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PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub

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Re: PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub

#441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a moral choice. It's a case of the business is not worth the hassle. KYC rules mean the bank is on the hook if they are found to harbor ill gotten gains and the sex industry had a some troubles in the past, while not producing enough volume on an individual level to make it worthwhile for a bank to overlook things.

That just seems like profiling at that point, since they’re basically rejecting service to an individual just because of their profession. Sure they might say that there may be a higher probability of a someone in the adult industry being involved in illegal activities, but is it fair to outright deny service on such a wide scale?

Profiling isn't illegal unless it's profiling against a protected class, right? It's like how I can't get cheap life insurance because I took antidepressants like seven years ago during a rough patch in my life.

Re: PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub

#442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your argument would work if porn were interchangeable. It's not. People don't pay for porn, they pay for specific porn.

I'm willing to accept that but I think it would still lower the amount of income significantly. Sure people would still pay for custom porn or specific clips that are hard to find (though even then I'd suspect quite a bit less than they do now), but they probably wouldn't join any subscription based sites for example.

As I understand it, this is less about subscription based sites and specifically about cam models on pornhub. While I agree that this extra step would be a barrier to a casual consumer, I agree with the parent that people who pay for porn will pay for specific porn. if a person is already paying a specific model (or models) on pornhub, they've found what they want and a fair amount will continue to pay for it even if it takes additional steps.

Re: PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub

#443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Banking is a citizen right. Well, at least it should be. In Germany every bank is obliged to offer everyone (including homeless, overindebted, asylum seekers, etc.) a so-called base account, which offers a way to receive payments and pay the bills and get a basic debit card. However, the law has a mistake: The price of the base account is not regulated. And many banks charge more than for a "normal" account. Germany…

There are free, base functionality accounts in every bank in Poland. Debit card use is also free provided you make few transactions per month.

What a strange rule. Debit cards presumably only cost the bank money if you use them.

Re: PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub

#444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really isn't, you should check my profile. I have discovered the service shortly before posting, the parent mentioned Coinbase, and I thought it would be helpful to share this with others. People are sometimes genuinely excited about free services that don't exist solely to exploit them in some way.

> I have discovered the service shortly before posting, > it's an awesome way to quickly start accepting cryptocurrencies. So do you regularly endorse things you just shortly discovered?

As you've noted, I've shared my first impressions about the service, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Please make sure to follow discussion guidelines, and try to refrain from personal attacks.

Re: PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub

#445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the thing I find very disturbing. That an industry as highly regulated and essential to every day life as banking can pick and choose based on management's moral choices.

It's not a moral choice. It's a case of the business is not worth the hassle. KYC rules mean the bank is on the hook if they are found to harbor ill gotten gains and the sex industry had a some troubles in the past, while not producing enough volume on an individual level to make it worthwhile for a bank to overlook things.

Wouldn't it be better to have them in the regular financial systems subject to the "know your customer" laws, so the money and customer can be more easily tracked?

If it's about all sorts of illegal activities, shouldn't law enforcement use these things as a resource, rather than driving it underground?

Re: PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub

#446
post #357
post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt it's moral choices and more fraud and dispute levels, ie the cost to service a customer.

I am not convinced it is just that. PayPal also refuses to do business with online gambling which is an industry with low fraud levels (in the early poker days they were high, but that was a long time ago). Thankfully there are a bunch pf credit card processors who know how good customers online casinos are and most banks are fine too, so that industry is not deplatformed.

what bunch, exactly?

Re: PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub

#447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just in the past. There's a current case going on about a major channel that Pornhub used to feature about performers being allegedly both lied to about where the footage would be available and raped. Very possibly what spurred PayPal to make this change.

That sounds like something that should be handled by law enforcement, not your bank.

And, believe it or not, it is. Patriot Act helpfully provides mechanism for various LEOs to send requests to all FI in US to search for accounts they indicate. Add to that BSA and various KYC requirements that ends up sending data about suspicious customers to FinCEN and you have an easy way to identify undesirables.

And the list grows longer every day.

Re: PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub

#448
I hate that any online company can set arbitrary Terms of Service which they know for a FACT I have not read (I didn't click) and then decide to pull the rug out from me at any time because of that.

These companies are seriously important in our lives. If you take away my payment source or my email or whatever you are potentially setting me on a path to ruin.

I don't know what the answer is but I do think these companies should be required to have an appeal process of some kind that's regulated. They have so much power.

Re: PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub

#449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That does not sound correct on the lightning network. I cannot find any reason it would allow someone to run off with your funds. Can you explain the attack?

In order to use the lightning network, you are making a smart contract on the normal slow bitcoin ledger with another party. You need to insert a pre-determined amount of money into this system to be able to spend it. Most consumers will not want to do this because they don't know who they will be buying from and don't know how much they are going to spend. If they decide they want to buy from random website Z one da…

> If they decide they want to buy from random website Z one day, making a lightning network connection between themselves and that website will be useless because establishing a lightning network connection needs to go on the regular slow block chain, so it'll take as long as a regular payment.

The "network" part of lightning network allows you to make a payment to anyone else on the network (trustlessly) through multiple hops. For example, if you opened a channel with a friend, and your friend had a channel open with Starbucks, you would be able to pay Starbucks through your friend without having to trust your friend.

And this works today. I have one channel open on the lightning network, and regularly make payments to random nodes on the network. I pay << $0.01 in fees for these transactions, and they settle in ~a second.

Re: PayPal stops payouts to models on Pornhub

#450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lightning is not censorable as participants in a payment channel route cannot know the sender nor receiver of a payment. It's similar to tor relays.

Lightning is also a pile of vaporware. It is even more Rube Goldberg than bitcoin. It’s only purpose in the bitcoin ecosystem is so shysters selling the dream can claim “no really, bitcoin can scale!!!! Lightning is just around the corner!!!”. (Of course they don’t mention the irony to bitcoin scaling is not to use it)

How is it a pile of vaporware? It works today - I've used it multiple times in the past week.
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