While it’s not necessarily an enterprise application of blockchain, MintStars.com perfectly exemplifies the degree to which blockchain is not only the basis for disrupting existing businesses (even relatively new ones that are wildly successful), it also demonstrates how the financial rails of cryptocurrency can be thoroughly disruptive to traditional financial rails (sometimes called “TradFi”) as well as the governments who are in a position to control industries and business by virtue of their oversight of those TradFi rails.

One such industry, controversial as it may be, is the sex work industry that has given a significant rise to the OnlyFans platform; a content subscription marketplace for creators predominantly known for its role in facilitating independently produced sex worker-created content. According to MintStars co-founder and COO Jessica Van Meir who is also a Ph.D. student at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government (studying sex workers’ rights), OnlyFans did a great job of unencumbering sex workers from an exploitative industry culture and structure. Said Van Meir of the platform, “[OnlyFans] has done a tremendous thing in the industry, which is [to] create independence for creators to be able to make money directly from their fans rather than having to work with a studio or other middlemen.”

However, as much as OnlyFans has thoroughly disrupted what, to many is called “the porn industry” but what Van Meir calls “sex-positive work,” MintStars was founded on the principle that blockchain can take the creator independence pioneered by OnlyFans to an entirely different level. According to Van Meir, the opportunity is grounded in OnlyFans’ reliance on traditional finance rails for payments and the fees that creators must pay to OnlyFans which she says can be exorbitant at times. And so, MintStars.com — the tagline of which is “Take control of your content and earnings” —was born.

One problem with OnlyFans’ TradFi approach, says Van Meir, is that the credit card companies get to make the rules. If OnlyFans wants to be able to process credit card payments, the credit card companies have a say in what creator content can and cannot be published and even what language creators use in their content. But once those traditional rails are bypassed using blockchains and cryptocurrencies (MintStars relies on USDC), MintStars can bypass the fees of a platform like OnlyFans and disintermediates the credit cards from any governing role (which in turn is influenced by governments and lobbyists).

Given MintStars's multi-faceted approach to disrupting OnlyFans, one question for enterprises is, "Where do similar opportunities for blockchain-driven disruption and financial efficiencies exist in their markets and industries?"

To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:

https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/using-blockchain-mintstars-hopes-give-sex-workers-a-better-deal-onlyfans/

The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMw_oIPGnNU