A new, dubious "smart" cryptocurrency for prostitution

If it gets popular enough, yes.

You can’t pay your rent directly with Euros (in the US) either, but Euros still have value.

Considering people ARE buying things with bitcoin, even if it is primarily darkweb, shows it has some value.

You’ve misinterpreted my comment and should be transported to the Antipodes; I was referring to the implied view of sex workers as machines that dispense sex when you press a button.

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So I don’t have to lug around containers of TIDE detergent anymore? whoo hoo!

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Yeah, sex workers would have to sell these off for real currency, and the only people interested in buying them would be johns, creating another problematic layer to the whole process.

A cryptocurrency specifically to pay for sex work is inherently a closed system, though. Regardless of how popular it is for that, it’s locked out of the “legitimate economy” and its value is always going to be limited.

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I agree with that. I am not saying this currency is good or bad, only that the concept is at least sound.

I don’t know why they wouldn’t use something like bit coin or the like. I am guessing it is like “amazon coins” or coins from a video game - keeping the people who issue the currency flush with cash.

Or hey, legalize the damn practice and we can just put BJs on Visas like civilized people.

What seems most striking about this concept is that, unlike other “anonymous” web purchases using cryptocurrency, you actually have to show up in person to redeem your purchase. Rather than making enforcement more difficult for the police, this seems to simplify it. They need only post pictures of attractive women at bargain prices and when the purchaser arrives for the rendezvous they get arrested. The entire record of the transaction would be in writing and arrival at the “date” would satisfactorily prove solicitation. It really doesn’t matter that one’s money is anonymous when they show up in person to commit a crime. So what’s the point of this?

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Calling their unit of currency the “Lust” is really stupid. They completely missed the boat on that one.

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Yeah I get it. But you can’t buy anything with it directly. My point is that it’s not a real currency.

Yes and no. People often use this to imply a false dichotomy between a mechanistic, predictable model of human behaviors and motives, and the mysterious world of emotions and affect. I would contend that people’s emotional lives, the motivations and responses which comprise the interpersonal relationships of most people are indeed “pushbutton” levels of mechanistic. Yet - this in no way legitimizes a utilitarian outlook. Indeed, positing that difference can obscure how covertly utilitarian many human relationships tend to be. This is one of the main reasons why sex work can be quite revolutionary.

Unless people declare a membership in some group such as a gender or nationality, I find it safer to not presume that there is any such membership. As concerns myself, I insist upon it.

All use of currencies is voluntary. Not having a party to transact with does not make anything “not a currency”. What makes it a currency is that you and another party can choose to use it. One of the greatest obstacles to cryptocurrencies so far is people trying to use them as investment commodities. But there are also coin and bill collectors for fiat currencies who do the same thing.

A lot of its legitimacy has to do with how one perceives social accountability. To an egalitarian person, decentralized currency is more socially responsible because it forces people to be accountable to each other, as equals. Whereas fiat currencies instantly create a class division, there must be a “trusted party” to control a centralized currency. There are certainly conveniences to using a popular system, but those are often bought with one’s acquiescence, not unlike when using Facebook oe eBay. Likewise, if one cannot abide the TOS of a popular currency - be it fiat or crypto - then one has an obligation to not use that currency.

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Someday I hope we as a species can move beyond the scarcity economy thinking that results in slut shaming. We are well into post-scarcity sex. There’s enough sex to go around. There’s enough sex available that everyone on the planet could get laid right now. It doesn’t have to be treated as a separate class of resource, one that men are entitled to control, and women are not entitled to benefit from. Do not bind the mouths of the kine who tread your grain.

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For some reason I thought they were referring to a post by @Mister44. I apologise. I wish to be clear that (other than this post) I never knowingly respond to you. My original post has been deleted.
(I apologise for the restricting assumption that your preferred language is English, but in the absence of a context-free language I have little choice but to use it.)

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No problem. Sorry about the mistake, I apparently got the various replies confused.

Came here to point this out. Your wife finds your stash of LustCoin and you are in Big trouble. Versus finding your stash of Bitcoins: some pointed questions.

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34 posts, and no one is worried, or biting, into the fact its implemented in a way that sex workers can be left empty handed? Although done there job. And at the opinion of the customer good or not. “What could possibly go wrong…”

Do I agree with a lot of other, technical, opinions, but above I see as worriesome too.

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I think in transactions such as these, it’s typically “money up front”. So the sex worker would scan the john’s key before getting down to business.

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Given the unsavory history of exploiting the interesting advantages of paying people in scrip; I’m not sure that the people behind this plan would see that as a disadvantage…

Buyers are going to want some relatively consistent and stable entity to purchase the pseudo-currency from, which is the perfect place to put a middleman who buys the currency back from the workers at a discount, sells it to customers at face value; and pockets the difference.

Both the buyers and the sellers will have their money temporarily stored as sin-scrip; but since very few prospective customers will be looking to cash out after converting(if you aren’t interested, you just wouldn’t buy in); being in possession of this ‘lust’ and attempting to exchange it for cash basically screams “I’m a prostitute!”; which will likely keep ‘legitimate’ financial institutions and payment processors from touching it; so they’ll be more likely to have to put up with the house’s lousy exchange rates.

As a strategy for attempting to reap most of the benefits of pimping without bearing the risks; I find it hard to argue with; but that isn’t a compliment of it as a strategy in general.

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Hmmm… interesting. So, assuming the prostitution angle is just a cover (with major headline news when a few high-profile idiots are caught, thereby “proving” that it’s “just” a currency for sex trade), how will this currency really be used? Moving funds from one shell corporation to another? As an alternate to negative-yield government bonds? I mean… it’s just money. It may be earmarked for sex work, but that seems like the equivalent of putting money in an envelope marked, “to be used for buying candy only”.

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I think something needs to be said about the psychological effects of being a sex worker, releasing oxytocin with various less than suitable suiters and being left behind must create a less than balanced emotional state, this is a tough occupation (and now i remembered octo-mom becomimg a porn star in order to survive & feed her kids basically)

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Well yeah, it’s a cryptocurrency.

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I can already envision Visa’s Frequent Fucker points program.

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