Now, the story of one adult website’s Bitcoin journey seems to provide a neat yet exhilarating summary of its trials and tribulations over the past year.
Meet mygirlfund.com, a web-based service allowing male members to videochat with female members in a strictly Internet-only relationship – and then pay them.
The Wall Street Journal reports that since starting to accept Bitcoin in April 2013, the business has braved all the highs and lows of what has been a nerve-shattering 12 months for the Bitcoin community. CEO Stefan Patrick told the publication:
“Sometimes guys are worried about what appears on their credit cards; they are worried about what kinds of questions might be asked of them by girlfriends, wives or other family members. So bitcoin made sense as a good fit for us.”
All seemed to be well, with initial usage growing to reach “mid single-digit figures.” But there was a problem – a common yet deadly one all too familiar to the Bitcoin scene of 2013: Mt. Gox. Like many early adopters, mygirlfund was using Mark Karpeles’ defunct exchange as a sole processing merchant for Bitcoin revenue.
A strong digital bond
Following Mt Gox’s infamous collapse, Patrick was as helpless as any other customer. “We lost a significant amount of money,” he recalls.
However, in the aftermath of the disaster, as we have witnessed, Bitcoin usage and price have rallied, prompting renewed interest inmygirlfund’s previously controversial payment option. As security and practices both improved, Patrick was able to trust Bitcoin enough to accept payment to a private wallet.
Now, he is set to use GoCoin to process Bitcoin payments directly into US dollars, beginning this week.
The move highlights the renewed faith which seems to have truly convinced the community of Bitcoin’s potential for stability. Since Gox, the second generation of exchange and payment merchants, headed perhaps by Coinbase and Bitpay, have succeeded in proving their credentials as reliable business tools.
While the Bitcoin network as a whole requires considerable security reinforcements to prevent hacking altogether, its identity transformation over the last year from shadowy niche community to viable alternative has been nothing short of incredible.