The Agenda podcast chats crypto and sex work with WetSpace CEO Allie Rae

What do the cryptocurrency and porn industries have in common? As it turns out, both are frequent targets of the traditional financial system, which has been known to ban the accounts of both crypto traders and sex workers.

On this week’s episode of the newly launched podcast The Agenda, Cointelegraph senior copy editor Jonathan DeYoung and head of markets Ray Salmond speak to Allie Rae, an adult content creator and CEO of WetSpace — a crypto-focused alternative to OnlyFans.

Rae first exploded into the mainstream when she lost her job as an ICU nurse after her colleagues discovered her hobby and took issue with the nature of her content. The media got wind of her story, which went viral. “I kind of was morphed into this role of advocacy for the sex work industry,” she said.

According to Rae, the unrestricted movement of money is an unnecessarily complicated process for adult entertainers, as traditional finance often forces companies to crack down on adult performers:

“I started to figure out that the banks really were largely in part the driving force behind some of those decisions that platforms were having to make. And so that naturally led to me: How do you get rid of the banks? And crypto came out like a knight in shining armor.”

Rae also shared how even some centralized crypto exchanges are being forced by banks to shut down the accounts of adult performers, recalling the time she met Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong at VeeCon:

“I asked him point blank, ‘You’re crypto — why are you banning adult content transactions with Coinbase?’ And he said to me, ‘It’s not us.’ He‘s like, ‘It’s JPMorgan Chase. It‘s the banks.’”

Speaking from the experience of her own blacklisting from her previous job as a nurse, Rae explained that WetSpace aims to provide not only a safe, equitable environment for performers but also an anonymous, private experience for fans.

Rae said:

“You literally could connect your wallet — your Trust Wallet, your MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet — and nobody knows who you are. And nobody’s going to see anything on your credit card statements except maybe that you transferred some money to Coinbase or what have you. […] You could be the president of the United States on the platform, and nobody would know.”

To learn more about how Rae is using blockchain and cryptocurrency to revolutionize the adult entertainment industry, tune in to the full episode of The Agenda on Cointeleraph’s new podcasts page or on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or TuneIn.

The Agenda is a new podcast from Cointelegraph that explores the promises of crypto, blockchain and Web3, and how regular people level up and improve their lives with technology.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this podcast are the participants’ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.