In world first, blockchain-enabled adult entertainment platform charges reservation fee to join token sale whitelist
Blockchain-enabled adult entertainment platform Vice Industry today announced that in an effort to combat the dominance of “whales” in ICOs, it is offering a paid whitelist reservation facility for its upcoming token sale.
In order to join Vice Industry’s Token Sale whitelist, participants pay a fractional amount of ETH, based on the total value of tokens they intend to purchase. The fee structure is set on a sliding scale: on the lower end, purchases of up to 1 ETH of tokens incur a fee of 0.001 ETH; on the higher end, buyers intending to spend 5-10 ETH on tokens will incur a fee of 0.01 ETH.
“Interest in the Vice Industry Token Sale has always been strong, but in recent weeks we’ve seen a spike in interest from whales,” commented CEO Stuart Duncan. “It very quickly became clear that unless we took action, whales would dominate our public Token Sale, and interested community members would miss out.”
The pioneering approach aims to ensure that Vice Industry’s significant community support base has the best possible chance to participate in the token sale. Payment of the small fee – a maximum of US$12.50 at current exchange rates – is designed to weed out participants who take places but are not committed to making a purchase. And to guard against manipulation of the reservation fee system, the value of tokens that can be purchased by a single whitelisted entity in the Token Sale is capped at 10 ETH.
“While a traditional token sale may have raised more cash, we feel strongly that it is more important to continue to strengthen our network, and facilitate the participation of our community members, who have already been so supportive,” said Duncan.
“The strength of the community around Vice Industry is a key factor in our future success, and we are delighted to be able to show them how much we value their commitment.”
Within 24 hours of announcing the reservation fee, the company has already received payments in excess of $20,000. At current exchange rates, this suggests that whitelist participants have indicated interest in purchasing Vice Industry Tokens up to the value of 16,000 ETH, or US$20M at current exchange rates.
“The strength of the initial response to the fee has been extremely positive,” commented Duncan. “We are excited to see such strong interest in Vice Industry Tokens, and eagerly anticipate the launch of the public token sale on 1 February.”
As public token sales continue to increase at a rapid pace, so too will scrutiny around the fairness of the model – particularly in a marketplace still heavily dominated by whales.
“We believe that the reservation fee model for token sale whitelisting helps to level the playing field for the vast majority of buyers,” said Duncan. “We hope that the industry will pay close attention to how it plays out for Vice Industries, and will consider adopting the model more widely in the future.”
About Vice Industry Token
Vice Industry Token is a blockchain-based content platform for the adult industry that allows producers to monetize their content while paying consumers for watching porn. It is a solution to the broken ad-based free viewing model that exists today, where traffic companies are paid by advertisers while content producers and viewers lose out.