This interview was originally published on December 29th, 2014, on The CoinFront. The original publisher is now defunct, and I am the original author.
It’s one of the top 100 largest websites on the planet, with more traffic than Craigslist, Netflix, Dropbox, and the Huffington Post. It’s been around since 2007, and is the third most popular website to embrace Bitcoin.
No, we’re not talking about Wikipedia, Tiger Direct, or even Microsoft.
I’m talking about xHamster.
xHamster is a porn website which describes itself as a “virtual pet that need thousands of megabytes with fresh porn to eat daily”. And although it might not be the most family-friendly business to embrace Bitcoin, they’re certainly one of the most interesting. Despite this, though, it’s received very little press in the Bitcoin world.
There is, however, a lot of demand for it. In fact, when The CoinFront originally reported on the site’s embrace of Bitcoin in July of 2014, we received an enormous amount of traffic from the keyword “xHamster”. So even if you aren’t talking about it, Bitcoin land, you’re interested in it.
A representative from xHamster sat down with The CoinFront to chat more about why they decided to accept Bitcoin, and what their future Bitcoin plans are.
First of all, what is your name and what do you do with xHamster?
My name is Capo and I’m xHamster’s project manager.
How did you get involved in the world of porn?
?Well it was pretty long ago now. I started to work in online marketing which included porn traffic about 10 years ago, long before any tube sites. Then I became a porn paysite owner, not long after I joined xHamster which was created by a friend of friend of mine.
How did the idea of accepting Bitcoin first come across xHamster’s radar?
The idea was suggested by one of our members. We just got a request like “Hey guys do you accept Bitcoin?” And we thought, no, but why not?
Though bigger names like Dell and Overstock have been talked about more, xHamster is bigger than both of these sites put together. In fact, it’s one of the biggest websites to accept Bitcoin ever. How do you think xHamster will impact the Bitcoin economy?
It would be really interesting to read a report on this question from some Bitcoin expert in a year or two. I hope we can help it to rise a little bit and avoid recession.
Rise a little bit, huh? How long did it take for xHamster to decide to accept Bitcoin?
It was a pretty fast decision. If people want to pay this way, why not give them that option?
Has Bitcoin been successful for xHamster so far?
Yes we can say that. Bitcoin profit is not as big compared to traditional billing methods yet, but it’s growing.
Did you resist the idea of Bitcoin at first? Did anyone else at xHamster?
We have a very open minded team, no one resisted. Bitcoin was pretty easy to setup, it’s very user friendly and has a good level of security.
And what’s very important for our members, it’s anonymous. Bitcoin helps to avoid those awkward moments for guys when the credit card statement arrives and the wife starts asking questions. Why do we as the recipient love Bitcoin? There are no chargebacks.
And speaking of which. you announced xHamster would accept Bitcoin the day after Hustler did. Was this a coincidence or purposefully done?
Wow, we didn’t even know this fact. Yes, it was a coincidence. We are not connected with Hustler, but great minds think alike!
Currently, users can use Bitcoin on xHamster to purchase tokens for tipping webcam models. How does that system work? Can the cam girls cash out in Bitcoin?
Now users can buy our internal currency named tokens and tip cam models with them for various adult actions and tasks. Tokens are converted to a cash value and payments for that are made to the models. At this time we do not make payments to models in Bitcoin, there hasn’t been any request for it.
Do you have any plans to expand your Bitcoin-related…ahem, services?
Sure. We have already expanded actually. Now our users can also pay for Premium membership with Bitcoins. And I’m sure that more services for Bitcoin will be added soon.
What was the biggest challenge in accepting Bitcoin at xHamster?
The biggest challenge was that Bitcoin transactions take up to several hours to confirm, while members want to get what they paid for immediately.
You’ve been working with BitPay so far to process your Bitcoin transactions. How has the relationship with them been?
Well, BitPay is okay, but they definitely need to improve their support team.