Over the past year Bitcoin has become almost a household term. From celebrity endorsements (such as Ellen Degeneres) to infamous Wall street veterans (such as Jordan Belfort) it seems that everyone wants to go on record making some sort of statement about Bitcoin.
As interest (and awareness) in Bitcoin increases, so also does interest in the cryptocurrency sphere as a whole, particularly with alternative cryptocurrencies such as Litecoin, Dash, and Ethereum. Many other cryptos exist now, and each one boasts some unique feature that purportedly makes it better than Bitcoin in some fashion.
Litecoin is like Bitcoin’s little brother, and is often seen as the ‘silver’ to Bitcoin’s ‘gold’. While transaction fees are often lower with Litecoin, I would argue that is largely a side-affect of low usage. Indeed, with many coins out there, transaction fees are only low because the usage is nowhere near Bitcoin’s. Another prime example would be Ethereum, whose blockchain transactions had issues scaling when the Cryptokitties craze began.
There are cryptocurrencies out there that do seem promising, and offer novel features. Dash is positioning itself to be a provider of instant, low-cost transactions, and is considered by many to be a decent rival to Bitcoin. However, a cryptocurrency is only truly useful if it has gained adoption.
This is where Bitcoin currently shines. It may not have the cheapest transactions, or the fastest, but it is currently good enough. For mass adoption to take place, a system doesn’t need to hit theoretically limits. A system simply needs to be better than the status quo, and have momentum. And I would argue Bitcoin ticks all the boxes. Pseudonymous transactions that are relatively instant and low-fee. And to top it off, it has adoption.
On average, access to a high-quality porn site (such as Wankz) will cost you anywhere from $10-$30 per month, depending on whether you pre-pay for a few months in advance. At these levels, a $0.50 transaction fee is negligible.
If you are a holder of Bitcoin you have the benefit of being able to use it at many more locations than you could with any other cryptocurrency. While there are certainly some adult content providers that accept other cryptocurrencies, they are few and far between. There are many more that only accept Bitcoin.
While we may see another contender gain mass adoption in the coming years or even months, I firmly believe that Bitcoin payments are going to dominate the adult industry going forward.