This podcast series tells the story of the Crusades from the Byzantine angle. In this episode, the year is 1101. The First Crusaders have achieved what seemed impossible. They have saved Byzantium from destruction at the hands of the Turks, as well as capturing Jerusalem and defeating the Fatimid Egyptians. Now the scene seems to be set for the consolidation of their gains. But the new crusaders setting out for the Kingdom of Jerusalem will find that the Turks are waiting for them.
Please take a look at my website nickholmesauthor.com where you can download a free copy of The Byzantine World War, my book that describes the origins of the First Crusade.
Chaturbate executive Shirely Lara is a sex industry veteran who sees bitcoin as a crucial part of her business. The bitcoin-friendly porn executive talks with CoinDesk reporter Leigh Cuen about bitcoin, sex and feminism.
Chaturbate COO Shirley Lara, one of the most experienced platform executives in the adult content industry, has been keen on bitcoin’s potential since 2018.
“We accept 20 different cryptocurrencies for token purchases. The most popular ones are bitcoin, ethereum and litecoin,” Lara said.
Experts, including Lara, estimate there “thousands and thousands” of cam girls working across platforms like OnlyFan and Chaturbate at any given time. That dwarfs the incumbent porn industry. Today, OnlyFans alone is estimated to have 60,000 content creator accounts and millions of registered viewers, despite some criticism from sex workers on Twitter.
Many of the leading sex industry corporations, like OnlyFans, Chaturbate and MindGeek, appear to be owned by (relatively secretive) men, who are far removed from the public performers. Lara, who joined Chaturbate in 2011, is one of the rare examples of a woman who worked her way up to the executive level without first creating a personal porn star brand. Her work is primarily technical and operational.
“I don’t think crypto is a trend. I think it’s definitely here to stay,” Lara said, noting the steady incline of bitcoin usage among performers in Colombia and Romania. “They’ll use cryptocurrency as a way to jump on [Chaturbate] and get started while they figure out the banking stuff.”
Meanwhile, her global operations allow performers like Honey Li, in Europe, to stack sats through Chaturbate. Li said a little bit of her earnings, in addition to whatever she needs to pay bills, is set aside as bitcoin savings. For Lara, having this choice was crucial to the platform’s crypto integrations.
“You asked if we hold on to bitcoin? We don’t. We cash out. But our broadcasters do (hodl), and I think that is so smart,” Lara said.
With porn production stalled or canceled in hubs like Miami, Las Vegas and Los Angeles, the entire sex industry is shifting geographies.
More performers are relying on social media to broadcast from home. Bitcoin may now offer a different use case for platform performers versus high-end escorts, for example. The sex industry is hardly a monolith.
Tech tools
While social porn platforms inspire more mainstream content creators to dabble in adult themes, this further divides in-person service providers and filmmakers.
One such provider, Nina Mona, has been using bitcoin in the sex industry for two years. For her, she emphasizes bitcoin privacy tech, which would be irrelevant for users who already submit know-your-customer information to a central platform. She uses bitcoin to accept payments and also to pay advertisers without sharing her credit card information.
“I noticed a wave of OnlyFans signups when in-person work became less viable. I considered it, but don’t think the return is worth the workload or risk of exposure for me,” Mona said. “It seems safer to limit myself to a small set of screened clients than to share compromising material with a broader and less invested audience. Every set of eyeballs is an additional threat.”
In the United States, Mona said most clients that book sessions with bitcoin resided in the Bay Area, Los Angeles or New York. Now that COVID-19 sparked some domestic migration, it’s unclear how this will impact sex workers who focused on urban hubs. For some, this means more travel and extremely selective bookings.
Performers and escorts may both operate their own wallets, even if they use platforms like OnlyFans or Chaturbate, especially to receive gifts and tributes from afar. Plus, Lara said the teledildonics trend, where internet-connected sex toys can be set to vibrate when their accounts receive payments, create new opportunities for clients to incorporate money into their fantasies.
“There’s this whole teledildonics spectrum that is growing in popularity,” she said. Li agreed with Lara, especially because there are toys for both genders that can be used in synchronized ways.
“I use teledildonic toys for work, basically every shift!” Li said. “They're tip-activated when I work...You can also sync the vibrations up to a spotify account or a voice note sent by your partner.”
Slow growth
Mainstream platforms like Chaturbate and the competitor FanCentro already accept cryptocurrency and have been working with it for years. Usage is niche, yet steady.
Many sex workers say a direct transaction and relationship is more profitable than payment facilitated by a platform. Chaturbate, for example, charges nearly half of the performer’s earnings. It provides a valuable service, but clients will need to be willing to pay in bitcoin if the performer aims to graduate to her own independent site.
“If we’re headed that way, it’s going to be a long time before we hit that milestone, because of the different governance in each country,” Lara said.
One FanCentro user and crypto owner, who goes by the alias WesMan83, said he would be happy to pay a sex worker directly in crypto if she preferred. He finds erotic service-providers that suit him using mainstream platforms like Twitter and OnlyFans, as well as personal recommendations from other clients and providers.
“I think it's important for people to understand that sex workers deserve to be paid for what they do and there is nothing wrong with what they do,” WesMan83 said. “They provide an entertainment service and work very hard for what they create. I think it's important that those of us who are proud to pay, help remove the stigma surrounding it.”
The Australian writer Helen Garner joins Harriett Gilbert as World Book Club continues its celebration of women writers.
She’ll be talking about her 2008 novel The Spare Room. It’s the story of two women: Nicola, who has cancer, and Helen who looks after her for three challenging weeks. Helen has her doubts about the unconventional clinic where Nicola has sought out treatment, but she nonetheless throws herself into the role of nurse, finding some comfort in the practical demands of the job.
Based on real events, The Spare Room is an unflinching, fierce look at friendship, illness and caring which finds humour in the darkest of places. The book is as spare and as lean as its title, yet manages to encompass big ideas about life and death.
(Image: Helen Garner. Photo credit: Darren James.)
Today's "Special Edition Saturday" interview features space journalist and author Elizabeth Howell. She shares what NASA's fifth and most sophisticated Mars rover (just launched!) will be doing, and what role it plays in the bigger goal of sending humans to live on the red planet...
Be sure to tune-in each weekday for our regular episodes to get quick, unbiased news roundups in 10 minutes!
Every time we embark on a given plan of action, big or small, we make a choice. Whereas many economists model people’s behavior using idealized assumptions, economists of the Austrian School don’t. The Austrian School of Economics takes people as they are and constructs economic theories by examining the logical structure of the choices they make. Steve Horwitz discusses Austrian Economics: An Introduction.
Every time we embark on a given plan of action, big or small, we make a choice. Whereas many economists model people’s behavior using idealized assumptions, economists of the Austrian School don’t. The Austrian School of Economics takes people as they are and constructs economic theories by examining the logical structure of the choices they make. Steve Horwitz discusses Austrian Economics: An Introduction.
In the interview, In the interview, filmmaker Mark Duplass is here to talk about his anthology series Room 104 currently airing on HBO. He and Mike discuss the use of rules in the creative process, why the series seems to defy genre, and the experience of growing up with your brother as your artistic partner. Room 104 airs on Friday nights on HBO.
