Global Blockchain Technologies (BLOC), the Canadian blockchain investment company, said Thursday it is working with the late founder’s Playboy Enterprises to develop a digital wallet that will allow users to receive cryptocurrency for watching content on the Playboy.tv portal. The wallet will allow for the use of the “Vice Industry Token” (VIT) on the Playboy.tv portal. The BLOC wallet is set to allow integration of VIT into the Playboy.tv platform by the end of this year.
In March, Playboy announced its interest in developing a cryptocurrency wallet, becoming the latest media company to embrace blockchain technology as a way to streamline operations and bolster the bottom line.
For instance, Comcast has been exploring the technology’s use to make it easier for media companies to exchange data related to advertising. Separately, the company’s venture arm is investing in blockchain projects. Last year, online music provider Spotify acquired the blockchain startup Mediachain to improve its distribution and compensation processes.
Playboy’s circulation may have waned over the past three decades but the Beverly Hills, Calif., company is still a high-profile brand and still drawing eyeballs.
How It Works
As users watch, comment on, like and vote on the Playboy.tv site’s content they will be rewarded with VIT. They will also be able to buy VIT from an exchange. The new BLOC wallet will allow users to store and then spend their VIT on premium content, subscriptions and as-yet unspecified “additional uses” on the website.
Playboy hopes it has found another way to shake things up in the adult content world.
The white paper for VIT explains that the token is based on the open-source code for the Steem blockchain. That system “generates and distributes Steem tokens as users consume internet content, simultaneously recording proof of such interactions on an immutable ledger.”
VIT has been modified to “meet the specific needs of the adult content industry,” according to the white paper. While it serves “as a medium of exchange,” it is also “a means of capturing viewer engagement data in a single token.” This will allow content providers to better tailor their offerings to user desires.
Shidan Gouran, president and CEO of BLOC, told ThirtyK that integration of VIT into Playboy.tv with the BLOC wallet will benefit Playboy by enriching user engagement and driving more traffic to the site. What’s more, he added, “it will give Playboy the opportunity to only accept tokens for certain forms of exclusive content that cannot be purchased with other currencies.” This will give VIT “a value that can go on the balance sheet.”
