A membership management script capable of taking bitcoin costing $1000 plush an adult designer which costs $3000 to $4000
Hardened members script. Or have fun paying your bandwidth bill the first time your ditsy htpassword file gets hacked. Good server admins can probably do this themselves. Popular porn sites come under near constant attack- good server admins can make excellent money doing pen-testing and hardening.
Some Adult sites- say an Amateur site, can be competitive with far less expensive design and code- because you can swap out tour images and text pitches to refine it. You already have a certain USP in having an exclusive model so don't need to rely on so heavily on design to differentiate your product.
If you plan to be competitive in a very crowded niche, with many similar looking services, you will need a high-end designer and CMS. Hiring this designer will be something you advertise that will cause affiliates to join your program. They may not know you, but they have promoted other sites by this designer so know how it will convert. So aside from the hard numbers, it is a marketing tool to attract affiliates.
Top designer guy:
http://www.wyldesites.comHe charges in the 5k+ range I was discussing and has a very long waiting list.
Standard paysite CMS:
https://www.adultinterface.com/pricingSo either all the top players in a multi-billion dollar industry are dumber than you, or perhaps you are making assumptions in an industry you have never successfully worked in. In much the same way that people make assumptions about Bitcoin without fully researching it. Opening a penny-ante hobby site, is different from earning a living off of it- or running a corporation behind it.
As you can see, there is good money to be made in adult coding- which is why I advised a code based project, over a much more competitive design and marketing based one. But you gentleman have it all figured out so can come up with something far better.
18 U.S.C. 2257, 28 CFR § 75.6 (a)
Bitcoin and 2257 violations are not a good combo. Even if you only have eight videos it's not a formality- they enforce. People who play it fast and loose with documentation, or use content of unknown origin tend to be quickly blacklisted by the industry. No one wants to to down with your ship.
Whether or not I am completely ignorant about Adult sites, and starting a successful, competitive one is as easy as some claim is an easy thing to verify. Give it a shot. Get back to us with your results.