About five months ago, Playboy Enterprises, the parent company of Playboy Magazine, announced that it would begin accepting payments in cryptocurrency. Playboy TV decided to provide access to exclusive content for adults using the Vice Industry Token (VIT) as a type of payment. They also planned to issue a special cryptocurrency wallet by the end of this year. Starting with VIT, the company expected to expand its list of accepted cryptocurrencies and the ability to pay for other business directions, including games, supplemented and virtual reality.
To integrate blockchain technology into Playboy media channels, the company entered into a contract with Global Blockchain Technologies (GBT), a well-known British cryptocurrency company. But it seems that the cooperation was not successful, and Playboy sued the GBT for failure to comply with the contract, as well as for a failure to pay $4 million under the contract.
In a lawsuit filed in the Los Angeles County High Court, Playboy claims fraud and breach of contract. The GBT rejected the claim, calling the fraud charge frivolous and announced its intention to vigorously defend itself.
According to Playboy claim, a contract was signed with GBT to create a cryptocurrency wallet and an interface for integrating cryptocurrency into the network of various Playboy sites. Given the ease with which the cryptocurrency payment service can be integrated into the e-commerce platform, Playboy should simply go on a direct route, and the GBT provide the configuration process. However, watching erotic for tokens is now postponed for some time due to a failure to fulfill technical tasks by Global Blockchain Technologies.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
- Considering the high prices associated with payments via credit cards — usually between 4-7% — and improved transactional anonymity associated with cryptocurrency assets, accepting payments in digital currency is a reasonable move for entertainment brands.
- Other major adult websites, Brazzers and Pornhub, have already started accepting cryptocurrency as payments.