Manuel Aráoz Explains the Benefits of Bitcoin and Streamium for Cam Girls

Streamium is one of the more innovative projects to come out of the Bitcoin space because it creates something new that was practically impossible to implement before Satoshi Nakamoto’s invention. The platform allows users to stream audio and video to anyone else in the world, and the viewer is able to pay for the content on a per second basis. Streamium Developers Manuel Aráoz and Esteban Ordano were recently interviewed on an episode of Epicenter Bitcoin, and it was during this discussion that Aráoz revealed — somewhat unsurprisingly — that cam girls account for roughly 50 percent of their entire user base.

Also Read: Why Online Educators and Consultants Love Streamium and Bitcoin

He claimed:

“It’s kind of funny, but we found like 50 percent of our users are, basically, porn. So, it’s cam girls doing shows online for their clients. The other big use cases are education and live gaming. So, it’s people doing online classes or showing their screens while they play video games, but the biggest one by far is porn.”

Later in the show, Co-Host Meher Roy pointed out the similarities between Bitcoin and Internet when it comes to porn being one of the first killer apps. During this particular segment of the show, Aráoz was also able to explain why it is that cam girls may be interested in using an application like Streamium in the first place.

The Wife Chargeback Problem

The first issue pointed out by Aráoz had to do with an issue they weren’t even aware of before creating Streamium. There is a huge problem with chargebacks in the online adult entertainment industry, but Aráoz explained that it is often not the actual purchaser of the pornographic material who initiates the chargeback process:

“It’s something we didn’t know about, but in live camera porn, there’s the problem of what they call the wife chargeback where they have a really high rate of chargeback, and it’s not based on the actual user but when the wife sees, ‘Oh, what is this?’ [The husband] says, ‘No. I don’t know. I didn’t use that. Okay, let’s do a chargeback.’ And that’s a big problem apparently.”

No Prepay for the Viewer

Another issue with any form of online streaming video payment in the past has been the fact that the viewer must prepay for content. This causes some viewers to completely avoid watching the content, while others may search for free or torrented versions of the video (if available). With Streamium’s pay-per-second model, a viewer can pay a few cents to see if they enjoy a particular video before paying for the entire stream. As Aráoz explained, “[Streamium] also allows the user to end the stream at any point in time, so you don’t have to prepay for something you want to watch.”

High Fees on Traditional Cam Sites

One last positive aspect of Streamium for cam girls, which was originally brought up by Epicenter Bitcoin Co-Host Sébastien Couture, is the fact that there is no middleman for payments between the performer and the viewer. Not only are credit card companies not taking their cut, but traditional cam site operators are also out of the picture. Aráoz described what the fees sometimes look like on those platforms during the interview:

“Apparently the fees those sites charge for the video producers is really high. I don’t remember the exact number, but I heard something like 40 or 50 percent.”

Of course, part of the reason cam sites take such a large percentage of performer earnings is due to marketing costs, so it’s important to keep in mind that there are other variables at play.

It will be interesting to see if Streamium can continue to expand as a platform for cam girls and other online freelancers, and it seems clear that there are already some advantages of the pay-per-second model for streamers in a few niche markets. For now, the developers are working on scaling the free service to handle more viewers per stream, which could open up the door to many other online content creators in the future.

Kyle Torpey is a freelance journalist who has been following Bitcoin since 2011. His work has been featured on VICE Motherboard, Business Insider, RT’s Keiser Report, and many other media outlets. You can follow @kyletorpey on Twitter.