasked with integrating VIT’s digital wallet on playboy’s sites. It was also required to provide any technical assistance needed and rebrand VIT’s landing page. According to playboy, the company ended up receiving the short end of the stick as BLOC did not fulfill any of these agreements.

On the other hand, Vice Industry Token’s company planned to sue Playboy which according to them had already received millions of crypto tokens but was yet to reimburse the company. Though playboy blamed BLOC for its inefficiency which resulted in zero profits from the token, VIT’s CEO insisted that was their business. VIT had agreed with Playboy hence was going to sue them.

This legal battle brought about a go-slow in the creation and distribution of tokens as parties involved tried to settle their differences.

Conclusion

The idea of a token which rewards users for viewing porn sounds brilliant! Considering that most sites offer free porn content, many users do not feel the need for such a platform. Also, cryptocurrencies are a fairly new concept in the world hence some people view them as scams.

Nevertheless, there is hope as the porn industry is known to be an influential partner when it comes to new technology. Maybe in the long run, as cryptocurrencies continue becoming popular, more users will buy into the idea.

.

Details

Public sales: Feb 20, 2018 – Mar 20, 2018
Token supply: 1,600,000,000 VIT
Raised: 21,000,000 USD

Legal

Blockchain Platform: Ethereum
Registration country: Canada
Registration year: 2017