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Playboy Files Fraud Suit Against Global Blockchain Technologies

October 22, 2018

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Partnership with Vice Industry Token appears in jeopardy.

The dream of earning cyrptocurrency by watching pornography has hit a road bump.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Playboy Enterprises filed a lawsuit against Canadian cryptocurrency firm Global Blockchain Technologies (GBT) last August, alleging breach of contract and fraud.

The suit claims GBT failed to integrate blockchain technology, specifically third-party cryptocurrency Vice Industry Token (VIT), into Playboy’s sites and owes the adult media giant $4 million for using its brand in marketing materials.

In response. Global Blockchain Technologies has called the lawsuit a “normal dispute” and dismissed the fraud allegation as “frivolous.”

A serious falling out

As we previously reported, at first the agreement announced last March looked like a match made in heaven.

Here we had the famous Playboy empire planning to ingrate VIT into its payment platforms. Viewers would not only benefit from the privacy and security afforded by cryptocurrency transactions, but they could also but earn additional tokens by viewing or commenting on adult content.

Vice Industry Token hits back

Vice Industry Token, meanwhile, has said it is also getting involved, seeking restitution for the loss of millions of dollars worth of tokens.

Talking to by AVN (Adult Video News), VIT CEO Stuart Duncan, expressed disappointment in Playboy:

We gave them millions and millions and millions of tokens, [and] they’ve never reached out to us once to try and get anything tokenized with their website.

Duncan added that VIT has been caught in the middle of the disagreement and was considering his options, including legal action.

I will be doing something, I just don’t know what it is I’ll be doing yet. If those two companies can’t resolve their problems and fix things with me, Playboy’s going to have a big problem.

While the lawsuit was filed earlier this year, there haven’t been any updates released to the public since VIT also did not respond to our request for comment or to confirm which other adult sites it is still working with.

We’ll follow this story to keep you informed as more information surfaces.

M. Christian

M.Christian (they/them) loves nothing better than exploring the intersections of sex and technology—and speculating on the future of both. A highly regarded erotica writer they have six novels,12 collections, 100+ short stories, and 25 anthologies as an editor to their name. Their non-fiction regularly appears in many sites, but they're most proud of being a regular contributor to Future of Sex.

Of their erotic fiction, Tristan Taormino said that “M.Christian is a literary stylist of the highest caliber: smart, funny, frightening, sexy—there's nothing [they] can't write about… and brilliantly.”

Reflecting their unique ability to sympathetically and convincingly write for a range of genders and sexual orientations, their stories have appeared in multiple editions of Best American Erotica, Best Gay Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, The Mammoth Books of Erotica, and others. Their collection of gay erotic fiction, Dirty Words, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award.

While a majority of their stories have been collected into books like Dirty Words, their fondness for combining sex and science fiction is clearly evident in collections that include Rude Mechanicals, Technorotica, Better Than The Real Thing, Skin Effect Effect, Bachelor Machine, and Hard Drive: The Best Sci-Fi Erotica of M.Christian.

As a novelist, M.Christian’s versatility is on full display with Running Dry, The Very Bloody Marys, Brushes, Painted Doll; and the somewhat controversial queer BDSM/horror/thrillers Finger's Breadth, and Me2.

M.Christian has worked on the industry’s production side as an Associate Publisher for Renaissance E Books and as a Publisher for Digital Parchment Services. The latter dedicated to celebrating the works of science-fiction legends such as William Rotsler, Jerome Bixby, Jody Scott, Arthur Byron Cover, Ernest Hogan, and James Van Hise.

Covering topics like BDSM safety, sexual education, senior sexuality concerns, queer and gender issues, plus reviewing a variety of sex tech products, M.Christian’s non-fiction has appeared on sites like Kinkly, Tickle.Life, Sexpert, Queer Majority, Sex for Every Body, and—of course—their ongoing work for Future of Sex.

If there’s anything M.Christian enjoys more than writing, it’s teaching. A featured presenter, sometimes with their friend Ralph Greco Jr, at national sex and BDSM events, they have lectured on kink play (with an emphasis on safety), polyamory, boosting sexual creativity, and erotica writing--for beginners or those wanting to go pro.

M.Christian is a cohost on two popular sex-education podcasts: Love’s Outer Limits with Dr. Amy Marsh and Licking Non-Vanilla with Ralph Greco, Jr.