#payment processor crypto | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

severedfromthesource · 2 months ago

Text

Androids and Electric Sheep

Ren is experiencing an unusual bug. Features F resus, M rescuer, CPR, stething, mouth to mouth, internal defibs, sex leading to cardiac arrest, sex acts both with consent and a person who cannot consent. I got too invested in the preamble so I highlighted the moment resus actually starts if you want to skip it.

No matter how advanced technology gets, it’ll only ever be used to fulfill man’s most base desires. Case in point- RN-34678. Or Ren, when the barcodes make my eyes glaze over and I get sick of calling them the number slurry X Tech names absolutely everything. Ren is as sophisticated as they come. Actual artificial intelligence. She makes the predictive text and ‘can’t even draw fingers’ image generating 21st century jokes people passed off as AI look like even more of a waste of time than they had been in those days. They might as well have been Speak n Spells. The collective power of every single basement dwelling crypto whizz kid with miles of wires and burnt up processors and bricked up video cards dedicated to their etherium farms pale in comparison to the computing power it takes to run Ren’s brain for an hour. She understands nearly 6,000 languages. She learns and retains information, consuming nearly 160 TB of memory every 8 hours. The bio-organic lace that makes up the net of her brain is a miracle, with the possibility of infinite memory. She is perfect in every sense of the word.

She is a glorified fuck toy.

The second the first android became commercially available, one of the first markets they hit was sex work. If nothing about late stage capitalism drove you crazy, that would have. Fuck curing cancer, or making androids for the dangerous, back breaking work people wreck their bodies to do, X Tech decided people needed a sex doll with a 100k price tag. The world’s most expensive cum sock. And yeah, alright, maybe I’m just bitter, partially because there’s no way in hell I could ever afford one, even as an android technician. But what a waste. She sits on my examination table, dutifully unzipping her black leather catsuit. Her managers always manage to stick her in something stupid looking, so overblown and sexualized they stop even being sexy at a certain point.

She looks up at me with lilac eyes. Last time they’d been blue. I like this shade better, I think, though I could do without the electric blue bob they have her wearing today. ”Your crash reports say you’ve been throwing error codes whenever a stream donation comes in over 2k,” I say. Which, for a bot like Ren, is quite a lot of her donations. “It’s probably just a bug in payment processing.” I look again over her diagnostics, floating on the screen at my desk. “Any complaints I wouldn’t find in the debug menu?”

”My heart has been feeling strange,” she says. I pause and look at her over the top of my glasses. “Well, firstly, it’s not your heart. An aether pump does not a heart make. Secondly, it shouldn’t feel like anything. You’re supposed to ignore the inner workings, it’s all background programs, runs without you thinking about it.” She shrugs. Her shoulders are pale as she rolls down the catsuit and pulls her arms from the sleeves, bunching up the tight leather around her midriff. Her breasts are small and round, standing upright as pretty as a Botticelli painting. I’d noticed the small bumps on either side of her nipples (Christ, did the things ever go soft? Or were they just always cutting glass?) but didn’t register until I saw them now that her managers had pierced them sometime since our last checkup. Little silver bars were stuck through the pink nubs, with winking silver balls on either end. Alright, cool, chill.

I clear my throat and pull up my rolling stool. “Well, let’s just take a look then.” I shift once I’m seated to alleviate the pressure of my stiffening cock. Listen, I’m not a technophile, honest to God. I go out of my way to filter out androids when I’m scrolling through porn sites because, despite the leaps and bounds we’ve made in technology, the uncanny valley is still a thing. It feels weird getting off to bots. But then there’s Ren. And fuck me if she isn’t the most attractive thing I’ve ever seen. I put a hand on the back of her neck, my thumb resting at the diagnostic mode button hidden just under the edge of her jaw. I feel the soft bump that sinks in when I press. Her lilac eyes flash black with snatches of white text, then roll back to lilac. Damn, she smells like a new car.

I glance back at the monitor, and as I suspected, nothing comes up about the aether pump. It seems in perfect working order. Still, I dig around my box of scrap wires and spare tubing until I find my mostly neglected stethoscope. I don’t often have to use it, but I feel a trill of excitement go up from my stomach to think I get to use it on Ren. I plug up my ears and put a hand on her shoulder, taking the bell of the steth in my other hand. Her breasts rise and fall with the rhythm of her breathing, set to mimic human intervals. The real purpose is to cool down her insides and keep her from overheating, but just like the aether pump and its auditory cues, its designed to mimic humans as closely as possible. After a guy fucks something like Ren, he gets the added benefit of being able to lay next to her and listen to her breathing. Feel her heart beat. Doesn’t matter what the purpose of the design is for, it matters so he doesn’t feel like he’s fucking a 100k fleshlight with arms and legs. I press the steth to a spot above her breast and it sinks into her pillowy soft skin like it was real. Cool it, Christ, you can’t get so hot and bothered over everything. Heel, boy.

But my thumb makes a slight imprint against her tit, and it’s hard to think of anything else. Same thing happens when I press the steth against a space under her breast, and it lays warmly against the back of my hand. The pump, like the fake lungs, is designed to look and act and even sound like a heart, pumping coolant through her body. I tell her it’s not a heart out of some petty, pedantic need to distance myself and my unique humanity, but truth is, the thing is a heart. She could die if something went really wrong with it, and a lot of bots have. Sudden cardiac arrest was one of the main bugs in the 2.3 rollout. It got so bad, tons of models in the service industry had to be recalled, because mechanical line cooks and servers were dropping if the ovens got too hot. My hand still on her neck, I pull her forward and press the bell to her back. Her forehead brushes against my shoulder, her gaudy blue wig draping against the side of my neck and jaw. I tilt my head just enough my nose brushes her hair. Fuck, she really does smell good.

“Well, I don’t hear any irregularities,” I tell her, because I don’t. The thing is pumping liquid aether around her body at around 70 bpm, like it should. She draws up from my shoulder, glancing at me sideways. “It only seems to happen with clients,” she says, drying out my throat in an instant. “Clients?” “Mhm. Whenever one of them climaxes. If they do it inside me, my heart starts going very fast. I get foggy and I can’t think afterwards.” I swallow. “Right,” I say, “I mean… I can’t exactly test that, Ren.” She touches my wrist. “It’s rather frightening, Doc. I worry…” She pauses, and I try very hard not to say out loud what I’m thinking. You shouldn’t be frightened of anything, Ren. You’re not supposed to feel any of this. She sits back, bringing her hand up, her fingers curling against where her pump lies in her chest, half covering her nudity.

She doesn’t want to get recalled. I wince in spite of myself. If she has the same defect others in her rollout had, she’s going right back to X Tech. I push the steth around my neck, scooping back hair from my face. “It’s a pretty fatal system flaw. It… I could… Well, I-“ I can’t look at her. Fuck, I really can’t look at her. My face feels hot. This is the plot of like, 90% of bot R34 on the internet. I might as well be a pizza delivery guy and she a lonely housewife who’s a few bucks short on a large sausage. She ‘breathes’. Her chest goes up and down, the lights winking off her pierced nipples. She’s so goddamn gorgeous.

“Doc?” “Thinking,” I huff. I spare a glance around the other cubicles bordering mine. Big glass offices, designed for this exact stupid fucking thing I’m about to do. The first guy who got caught with his dick in a bot ruined it for everyone, so now my coworkers and I are subjected to rat lab cubicles where we can look in on each other at any given moment. People around us testing reflexes, repairing cosmetic damage, quashing bugs. What I was about to do was also technically debugging, but there was no way in hell my boss was gonna see it that way if he saw my flat ass pumping in and out of a bot worth more than I make in a year on the other side of plexiglass. Alright, cool, chill. I scoop up my backpack with my work laptop and sling it over my shoulder. “Bathroom,” I whisper.

Cut to Ren and I, locked in the women’s bathroom. We have three women in the office, and their cubes are on the other side of the building, closer to another bathroom. This one is usually empty. Cut to her, awkwardly standing in front of a toilet. Me, on the verge of being the Most Fired Man Who Ever Lived. For extra security, I’d stuffed us both into a stall, locking it behind me too. It's cramped, which adds to the feeling this is absolutely not what I'm supposed to be doing. But hey, it's my job, isn't it?

I awkwardly maneuver around her and sit on the toilet lid, hastily undoing my pants. God, this is shameful. And weirdly hot? I can't tell if it's just Ren or the dozen or so corporate regulations and general laws I'm breaking doing this, but I can feel the pulse in my cock, pressing up against the inseam of my jeans. Those lavender eyes flick from my face to the swollen, flushed skin, and the outer rim of her pupils flash with color. I help her roll down the leather catsuit and then, holy shit, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I’m inside her. She feels real. My hands on her back, my face buried in her tits, her thighs on mine, she feels realer than any woman I had ever known. My breath warms her artificial skin, and the barbell through her nipple is cold, the contrast making me shiver whenever the hot skin of my cheek touches the metal. My fingers slide up her stomach, her hips bucking and pumping me in and out of her. She’s tight. Really fuckin tight. I can feel her aether pump, the artificial heart, throbbing in her inner walls, harder than any real heart I’d ever felt. It adds to every stroke, a thumping sensation that’s nearly making me come after a couple thrusts. Christ, I might as well be sticking my dick right against the chambers of her fake heart.

The job. Right, I’m doing a job. Fuck, I’ve never loved my job so much. “Lemme- ngh, God, fuck- lemme see i-ins-side your ch-est, R-Ren.” She’s straddling my lap, panting like a porn star, her bob swinging back and forth, and she nods. The synthetic skin goes translucent, a dull blue glow that starts at her collarbone and down to the bottom of her ribcage. I spare only a brief chuckle, Man, we never could get rid of those stupid gamer lights, before I try to focus my attention on her inner workings. The aether heart is basically a simplified human one, drawing hot fluid in one side and squeezing out coolant through the other in an eternal ebb and flow. And right now, it’s going insane. The valves are snapping open and closed rapidly, the thing shuddering instead of really beating. There’s a little display window pinned under her collarbone, and it’s clocking her at 150 bpm, the green spikes of her heartbeat saw toothing across the round display port. Not totally dangerous, but as I pump inside of her and she bounces on my thighs to match my quickening pace, it keeps climbing.

Alright. As much as I want to be stuck in here forever, with a beautiful woman bouncing on my dick in a way I’ve only ever dreamed of, I have to figure out what’s wrong. I wrap my arms around her body, pulling her flush against my chest. “Hold onto me, ‘kay?” I breathe against her ear. Her arms slid around me, nails brushing briefly against my shoulder blades. I take in her scent. Focus on the sensations of her body, the sharp cold of her piercings, breasts pressed against my chest, her warm, throbbing cunt. It doesn’t take long. I start to lose the rhythm as my breath shortens, my strokes shortening too, until finally I can take it no more. I come, hot seed filling her up, bathing my cock, spilling out from between our sexes. Her back arches, a cry ripping from her throat of the most exquisite ecstasy.

Then she dies.

No, seriously, the bot quits all at once. I’m there, still trying to enjoy the feeling of my load making her even tighter and full, when she goes completely limp. Her arms slide down from my back, and the artificial pulse I feel in her cunt just stops all at once. She’s dead weight on top of me. “Fuck,” I spit, trying to readjust her, but she’s goddamn heavy. “Ren? Hey, Ren- man, what the fuck-”

I look up at her sternum to see the aether pump has stopped. The little internal monitor is reading a flatline. I fumble to unlatch the bathroom door, my other hand cradling her back, as I awkwardly shift to try and swing it open. Both of us end up in a heap on the floor when I try to pick her up. I'm apologizing to her slack and lifeless face as I disentangle myself and hastily zip up, then lay her flat on her back. Her perfect round breasts sit in the open air, her still heart glowing between them. I set my laptop beside her and hook up a USB into the command port hidden behind her ear.

There was no tip off in her crash reports, but looking now, I can see the absolute mess of code in the last few lines she ran before arresting. I clean up some of the irregularities, get rid of the redundancies, and hit reboot. Two small circular nodes glow within her chest, then snap against the chambers of her heart. Basically built in defib units. Her body jerks, hand twitching in against her cheek, her back arching slightly. Her naked shoulder blades slap against the tile floor as she falls back, limp again. But she doesn't move. Her pump is still. I glance at the monitor and see FATAL SYSTEM ERROR flash across the screen. Fuck, am I going to have to do this manually?

Growling in frustration, I throw my hands against her sternum. It's easy to get the right position when I can see her heart lying beneath a few layers of synthetic skin. Squaring my shoulders, I push down hard. Unlike with real CPR on a real person, depth doesn't matter, nor the risk of breaking ribs. She's basically Wolverine. A hydraulic crusher couldn't break her ribs. They yield though, and bow in against her spine as I rhythmically pump her heart. The force ripples through her whole body. Her stomach pops up, her shoulders shrug in, her head rolls back and forth. I look from her face down to her tits. I can't help it, they're swaying with each compression, the light catching her piercings. I can feel the cool metal rest against my fingers. The position my hands are in leaves my fingertip pressing against her nipple, still standing upright from our exercise. A shiver runs through me. Am I seriously getting hard again? It's hard not to. My eyes drink in her still body, the remnants of our session dribbling down her thigh, her breasts bouncing like they had when she was riding me.

I can almost see the corner of the screen light up with “Kink Unlocked: Reviving Dead Girls”. I glance at the monitor and see the reboot option has lit up again. When I take my hands away from her chest, I see her aether pump jerking as if trying to start again. Once more I charge the internal defibrillators. While they hum to life, I partake in a ritual that isn't strictly necessary. The hero always gets to indulge in mouth to mouth with the downed heroine. She doesn't actually need air, but her lips are slack, full and inviting. I press mine over hers, breathing air she doesn't need into her mouth. I can feel her cheeks puff, and I'm surprised but excited to see her chest rises too. I give her a few quick bursts of oxygen. Her chest jerks up and I only allow it to fall part way before I give her another, making her chest rise and fall in short hyperventilations. My hand finds itself running up her stomach to feel the motion of my breaths, up over her breast again. It fills my palm as I breathe a long, slow draft into her throat, and I roll her nipple between my fingers. She sighs out recycled air against my face when I break the seal of our lips.

Man, how do EMTs not cum when they resuscitate hot girls? The whole tableau is so erotic, I can feel my pulse once more jerk in my cock. The defibs once more slap the chambers of her artificial heart and she thrashes under the current. Her breasts sway and she again falls limp to the tiles.

“Come on, Ren,” I say under my breath, watching her aether pump swelling at uneven intervals. The chambers aren't beating right still, snapping open and closed out of sync with one another. I again check her code on my laptop, using one hand to tap through my options. The other I lay against her sternum. It occurs to me I really don't know what the fuck I'm doing. Whatever feels like it helps, I guess. Or whatever feels good. I grind my heel in against her heart in slow, rhythmic compressions with one hand. “Come on, work with me here. Breathe for me. Do something, at least let me know you're not completely bricked.” The idea that she might be makes me swallow hard. I like Ren. I don't want to ship her off to the junkyard as much as she doesn't want to be shipped.

When her heart goes still again I lace my fingers together and start pumping her chest anew. I forget my laptop entirely- this isn't a software issue, it's the hardware in her chest acting up. If I can just get the damn thing to reset. Swinging my leg over her supple thighs, I straddle her so I can use my whole body. Like this, I can feel the motion my work creates in her otherwise still body. Each powerful thrust against her pump rolls the kinetic force through her whole body. Her feet swing back and forth. The force rolls from her chest, down her stomach, even rippling her thighs. Each compression makes her stomach roll out, only now I can feel it between my legs.

Fuck it, I'm already fired. These life saving efforts have got me hard all over again, something I would have thought impossible. I unzip and thrust into her almost in one motion. It's next to impossible to actually pump into her while I'm working her heart, so I mostly settle for letting her body rock into me while I do CPR. Only when the prompt for the defibrillator pops up again do I allow myself to roll my hips into her while it charges. The thing whines quietly as I brace my hand against her chest, driving my cock deep inside her. It slaps her heart again and she arches her back, filling my hand against her sternum. Her inner walls clench with the electricity and I groan as I roll in and out of her. That's when she draws in a breath and moans all at once. Her eyes flutter open and she instinctively begins to grind her hips in rhythm with me. Before long I'm filling her up all over again and I collapse on top of her. She's back. The thought strikes me as I look down and see her aether pump snapping out a normal, if elevated rhythm. I roll off onto the welcome chill of the tile floors, my arm still slung around her.

“You okay?” I pant, my eyes half lidded as I look at her. Ren nods, smiling weakly in return. Then she’s wrapping her arms around me, burying her face in my shoulder. I hesitate, the shame of what I had done to her when she was basically dead starting to creep up now that the high is waning. But eventually I slide my arms around her in return, drawing her close to my body. “Thank you, doc,” she whispers.

“Don't mention it.” Seriously, don't mention any of this.

#tbh i might not finish bite back. ive had a hard time motivating myself to complete the final part #resus community #resus #cpr #chest compressions #female resus #resus writing #internal defibrillators #mouth to mouth #defibrillation #stething

103 notes · View notes

olderthannetfic · 7 months ago

Note

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/766688842914938880/wait-soif-the-only-things-making-companies-censor?source=share

So I've been keeping half an eye on the NSFW AI chatbot and image generation scene (because it's funny watching how fast they flare up and burn out), and the app store and payment processor thing is really evident here

Horny AI image generators can't go in app stores. Full stop. It generates pornography, there's no really getting around the artistic merit stuff, and anything that generates believable photographic styles can actually spit out literally illegal images (digital content which is indistinguishable from a real life photograph recording of a living child) if it's good enough. Users only have minimal control over if what they generate will comply with the ToS; if you ask a bot to give you an image of a "cute boy" it might give you a heartthrob pop star, a generic smiling toddler, or a shota with a huge dick. If the shota is against the ToS, you are now breaking a rule that you have no control over.

And becaues it's AI, it can't actually be filtered. The robot doesn't know what it's looking at, it can't generate an image and then make a judgement call about how that image applies with the ToS because it doesn't know what a ToS is and all it knows is that the image it generated from the "cute boy" prompt is the kind of image that is associated with the caption "cute boy".

App stores and the big payment processors don't want to deal with that mess, so these platforms will have apps that can be downloaded from their website or from discord, and weird sketchy ways to pay, like crypto or some small payment processor that you've never heard of and that sounds like a phishing scam.

Horny image gen platforms tend to be very short lived, and either rebrand as SFW platforms or completely shutter after only a few months. It's funny, but the tragedy is that this happens because of poorly moderated NSFW images, not because the images it generates suck.

****

Text does a little better, since it's copyright laws, not "we can't let people pass off recordings of child abuse as digitally generated art" laws that AI text tends to violate, and "horny is bad" as a social more is applied more strongly to visual material than to plaintext.

The bigger text platforms, like Google's Bard, have filters in place that will refuse to show NSFW text, and they're more or less accurate. The smaller platforms, which most of the "talk with your anime waifu" chat platforms are, have stupid insane garbage filters on what text users can enter, but not on what the chatbot generates. So you can prompt "describe her sexy vagina" and get "I'm sorry, I want to keep people safe so I can't talk about that", but if you type "describe her petals" you get a graphic description of a vagina from a bot that obviously has a mountain of het erotica in its database.

There are some text-only NSFW chatbot platforms that seem to be chugging along just fine with paypal, but they have strict rules about what images can be uploaded as avatars. Some will allow users to make sexually explicit loli bots, but won't allow any images of young characters, sexual or otherwise, anywhere on the site. Many text-only platforms don't seem to be in app stores, though. Paypal is fine with them but Apple isn't.

It's a weird, weird, little microcosm of the internet, and an interesting insight into what's going on with payment processors and app stores in re the pressures placed on websites.

****

The takeaway from all this (aside from the fact AI is amusingly ridiculous) is that text-only sites like AO3 and or Literotica are probably just fine, while sites that host images, like Tumblr, are under more scrutiny.

43 notes · View notes

mariacallous · 1 month ago

Text

If you drive outside the city of Campton, population less than 400, the low industrial noise of crypto mining rises from the trees. Step closer, and the source comes into view: squat metal buildings that look like shipping containers arrayed in a semicircle, thrumming with fans and processors. There’s chain-link fencing, security cameras, and two guards sitting in pickup trucks just beyond the wire.

There are steel shipping containers like this all over these hills, right where the old coal mines once stood. And inside, specialized computers race to solve complex math problems—competing to verify bitcoin transactions and earn slivers of digital currency as a reward.

For a brief moment, in 2021, it felt like the region had found its next boom—and it had Bitcoin written all over it. At its peak, Kentucky accounted for some 20 percent of the collective computing power dedicated to proof-of-work cryptocurrency mining in the US.

But booms, here, have a history. And so do busts. Local officials say it is hard to pin down the exact number of crypto mines still active in eastern Kentucky because state regulations are light and there’s a general lack of transparency in the industry. But what is clear, locals say, is that the boom has begun to recede.

“ They'd constructed on someone else's land, or they would be paying a host company to provide the physical plant,” alleges Anna Whites, a lawyer who represented a roster of crypto mining clients. “So they'd pay the down payment or they would convince the landowner to pay the down payment, and then they would mine the first three months and then they'd go into the next billing set cycle, go almost to the end of it and then disappear.”

In early 2022, when Mohawk Energy initiated a crypto mining project in Jenkins, Kentucky, local officials said this time it would be different. Cofounded by Kentucky senator Brandon Smith, Mohawk purchased a sprawling 41,000-square-foot building and the 8 acres around it. It leased most of it to a Chinese crypto mining company, and the rest of the building included classrooms and hands-on training centers that were supposed to teach locals how to repair iPads, maintain Bitcoin rigs, and build skills for a digital economy. It was a big deal for Jenkins. A local PBS station ran a story about the launch. The images showed tool kits, workers, and smiling officials.

“The plan with Mohawk was to employ retired coal miners and disabled veterans who were back in eastern Kentucky and couldn’t find work, and train them,” said Whites, who counts Mohawk as one of her clients. Among other things, the project promised near-six-figure salaries and a vow to put some of the mining proceeds into the training program, to help grow it. And for a time, it worked.

Whites said that for a brief moment—about 18 months—things looked promising. Twenty-eight families saw real gains: One person from each family landed a permanent job, and about 30 more relatives found work nearby. But when we asked where things stood now, she paused. “I believe most of them are unemployed again.”

The unraveling came quickly. The Chinese partner sued for breach of contract. Mohawk counter-sued. And the shared crypto profits never materialized. Now, as some Kentucky residents have soured on bitcoin mining, they’ve started to speak about AI data centers in the same way they used to talk about coal seams and hash rates: with a kind of cautious hope. AI, they say, could bring jobs, fiber optics, and permanence.

Colby Kirk runs a nonprofit called One East Kentucky, focused on bringing economic development to the region. He remembers the moment the conversation shifted, back in April when he was in Paducah for the Kentucky Association for Economic Development’s spring conference.

“They had some site selection consultants that were on the panel, and they were talking about data centers,” he recalls. “And they talked about this I-81 corridor up through Pennsylvania where there’s all kinds of these big data centers. And they talked about whether our communities could prepare for some of these kinds of investments? And the consultant was like, here’s kind of what it takes.”

What it takes, it turns out, is no small feat: flat land, lots of power, fiber connectivity, and a workforce that can wire and weld. As fate would have it, the number of welders in the area, according to regional economic development organization One East Kentucky, is about twice the national average, which stands to reason, because wherever there’s metal and stress—and there’s a lot of both in coal mines—welders are the people who keep it all from falling apart.

The old infrastructure is still there too; substations, hardened ground, cooling systems, and power-hungry hardware just waiting to be switched back on. “Maybe a data center or something is a part of the puzzle,” Kirk said.

So, at the conference, when the panel ended and the floor opened to questions, Kirk says he asked the one he couldn’t stop thinking about.

“You know, 50, 60 years ago it would take a room bigger than my office to power a computer, and now I've got a computer I carry around in my pocket that's more advanced than what we sent astronauts to the moon with,” he recalls asking. “Are these data centers going to keep taking up million-square-feet buildings with 30- and 40-foot ceilings, or are we gonna be left with an abundance of warehouse or industrial-scale buildings that we won't be able to keep up?”

The consultant, he claims, didn’t have a good answer. “And that’s the thing,” Kirk says. “We don’t know what the future’s going to hold when it comes to this stuff.”

That kind of ambiguity doesn’t sit well with Nina McCoy. She’s a former high school biology teacher from Inez, a coal town made famous in 1964 when President Lyndon Johnson used it to generate support for his War on Poverty.

“This is going to sound awful,” she says, “but if they're putting it here, then that means it's bad. We've lived here long enough to see that that is how it works. You put those things that you don't want in your neighborhood in a place like this.”

Her skepticism is rooted in lived experience: In October 2000, a massive coal slurry spill from a mine site upstream poisoned the Coldwater Fork stream, which runs behind her house. People in Inez couldn’t drink water from the tap for months.

“Those of us living downstream didn't hear about it for a while, but the school system had to close down for about a week until they got an alternate water source,” she says.

To this day, many in Inez still don’t trust the tap water.

So when McCoy hears the hype about AI, she hears something else: another promise that comes with a cost. “We’ve allowed these people to be called job creators,” she said. “And I don’t care if it’s AI or crypto or whatever, we bow down to them and let them tell us what they are going to do to our community because they are job creators. They’re not job creators, they’re profit makers.”

And the profit leaves a footprint.

AI data centers demand staggering amounts of energy—a ChatGPT search uses up to 10 times more energy than a regular Google one—and they run hot. To keep them cool, these facilities consume billions of gallons of water every year. Most of that evaporates, but residents are wary because they have had problems with facilities and their runoff in the past, so they worry these new facilities could affect fish and disrupt the land. The very things the residents of Kentucky hope to preserve.

Still, some locals see potential, even progress.

“AI is in everything that we do,” said Wes Hamilton, a local entrepreneur who did his fair share of crypto mining in Kentucky in its heyday. “Siri, ChatGPT, robotics—everything you can imagine has to have AI,” he said. “Bitcoin is a one-trick pony. You create it. The only person that gets paid is the owner of the machines.”

Hamilton claims there is a path forward where data centers bring in investors, engineers, maybe even companies willing to stay. All the AI people in the world would be steaming into Kentucky, Hamilton says. And while he admits to losing a fortune in crypto ventures in the past, he claims this is different.

When Bitcoin first arrived, lawmakers offered generous tax breaks to lure miners. Companies investing more than $1 million were exempted from paying sales taxes on hardware and electricity. And then, in March 2025, Kentucky governor Andy Beshear took all that and went a step further by signing a “Bitcoin Rights” bill into law.

The legislation, cast as a defense of personal financial freedom, is designed to enshrine the right to use digital assets in Kentucky. An earlier draft went further, aiming to bar local governments from using zoning laws to restrict crypto mining operations—a provision that drew resistance from environmental groups. That language was eventually tempered, but the intent remains: to signal that, in Kentucky, digital extraction can keep humming.

Which is why we found ourselves outside this facility in Campton, staring at this semicircle of metal buildings nestled in the trees. The mines run all night and all day, even Sundays. And the question some are asking now, with bitcoin hovering around $100,000 and big miners talking about pivoting to AI, is whether bitcoin mining gets a second wind in Kentucky.

Mohawk’s bitcoin mining may even make a comeback. Anna Whites said the parties are supposed to go into arbitration May 12th. “I’m hopeful,” she told us. “I’m very hopeful that they sit down and say, ‘Mighty nice plant you have there. Let’s just go ahead and turn it on.’”

5 notes · View notes

finverseinsights · 4 months ago

Text

Why Crypto Payments are the Key to Future-Proofing Your Business.

Introduction

In recent years, cryptocurrencies have really been on the radar big time. Big time in ways they're a digital currency that harnesses blockchain technology, which has the potential to completely shake up a lot of different kinds of businesses and transactions. The emergence of cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin, has encouraged businesses to think about embracing crypto payments as a way to remain competitive and future-proof their businesses Crypto as an Investment: Volatility and Opportunities

Cryptocurrencies are now a sought-after investment asset, they are extremely volatile. Big swings in crypto prices like Bitcoin and Ethereum have really given investors a chance to do well big time. But of course, that volatility means investors are also risking very big losses, losses like market crashing and real money going up in smoke at the financial winds. In spite of this, most cryptocurrency proponents consider digital currencies a good avenue for diversifying investment portfolios, cognizant of the fact that cryptocurrencies are not stable, long-term assets but speculative investments. For companies, this is a two-edged sword—accepting cryptocurrencies as payment may unlock new revenue streams but companies have to carefully weigh their risk appetite when considering their participation in the world of cryptocurrencies.

Benefits of Acceptance of Crypto Payments

Beyond the risks, moving to accepting different types of cryptocurrency is a win for companies especially those in financial tech. These benefits include:

Lower Transaction Fees: Conventional payment processors and financial intermediaries usually impose high transaction fees. Cryptocurrencies usually have lower transaction fees.

Speedier Transactions: Transactions involving cryptocurrencies are much quicker than traditional banking systems, particularly cross-border payments, where old financial systems take days to clear transactions.

New Customer Bases Access: By embracing cryptocurrency, companies can access a worldwide market of crypto investors and enthusiasts. This gives companies new access to customers who are perhaps excited about making transactions digitally or through decentralized routes.

Improved Security and Fraud Protection: Cryptocurrencies employ encryption and blockchain technology to protect transactions, making it much less likely for fraud or chargebacks to occur.

Challenges and Considerations

Sure, while there are great benefits to adopting cryptocurrency payments for companies, there are also many things to consider and pay attention to. The biggest concern is the built-in price volatility of digital currency, which may lead to unforeseen profits or losses for companies holding crypto assets. To avoid that risk, companies need contingency plans to handle crypto assets and convert them into stable currencies if need be.

Furthermore, the regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies is also developing. Governments across the planet are trying to devise rules and ways to collect taxes on digital money, but some corporations are unsure of their future, because they see rules as unclear and even unstable. Companies should make sure they adapt to local regulations, such as anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) regulations, in order to avoid a potential legal battle.

The Future of Cryptocurrency in Business

The increasing use of cryptocurrencies indicates that companies adopting crypto payments now may have a head start in the future. Companies that jump the gun and start taking cryptocurrency payments have a great chance to stand out and lead in their industries. With the rise of blockchain technology, brand new inventions like tokenization, smart contracts has the potential to really change the way all sorts of companies do business, trade and deal with supply chains.

As companies take bigger and bolder steps towards both digitization and decentralized systems, digital currency really offers a nifty shortcut for making transactions slicker, and snappier and also opens new doors to new markets.

Conclusion

In summary, although cryptocurrency payments come with some risks, the potential advantages make them an attractive choice for companies looking to future-proof their business. By embracing crypto payments, companies can lower transaction costs, enhance transaction speed, gain access to new customer bases, and enhance security. Of course, there are still issues like volatility and uncertainty about the rules that get in the way, but for companies that really get involved in companies that use crypto transactions wisely, there can be long-term huge benefits. As the economy keeps changing, embracing cryptocurrency today could make someone a pioneer in the future generation of financial technology.

#CryptoPayments #FutureOfFinance #BlockchainInnovation #DigitalCurrency #FinTechRevolution

7 notes · View notes

boringkate · 6 months ago

Note

embarrassing question: i went to buy something from "manyvids.com" and when i went to chekcout it took me to "rocketgate.com" for me to pay, i, maybe stupidly, put in my card info but then it said "transaction declined" i defo have the money. i know you use manyvids, is that the right payment processor? i dont really care that it got denied ive just only ever bought porn through onlyfans and im suddenly a little worried that i am gonna get stolen from because i accidentally clicked the wrong link or something. sorry for asking you this boringkate but i dont know where else to turn.

That's their main payment processor. ManyVids is a popular site and if people were getting credit card frauded (is frauded a word?) just by using it then it would be well known by now and nobody would use it anymore.

You might have entered your card number wrong. Or it might be incompatible in some way (which is probably more likely if you're not in the united states). Credit cards can just be weird sometimes. My card has inexplicably ONLY worked with transferwise (the service I use to pay for unregulated girl pills lol) for the past like year.

If you can't get it working (and still want the scene) then ManyVids alternately accepts crypto.

All of my ManyVids scenes are also on APClips.

Most of my ManyVids scenes are available for purchase on OnlyFans too, but things over there aren't downloadable (just streamable) and sometimes OnlyFans takes down videos that it feels have violated the rules, so it wouldn't be my first choice.

Some of my purchasable ManyVids scenes are also just included with the $10 subscription over on OnlyFans and Fansly, but it varies from scene to scene.

11 notes · View notes

fastkyc · 2 months ago

Text

Buy KYC Verified Exchange & Banking Accounts with Fast KYC Verify – Your Gateway to Seamless Crypto Trading

Buy Verified KYC GATE.IO Account GATE.IO is renowned for its gigantic lineup of altcoins as well as trading features unique to it. However, with the verification of KYC, you waste valuable time, particularly during periods of high volume. When you buy a KYC verified GATE.IO account from us, you skip the queue and get futures and spot trading, staking, and more instantly. We employ valid credentials for account verification and provide full login access.

Best for: Scalpers, day traders, crypto startups.

Purchase KYC Verified Kraken Account Kraken is trusted by millions because it is secure and compliant with regulations. Instead of waiting days for KYC verification, you can purchase a KYC verified Kraken account today and start trading right away. Get margin trading, futures, fiat deposits, and more without the stress of onboarding delays.

Best for: Institutional traders, crypto funds, serious investors.

Buy KYC Verified BUNQ Account BUNQ is a modern digital bank with seamless integration for crypto-friendly services. If you’re looking to manage crypto-to-fiat operations or receive payments internationally, you’ll love our KYC verified BUNQ accounts. Fast setup, secure usage, and full control.

Perfect for: Freelancers, crypto entrepreneurs, digital nomads.

Buy KYC Verified Whitebit Accounts Whitebit is a rising star of the exchange world, offering instant trading, great UX, and broad altcoin coverage. When you buy KYC verified Whitebit accounts from Fast KYC Verify, you're ready to roll and can trade and withdraw straight away—no waiting, no document upload.

Best suited for: Newcomers to crypto, global traders, arbitrage masters.

Buy KYC Verified RedotPay Account RedotPay is the smart solution for virtual cards, crypto payments, and cross-border payments. We offer fully verified RedotPay accounts for those who want convenience and privacy in one package. Buy a KYC verified RedotPay account today and unlock the real potential of fintech.

Best suited for: Payment processors, e-commerce users, privacy users.

Why Traders & Businesses Trust Fast KYC Verify Private & Confidential – Your activity and data are never disclosed.

Instant Delivery – Get your verified account within minutes.

100% Verified & Working – Manually tested and verified on every account.

Global Access – Wherever you are in the world, we have you covered.

24/7 Support – Available around the clock to assist you.

How to Order Your Verified Account Take a look at our services and select the platform you need (e.g., Kraken, GATE.IO, Whitebit, etc.).

Contact our support team for price and stock.

Have your verified account securely delivered.

Start trading, withdrawing, or managing funds immediately.

Conclusion

Time equals money in crypto. Avoid having your financial future, trading, and payments delayed by slow KYC processing. With Fast KYC Verify, you can buy KYC verified accounts and have your trading, payments, and financial future owned—faster, wiser, and more secure.

#Whitebit #htx #astro #paypal

2 notes · View notes

unpluggedfinancial · 5 months ago

Text

From Seashells to Satoshis: The Evolution of Money

Picture an ancient marketplace, where the currency jingling in your pouch might not be coins at all, but seashells. For centuries, cowrie shells were prized for their shiny appeal and rarity, transforming them into one of humanity’s earliest forms of money. Over time, these shells gave way to metals—iron, copper, silver, and gold—that gleamed with an unmistakable allure. Soon enough, our ancestors decided that lugging heavy gold and silver everywhere was a bit too cumbersome, so they started stamping metals into more convenient coins. This was the moment rulers realized something fundamental: whoever controls the mint, controls the economy. It wasn’t long before some couldn’t resist the temptation to mix cheaper metals in, keeping the gold for themselves. Those sneaky tactics brought about a new kind of challenge—trust.

Civilizations continued to experiment with what they could use as a medium of exchange, but ultimately, the golden standard took hold in many parts of the world. Gold’s scarcity, durability, and shiny mystique made it perfect for coins. That system thrived, yet society yearned for the next innovative step: paper currency. People quickly discovered that thin, foldable, and easy-to-carry notes were far superior to a pocketful of metal, and so governments printed paper money backed by vaults of precious metal. With the rise of fiat currency, the day came when the promise that these notes could be traded for gold or silver fizzled out entirely. Suddenly, many currencies were worth something simply because a central authority claimed so, and people believed it—or at least went along with the collective delusion. This arrangement flourished as economies globalized, but it also planted the seeds of modern financial headaches, like inflation and incessant money printing.

Still, the convenience of paper money was unmatched—until credit cards and online banking arrived. With a simple swipe or a tap on an app, individuals could pay for things in a purely digital sense. Transactions happened at lightspeed, all orchestrated by a network of banks and payment processors. Yet that centralization, which at first looked efficient, also created single points of failure. If banks had technical issues or simply felt your transaction was “suspicious,” access to your funds could vanish faster than you could say “insufficient funds.”

Enter Bitcoin, launched by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto. The idea behind Bitcoin was to create a system that didn’t require permission or trust in any single authority. Think of it as the next stage in the evolution of money—just like going from shells to gold, gold to paper, and paper to digital banking, the concept of decentralized digital coins felt like a natural leap. Here, the currency isn’t printed arbitrarily by a central bank; it’s “mined” through solving cryptographic puzzles. More importantly, every transaction is recorded on a public ledger called the blockchain, ensuring transparency, security, and an unwavering limit on the total supply.

Some critics argue that cryptocurrencies are too volatile or still too complex for mainstream adoption. Others worry about the energy consumed in mining. Yet, even those skeptics acknowledge that Bitcoin and other digital assets have ignited a global conversation. The very fact that governments and big financial institutions are grappling with how to regulate or incorporate crypto is proof that we’ve reached a tipping point. Humanity has always been restless when it comes to improving its systems, especially the system of money.

From shells in the marketplace to cryptographic tokens on the internet, the thread connecting us across history is innovation. We are constantly reimagining how to store and exchange value. The real question is not whether money will evolve once more—it’s how quickly this new chapter will redefine our personal freedoms, our economic structures, and the ways we trust one another. Will we cling to old traditions until they crumble, or embrace a future where blockchains, decentralized finance, and digital currencies reshape how we think about worth itself?

In the grand tapestry of civilization, money isn’t just coins and notes; it’s a story we tell ourselves about trust, power, and possibility. As we move ever closer to a world shaped by digital networks, the ancient shells on a faraway beach remind us that the idea of value is never fixed—it’s created, adapted, and refined. And now, in the age of Bitcoin, we’re just beginning to write the next chapter.

Take Action Towards Financial Independence

If this article has sparked your interest in the transformative potential of Bitcoin, there’s so much more to explore! Dive deeper into the world of financial independence and revolutionize your understanding of money by following my blog and subscribing to my YouTube channel.

🌐 Blog: Unplugged Financial Blog Stay updated with insightful articles, detailed analyses, and practical advice on navigating the evolving financial landscape. Learn about the history of money, the flaws in our current financial systems, and how Bitcoin can offer a path to a more secure and independent financial future.

📺 YouTube Channel: Unplugged Financial Subscribe to our YouTube channel for engaging video content that breaks down complex financial topics into easy-to-understand segments. From in-depth discussions on monetary policies to the latest trends in cryptocurrency, our videos will equip you with the knowledge you need to make informed financial decisions.

👍 Like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell to stay updated with our latest content. Whether you’re a seasoned investor, a curious newcomer, or someone concerned about the future of your financial health, our community is here to support you on your journey to financial independence.

📚 Get the Book: The Day The Earth Stood Still 2.0 For those who want to take an even deeper dive, my book offers a transformative look at the financial revolution we’re living through. The Day The Earth Stood Still 2.0 explores the philosophy, history, and future of money, all while challenging the status quo and inspiring action toward true financial independence.

Support the Cause

If you enjoyed what you read and believe in the mission of spreading awareness about Bitcoin, I would greatly appreciate your support. Every little bit helps keep the content going and allows me to continue educating others about the future of finance.

Donate Bitcoin:

bc1qpn98s4gtlvy686jne0sr8ccvfaxz646kk2tl8lu38zz4dvyyvflqgddylk

3 notes · View notes

sokowachi · 6 months ago

Text

Understanding Web3 and the Role of STON.fi: A Simple Guide for Beginners

The internet is evolving, and so is the way we interact with it. If you’ve been hearing terms like “Web3,” “blockchain,” or “decentralized exchanges” and wondered what they mean or why they matter, this guide is for you. Let’s break it down together in a simple, relatable way that connects directly to your everyday experiences and financial goals.

What Is Web3, and Why Should You Care

To understand Web3, think of the internet as it exists today, often called Web2. It’s like renting an apartment—you get to use it, but you don’t own it. Platforms like Facebook, Google, and Amazon hold the keys to your data and control how you interact online.

Web3 flips this model. It’s a decentralized internet where you’re not just a tenant—you’re the owner. Imagine owning a home instead of renting one. You control what happens with your space, your rules, and your data. That’s what Web3 offers: an internet owned and operated by its users.

The Foundation: Blockchain Technology

At the heart of Web3 is blockchain technology. If this sounds intimidating, let’s simplify it. Think of blockchain as a digital notebook where every transaction or interaction is written down in permanent ink. It’s transparent—everyone can see it—and secure because no one can erase or alter it.

For example, let’s say you lend money to a friend. In the current system, you might rely on a bank or a written IOU to confirm the transaction. With blockchain, that agreement is recorded on a digital ledger for everyone to see, ensuring neither party can change the terms later.

The Open Network (TON) Blockchain: Built for the Future

Not all blockchains are the same. Some are slow, costly, or difficult to scale. That’s where The Open Network (TON) stands out. Imagine it as a highway built for high-speed traffic, ensuring you get to your destination quickly without delays.

TON is optimized for fast, low-cost transactions, making it perfect for real-world applications like payments, contracts, and even crypto trading. This efficiency is why platforms like STON.fi chose TON as their foundation.

Meet STON.fi: A Gateway to Decentralized Finance

If you’ve traded cryptocurrency before, you might be familiar with centralized exchanges like Binance or Coinbase. These platforms act as middlemen, holding your funds and charging fees for their services. It’s convenient but comes at the cost of control—you don’t fully own your assets.

STON.fi changes the game. It’s a decentralized exchange (DEX) built on the TON blockchain, meaning you maintain full control of your funds. Transactions happen directly between users, secured by the blockchain. It’s like trading directly with someone at a farmers’ market, without needing a cashier or payment processor.

But STON.fi isn’t just for trading. It also offers opportunities to earn passive income. By providing liquidity—essentially lending your assets to the platform—you can earn a share of the transaction fees. Think of it as renting out a spare room in your home and collecting rent every month.

Why Should You Care About Decentralized Finance

Decentralized finance (DeFi) might sound technical, but its goal is simple: give people more control over their money. In today’s world, banks and financial institutions act as gatekeepers. They decide who gets loans, how much interest you earn, and even how quickly you can access your funds.

DeFi eliminates these middlemen. It’s like having a direct line to your money, 24/7, without needing anyone’s permission. Whether you’re investing, saving, or earning, DeFi puts you in the driver’s seat.

STON.fi takes this concept and makes it accessible. With features like token swaps, liquidity pools, and user-friendly interfaces, it’s designed for both beginners and experienced users.

Getting Started: A Beginner-Friendly Approach

If all of this sounds overwhelming, don’t worry. Like learning any new skill, the best way to understand Web3 and DeFi is to start small and explore. Open an account on STON.fi, try a simple transaction, or read about how liquidity pools work.

Think of it like learning to drive. At first, it’s intimidating—so many buttons, rules, and potential mistakes. But once you start practicing, it becomes second nature. Web3 is no different. With a little patience and curiosity, you’ll soon see how it fits into your life.

The Bigger Picture: Why Web3 Matters

Web3 isn’t just about technology; it’s about empowerment. It’s about creating a world where individuals have more control over their data, finances, and online interactions.

Imagine a future where you can send money to a friend in another country instantly and without fees. Or where artists and creators can sell their work directly to fans without losing a cut to intermediaries. That’s the promise of Web3—it’s a more inclusive, fair, and efficient way of doing things.

Final Thoughts: Taking the First Step

The transition to Web3 is already happening, and platforms like STON.fi are leading the charge. Whether you’re a seasoned crypto enthusiast or just curious about what’s next, there’s never been a better time to explore.

Remember, you don’t have to understand every technical detail to get started. Take small steps, ask questions, and stay open to learning. The future of the internet is being built right now, and you have the chance to be part of it.

Web3 isn’t just a trend—it’s a revolution. And like any revolution, the earlier you get involved, the more opportunities you’ll have to shape it. So, what are you waiting for? The future is yours to explore.

3 notes · View notes