Bitcoin and other internet currencies are used throughout the world.  It is a great way to make investments and is like stock investments but without the need of putting your hope in companies.  It can be loaned out to others and builds up quickly.
Websites such as Backpage use Bitcoin payments for services such as escorts and dating, since it is easier to hide behind and not track to an individual.  This does cause a lot of question about its integrity to many who hear about such internet currencies.
Bitcoin just announced that they have research teams throughout the country working on finding those in the illegal trade of sex trafficking by analyzing advertisements online that use their coin.  The idea is that when people who are traffickers or “johns” put up ads on sites like Backpage or are clicking on the ads regularly and then use Bitcoin to purchase sex; the law enforcement can now find out who they are and seek justice for the vulnerable who are targeted and harmed by these people.
Rebecca Portnoff, who is a part of the analyst team said, “The technology we’ve built finds connections between ads. Is the pimp behind that post for Backpage also behind this post in Craigslist? Is he the same man who keeps receiving Bitcoin for trafficked girls? Questions like these are answerable only through more sophisticated technological tools – exactly what we’ve built in this work – that link ads together using payment mechanisms and the language in the ads themselves.  Where previously you might have five different phone numbers that you had no idea were connected, when you can see that they all came from the same wallets, that the same person paid for them, that’s a concrete sign that these five phone numbers are all related to each other.”
This is really great to learn that Bitcoin does not approve of illegal activities done through their services and are working hard to put an end to human trafficking.  This is also good news as we continue in the fight against Backpage.