Blockchain Startup That Wants to Revolutionize Adult Industry Lands $1.1M Investment

Jenna Owsianik
2 Min Read

Intimate cryptocurrency designed to facilitate payments and boost trust.

More often than not, sex tech startups are shunned when it comes to raising funds from investors. But not today, my friends. Not today!

According to VentureBeat, blockchain startup Intimate has received $1.1 million from digital currency fund Alphabit. The money will be put toward the ongoing Intimate token presale, which is only available to accredited investors located in areas where such purchases are legal. This does not include the United States. So far Intimate has raised $5.1 million through the presale.

The Intimate token has been designed as a secure, private, and simple way to buy adult content or sexual services online. Much like venture capitalists in most cases, payment processors and banks regularly refuse to work with companies related to the adult or sex tech industries.

Consumers who otherwise might be willing to pay for pornography also choose not to because they don’t want to give up their full names and credit card numbers. Cryptocurrencies like Intimate, which aim to reduce fees, protect privacy, and offer a built-in reputation scoring system into its blockchain, may be exactly what the sector needs to overcome discrimination.

On the Tantra Punk Podcast, Intimate co-founder Leah Callon-Butler gave an excellent overview of the problems facing the sex industry and how cryptocurrency could solve them. It’s seriously exciting stuff and I highly recommend listening to her episode. Both Callon-Butler and the interviewer are highly informed on the subject, yet discuss it in an easy-to-digest and entertaining way. You can listen to this particular episode here.

Image sources: Intimate

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Jenna Owsianik is a Canadian journalist and sex tech expert. From 2014 to 2022 she was Editor-in-Chief of FutureofSex.net, the world’s leading publication on how technology is changing human sexuality, today and tomorrow. Her expertise covers state-of-the-art sex technologies and the major fields driving innovations in intimacy: robotics, virtual reality, remote sex (teledildonics), immersive adult entertainment, human augmentation, virtual sex, and sexual health. A trained journalist with a Masters of Journalism from The University of British Columbia, Jenna’s reporting has appeared on Futurism.com, Al Jazeera English, CTV British Columbia online, CBS Sunday Morning, CBS 60 Minutes, Global News, and CKNW Radio in Canada and the United States. As a sex tech industry consultant, she is especially passionate about helping companies deliver accessible services and products to people with disabilities and other underserved communities. Jenna also runs the sites SexforEveryBody.com, a sex-positive, body-positive online magazine that promotes inclusive sex education; and DisabledSexGuide.com, an adult resource on sex, disability, and erotica. In 2013, Jenna won two Canadian Online Publishing Awards for her work on The Pain Project, a multimedia site on global access to palliative care. She won second place at the 2011 Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism’s Public Health category for her participation in the documentary Freedom From Pain. Jenna has an Honors BA in Women’s Studies and Feminist Research as well as a French minor from The University of Western Ontario. She spent a year studying at L’Université Lumière Lyon 2 in Lyon, France.
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