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by jzig 822 days ago
Aren’t there payment processors that allow adult content? Makes me wonder why a platform like Gumroad couldn’t just use a different processor for customers that mark themselves as NSFW.
4 comments

As much as people love to hate it: crypto
I wish there was an easy way to handle subscriptions with crypto. Like if MetaMask or other wallet apps agreed on a "pull-based" billing system. That would probably never happen, but I can dream.

As an operator, I'd also want a smart contract that collects payments from a list of tokens/altcoins and immediately converts it to USDC.

You can do that by making a smart contract that the payee can only pull X amount from on certain block intervals, and the payer can deposit and withdraw from a often as they like. It would essentially be a checking account.

Also re: auto converting tokens - you can jusr make a service to do that, it doesn't have to be a smart contract. A smart contract probably could be used with a DEX though, but I think that may be needlessly complex.

> You can do that by making a smart contract that the payee can only pull X amount from on certain block intervals, and the payer can deposit and withdraw from a often as they like. It would essentially be a checking account.

This is super interesting. Has anyone done this?

Honestly it's pretty trivial. I haven't tested it (it does at least compile), but I had GPT-4 write a contract for this[0]. Obviously don't use this for anything meaningful, just meant to convey the idea. More features could be added to do things like allow the account creator to add / remove more payees with their own withdrawl rates, allow them to directly transfer to someone besides themselves (analogous to paying with a debit card).

[0] https://dpaste.org/NWFbE

> Honestly it's pretty trivial.

Literally no artist anywhere has ever received an actual payment from an actual customer with this method (I'm not counting the artist themselves making a test payment).

No, if Gumroad bans you, you can't just set up your own crypto smart contracts and make money that way. This is some academic crypto anarchist fantasy.

Specifically Monero. No evidence for Puritans or data-mining companies to try and shame you or make you pay to forget.
absolutely not the solution.
I don't see why not though? One of the benefits of a decentralized currency is that it is not subject to censorship by any central authority who disagrees with the content you are purchasing. That is exactly the problem these guys are having. Granted, they'll have to pay a lot of transaction fees/gas, and the volatility still makes it hard to fix prices, but for one-off transactions, you can ignore day-to-day volatility as long as the minute-to-minite volatility is bearable.
I didn't say it was "the" solution, but it absolutely is a solution to what they asked.
It still isn't a solution any way you cut it and in any case, hence the keyword 'absolutely'
It's a payment system that allows adult content.
If you're an artist who needs to eat food in order to live, this "payment system" does not facilitate your ability to achieve that.
It’s “a” solution but not a “helpful” or “realistic” solution.
Not sure why you're being downvoted, because your comment succinctly highlights the issues and is correct.
It doesn't highlight any issues. It effectively just says "you are wrong". It doesn't really add anything to the discussion.

> Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Why? To me, it seems like a clear solution, and is actually one of the core goals of the creation of cryptocurrency.
Many artists I know are ferociously against crypto and they and their fans don't know how to use crypto at all.

Use bank transfer or better yet instead, purchase gifts for the creator on their Amazon, Etsy, etc wishlist in exchange for content or use gift cards.

The above solutions are way better than crypto as it's mostly used for crime and illicit transactions and speculation.

By what metric are these better solutions?

Modern blockchain payment systems (see Base) have transaction fees that are an order of magnitude cheaper than any trad processors; they don’t discriminate based on moral grounds; transactions settle in seconds rather than days; they are not bound to only certain countries; funds are not custodially held by a single centralized tech company; the list goes on.

Much of the rationale for anti-crypto among communities that would most benefit from it (eg: NSFW art) is ill conceived and held together by an almost religious zeal.

All it takes is one defi guy who can really draw rouge the bat with a juicy posterior and artists&dans will get into crypto.
There’s a lot of bad blood in the artistic community (on all fronts, production, distribution and consumption) to anything crypto due to the whole NFT thing… I don’t think you’re going to see anyone trying to do something that’s art + crypto for quite some time.
Yep. CCBill is one the bigger/better known in that space. I’m guessing Gumroad just doesn’t think it’s worth it.
Cash. Crypto is now, but will be regulated into submission, or out of existance.
As mentioned CCBil. Another is Epoch and SegPay. Most are found in the footer for pay sites.