https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spintria Prior Art. Been done already
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This “improves” on cash only in that it can be redirected to a third party without interception by the, um, “employee”.
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There are always psychological costs to believing what one’s hormones tell oneself to feel. This article underlines why I strive to keep love, sex, and reproduction as separate as possible. It takes a lot of discipline, but saves a lot of confusion. Many things which have simple biological/instinctive reasons are sublimated and rationalized in some very weird ways within civilized/artificial cultures.
I suspect that societal stigma and pressures about sexuality, as well as the usual problems of exploitation generally, have more pronounced effects upon sex workers. But these more subtle hormonal aspects bear consideration also.
I agree with @Khordas that approaching sex as a scarcity-based economy is especially bogus. Yet on a societal level I think a lot of people believe in this. Everybody IS sex, so the notion that you need to find it elsewhere is crazy. Whatever one is looking for, then, is not actually sex. Variety perhaps? I see it as being an economy more of expertise, exactly like massage. Any people can agree to a massage, but not everybody is going to be great at it. I think that there is no categorical difference between massaging somebody’s shoulder blades or massaging somebody’s genitals.
Whereas I am supportive of both sex work and cryptocurrencies generally, from what little I know of this Lust project, it sounds to me as if it fails on both fronts.
Yeah, i should have stated but that’s what i meant by sex work is a tough occupation, for starters your own body is already telling you something you know in the long run is simply not true, and then on top of being shamed for what could be your only line of work option (hence octo-mom)
As for discipline, escorts surely have that, I’ve had a friend tell me that they read an article that interviews escorts, and the escorts say that even though they are the ones performing the service for the client that they feel empowered & as the ones in control, something that can’t be said for regular prostitutes
As for crypto currency, if too many are made, they can collectively loose their value as a result, some people already use food stanps as a currency, small towns also run their own fait currency
I was thinking more along the lines of legal repercussions. If you commit a crime using a currency named after the crime, and you have to exchange that currency for bankable money at some point in or order to buy or spend it on anything else, then you might as well email the cops that you’re breaking the law. Part of me wonders if this is a really clever scheme to trap idiots, but another part of me knows cops aren’t that clever. It puts me in mind of the story here earlier this summer about the guy who blabbed to the cops about his backyard opium farm when the cops knocked on his door about something else.
“discreet”
I can only speak for bitcoin, but you most certainly can use it for buying things directly. I bought a new keyboard using just bitcoin from a major online retailer. If you look around, you will find plenty of places that accept it, including restaurants and power companies to pay your bills. I bought just a small amount from a friend just to understand how it worked. He sent it to me from his cell phone while sitting next to me in my livingroom. So, easy to pass among friends too.
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You mean the concept of cryptocurrencies in general is sound (for some value of “sound”) - not this one in particular, as it has some unique and rather fatal flaws.
Oh gods, that’s what it is, isn’t it? They’re trying to “disrupt” pimping.
More like labeling it “to be used for buying drugs only” - that being the case, anyone selling candy (for example) wouldn’t accept it.
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Yeah, but we’re kinda saying the same thing, just different consequences.
I wondered idly if such a scheme has been used before, or if it’s truly more novelty or game. Interestingly:
And then some talk on a coin collector’s forum to the contrary:
Everything old is new again…
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Trick-Coin?
I apologize…
On second thoughts, perhaps such a blockchain technology could be useful in tracking/preventing the spread of STDs…
Important to remember that anything has the potential to be a store of wealth (aka capital.)
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“All money is a matter of belief.” ~ Adam Smith
This whole idea reminds me of another repugnant (albeit for different reasons) kind of scrip, casino tokens.
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For a long time currencies was based on silver or gold. Maybe this currency could take over as a currency convertible into sex. Probably not in real life, but it sounds like something that could be used in an sf novel.
I wonder if they are making the assumption that prostitution will be legalized in the US by 2019. Or that they don’t care. Or that their method will be a way to make legality more conceivable from the John’s perspective. 
…if the author were the sort of socially-catastrophic fuckwit who thinks that sexual consent is a fungible commodity.
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approaching sex with others as a scarcity based economy - fixed that for you
There’s always the strong possibility that folks running this will just close up shop after they get enough funds into their green stamps shop. Anonymity isn’t always a plus.
I don’t think Bernel ever said it wasn’t a dystopia.
A friend wants to know where he can sign up. He’s going to claim it’s for hookers, because that will get you less jail time than what he really wants, which is to study the crypto.
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