YNOT – Hollywood, Calif.-based content producer Blue Blood has adopted the Bitcoin digital currency system. The counterculture erotica website is believed to be the first to accept Bitcoin payments for membership subscriptions.

Bitcoin, introduced in January 2009, is gaining popularity as an international, field-leveling funds-exchange system. The technology uses an open-source, peer-to-peer internet protocol to transfer cyber-tokens known as bitcoins, which have their own ecosystem that is not tied to any other currency. The technology employs no central bank or clearinghouse, instead relying on a network of servers called “bitcoin miners” that track, log, and publicly display transactions, usually within 10 minutes. Bitcoins are maintained in digital wallets and exchanged through a process similar to email, except that each transaction can bear a unique address accessible only by the transaction’s participants (as long as the participants employ reasonable security). Because the ecosystem is self-contained, there are no exchange rates to decipher and no transaction fees.

Surprisingly, the Bitcoin system has been dubbed secure and reliable by even hardnosed naysayers like Reuters financial blogger Felix Salmon.

“The source code for bitcoin is free and public, which means that just about every hacker and cryptographer in the world has had a crack at it,” Salmon recently wrote. “And they’ve all come to the same conclusion: It really works.”

In adult applications, Bitcoin also may provide a modicum of anonymity, as it does in the Blue Blood network, according to founder Amelia G.

“Using the Bitcoin system is optional and completely anonymous,” she said. “Members are never required to provide their personal information. All they need is an email address to receive a password confirmation.

“I am really excited about BlueBlood.com accepting [Bitcoin] for memberships,” Amelia G added. “I’m fascinated by the apolitical technological genesis of Bitcoin and, from the cantina scene in Star Wars to the brand-name future of Neuromancer, I’m inspired by the possible and excited by innovation.”

At present, one bitcoin buys a full yearly membership to BlueBlood.com and associated sites under the SpookyCash affiliate program’s umbrella. Their investment provides members with erotic fiction, real-life counterculture solo-girls and couples, and photosets of vampires, science-fiction sex, cosplay and other fetishes.