Not Another Adult Cryptocurrency..
To be honest this post took a long time to write because I felt it was redundant. Another damn Medium post about a cryptocurrency you have never heard of. But if you are like me and enjoy video games, their development post-mortems and startup stories — including how and why they fail — then read on.
In 2012 I started an adult humor blog called JoyToilet. The goal, first and foremost, was to have fun with it. I didn’t care about monetization, followers (on what??) or traffic (from where??). The vibe was inspired by Adult Swim and shitposts on Newgrounds.
It was basically my portfolio for lifestyle blogging. Since I had already been in the freelance circuit up until that point and even during. This was at a time when everyone I knew was in college and political correctness was still bubbling up to what it is today.
Cryptocurrencies had been well on the radar by then. Some friends began talking about maybe doing something about it all would be a good idea.
I also should have got in while it was 80 bucks or whatever BUT, surprise-surprise, you could barely even do that back then. Which is why everyone thought it sucked (and has only gotten a little bit better since) to be honest.
I did the research and decided that it all still sucked. I brought on my least tech-savvy friend as a trust partner. Then proceeded to forget about cryptocurrencies. Falling into what we felt were more interesting niches at the time.
We decided to get into adult video games because why not. But also because I had been working behind-the-scenes with some friends in the biz by then. So my understanding of the scene was becoming a real interest in it. I did the research and built out an idea that was getting tossed around. What if there was a porn tycoon game? It would be called Triple X Tycoon.
Then proceeded to sign up a bunch of adult cryptocurrencies to take part in developing a blockchain game engine. We wanted to turn fictional performers into NFT-like assets (before Solidity existed) and process a bunch of payments using our brand new tech to fund the game, woo!
By 2014 we realized there was no fucking way to raise any money for an adult business and that the payment processing thing was actually kind of profitable. Which made us have to lean in even harder.
We kept bootstrapping and subsequently had some working relationship with almost every adult crypto venture from 2014 to 2017.
We eventually took over Titcoin because it shared the same color scheme as that in-development strategy game of ours. Which actually went too well. It would ultimately be featured in everything from Playboy and Men’s Health to John Oliver.
It ultimately outshined everything else we did from then on to be honest! We barely had a grip on the tech 😥 because remember, this was a standalone blockchain which needed a lot of platform work in good ol’ C. Then a key partner, who had joined around 2015 left to pursue other ventures. I learned a lot during this phase because I had to.
At that point we had never owned any of our partners’ coins and at best held just shy of 1M Titcoin several months after vesting. Most of these went to creditors and toward continued development. Nobody got rich, that wasn’t the point.
So what the hell happened? Well, the game entered development hell and we spun off Titcoin for acquisition to stay afloat. To be clear these were the brand rights. By then our role was more custodial than functional where ties remained. The last of which was severed in 2018.
Then we continued developing Triple X Tycoon for release on Steam, without the maintenance associated with an aging chain being a factor. This was all to speed up development and cut costs. Most of our crypto development partners had folded by now and the industry had moved on.
We had to don our publishing hat and enter agreements that were more beneficial to resellers and other third parties in order to fund anything and not completely tank.
Not releasing the project soon after this point would have been a disaster.
So the game, which was set to launch on early access on a date I can’t even remember at this point, did not. And was a failure when it did due to censorship, burnout-based decisions and other factors.
It was a recurring dark cloud of brokeness and corporate inertia.
So what now? Well JoyToilet is not dead and is a founding member of The Lood Company. A decentralized autonomous organization I co-founded to experiment with adult blockchain gaming in VR and 4K. As well as be a think tank for ways to improve the adult industry using web3 technology.
What I didn’t mention was that not only do we make adult games but we are now also made up of adult talent ourselves. With our own personal brands and those brands have labels and those labels own labels. You get it.
We do not believe that the future of adult is in OF-clones and NFTs. The industry had always done just fine without either. Lood is here to understand and promote a healthier market of viewers, tube sites and talent services without the bullshit. While making the porn biz more fun in the process.
We think the future is in experimentation. With talent and studios creating adaptive business models around the ever-changing needs of the market. Which is probably one of the most diverse there is. And that’s everything.
Thanks for reading!
🌐 Website: https://lood.cash
📬 Telegram: https://t.me/loodcrypto
🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/loodcash
