How blockchain will change webcam business: security and anonymity
Live Stars offers a brand new perspective at the problems of webcam industry — incorporate porn and blockchain technology
Blockchain will soon change many aspects of our lives. Usually, we hear about presenting blockchain into financial ball, but it can be used in many different fields. For example , Live Stars company has found, one might think, an unexpected application meant for blockchain — webcam business.
Webcam is the most technologically advanced branch of online adult movie industry. Models (usually, women) converse with video chat users and, for additional payments, big ass sex pose, strip and perform a number of actions of sexual mother nature. It’ s often done with own funds and solutions — all you need is a net camera, Internet access and a living room. However , there are specialized companies, where several models could work at the same time. Webcams monumentally vary from offline part of sex sector and porn videos. The real key differences are the absence of physical contact between the model and the client and all the obligations are non-cash.
How does it work?
Behind every version, there is a crowd of different personnel: agency owners, studio room managers, staffed internal deal platforms.
Each link in this chain deducts their share of the model’ s earning. A model functioning at the agency usually receives 20– 25% of what her client paid. Also self-employed models get about 40%, with the rest taken by the webcam hosting programs.
The client under no circumstances pays directly to the version, they usually use some form of conditional currency, valid on one particular website. The funds usually do not go directly to the style and at the each level the paid sum suffers transfer and conversion costs. When the “ tokens” are purchased, a percentage goes to the online pocket book or banking service, if the client pays with this kind of token, webcam platform gets its share and there is a further intermediate party at the money withdrawal stage.
Besides, to receive their payment in the first place, the model need to first earn the little required sum, specified in the contract, usually about $50. Incidentally, 99% of male models usually do not get paid also this much. Besides, these obligations do not reach their beneficiary right away. The platform can hold the payment for any period of time between a week and a month if not more. And you can add 3– 5 various days spent for standard bank transfer process.
These are just symptoms of the core problem of this ballpark — lack of transparency. No person feel confident in any individual — clients are afraid of identification theft and models fear so much deanonymization, blackmail and risks of exposing their work to their friends and family. Studio management might work with threats and fear to force the models to keep working and the streaming products and services might illegally use information that is personal of both, models and clients.
Such platforms always use some form of IDENTITY to verify the identification of their models for inner purposes, it is a vital element of how they work. And each platform makes their own client databases, collecting the payment information about when, what for and just how much each client pays off, geolocation data and sometimes calls for ID as well.
Security and anonymity of provided data completely depends upon what integrity of the intermediaries. The net is full of interviews with web cam models who fell victim to blackmail.
— It’ s unsafe to work at the studio if you want to keep your identity magic formula. I can tell you a story of a unit, whose work was recorded and the videos were sent to her boyfriend. There were threats to send these videos to her father and mother as well. The same can happen when the contract runs out or when the model just wants to quit. What to do with that, no one knows.
Lena, a webcam model
Blockchain the Savior
According to have Stars, how can blockchain boost this semi-legal and often unsafe field of work?
The main difference is finished anonymity guaranteed by the program and replacement of internal payment processing system with tokens.
This solves almost all challenges we mentioned thus far.
Tokenization removes the advantages of intermediaries and completely gets rid of them from the chain. Protection of data storage and copy in blockchain technology is above and beyond anything else we have today. Identity verification will still take place, since all models should be of the full legal age to work in this field, nevertheless the model can remove any of their personal information from the system at any point in time, which is maintained the open source code. The uploaded data, after he was approved by management, will always be protected.
Blockchain transactions fully solve the issue of the client’ s anonymity.
The very transaction process will be significantly quicker, because the intermediary banks as well as the need to convert money in the platform’ s internal payment means are completely removed from the picture. The latter is changed by LIVE tokens, that can be used to pay for the services or be sold at a symbol exchange platform. At the moment, in the event the client happens to have some internal platform currency they bought but did not spent yet, they cannot get their money back the slightest bit, if they wish to do so, seeing that no platform offers refunds or resale opportunities.
The payment method itself becomes simpler and includes possibility of attaching more modules and ways of payment.
The types do not have to wait for months to get what they earned. The transaction comes at the moment of the payment and not a moment later on.
Possibility of purchase errors is removed as well — blockchain technology will not allow for mistakes and deal errors, when the customer’ t funds are blocked by the bank.
What is going to Live Stars change?
What does such system looks like? What will change because of its participants: clients and versions?
On average, 250 new types register on the top-tier websites daily.
79% are newcomers, who under no circumstances worked at this platform
10% of them definitely will continue working on the same system
60% have to quit, due to not achieving the minimal required earning.
The low percentage of webcam newcomers is easily discussed: emotionally taxing job, hazard of deanonymization, psychological pressure from the platform’ s admins, huge transaction fees and low payments that do not come on time. It results in a situation of many young products completely leaving the field after their first knowledge.
A system built on open source code, transparency and blockchain infrastructure will radically differ from current semi-legal and closed systems.
Low accessibility barrier will attract more versions and lack of negative economic experience will increase the percentage of people who will chose to stay.
If the clients are 100% certain of their own security and anonymity, the number of people willing to pay for the model’ h service will increase. Currently, many webcam audience is quite happy with free live streams and doesn’ t pay whatever, afraid of dealing with unclear and potentially dangerous payment system. In the event that some of them will move to the category of paying clients, it will eventually completely change webcam sector landscape. It is quite possible, the general direction of such platform will become less porn-orientated and move towards simply personal communication, which is what attracts the clients in the first place.
Another important element: private video chats and text chats will use webRTC based on one-to-one principle, on their own of servers. Nobody, including the website administration, will have usage of a private chat.
Every website has their diva. They are usually promoted by website itself, put towards the top of the ratings and seen by the largest audience. It usually is a closed mechanism, which in turn harms the customer who’ deb like to see the actual information about the model’ s rating and it harms other models who lose the income due to unfairly low evaluations. Besides, unfair rating is merely an extra source of psychological tension for the model. The open source code will allows anyone to make sure, that the rating is distributed in a reasonable and objective manner.
The future of webcam market
In the end, blockchain will lead to creation of any unique unprecedented online system, with independent financially backed webcam models who finally left behind the discomfort of constant stress and the clients completely certain in their security and anonymity.
The content is bound to change too: currently models feel made to have “ mainstream” displays, something, that majority of consumers are ready to pay for, just to have some income. In the conditions of the secure and open system, they can produce income coming from providing services for a smaller audience. It can be just a friendly conversation or specific sex interests.