Topic: [2017-08-30] Researchers Use the BTC Blockchain to Trace Sex Trafficking Victims (Read 2816 times)

What a lot of the media outlets do now is only their job if they're operating in niche markets - focusing on scandal, shock news and the like. But the actual "job" of the media is to provide news. Of course, they can only report what they are told, they can only verify as to what they are able to see, and they can only be as objective to the extend their research, interest or policy allows. Good journalism that follows rules of impartiality can actually make bigger piles of profit, since readers are a lot more intelligent that we take them to be. There's very little reason for mainstream media to focus on the "bad side" of Bitcoin when events like this can actually have very high news impact.

The media say only what they are allowed to tell the government. Therefore, they prefer to hide the dignity of the crypto currency. But instead they often talk about the illegality of the crypto currency and its danger.

This is great for clearing wrong belief about Bitcoin as being anonymous and a tool to keep illegal activity transaction secret.  This will definitely push illegal people away from bitcoin blockchain, instead will choose other more anonymous service such as monero, dash and other anonymous coin. 


Well, media picks the worst scenario and even exaggerating it to make a lot of controversy out of it.  So we cannot blame them since it is their job and they wanted to pile up huge profit from their work.

Yeah, they would just simply ignored the fact the bitcoin can also be on the other side of the fence, and it could really help authorities like in this case. They said that criminals is always one step ahead, but if they think that using bitcoin is the way to do it, then they are wrong. Bitcoin is not anonymous and a simple blockchain check could really identify and its really visible the movement of the funds are. But if criminals would use Monero instead, which for me is more anonymous, then somewhat 'bad image' of bitcoin will be less severe.

This isn't the first time that Bitcoin's founding characteristics have aided law enforcement in tracking down criminals. Hopefully, more criminals mistake Bitcoin's pseudo-anonymity for total anonymity. And hopefully more regulators finally see that Bitcoin's basic design actually makes it more difficult to use for criminal activities.

Sadly, these kinds of events likely won't be picked up by mainstream media who have been responsible with Bitcoin's presumed association with the wrong side of the law.

Hey, How great would this be... if Bitcoin could be used as a law enforcement tool to catch these criminals. We see all these

FUD fluff making Bitcoin out to be the "bad guy" .... but it would be a welcome change to see articles written to compliment

Bitcoin on being the "Good Guy".  ..... A lot of criminals still think Bitcoin is 100% anonymous. 

Bitcoin and ethereum continued to rally on Wednesday, pushing the total value of all cryptocurrencies higher even as the wider markets were mostly red. The bitcoin price punched through $4,500 to set a new all-time high, while the ethereum price looks poised to make a record-setting run of its own.

The bitcoin blockchain and artificial intelligence are being used to help parents of sex traffic victims locate their missing children.

Rebecca Portnoff at the University of California, Berkeley, and her colleagues have developed a tool to ferret out sex traffickers from legal advertisers using machine learning to spot common patterns in suspicious ads. The tool also uses public information from bitcoin, which is used to pay for the ads, to help determine who placed the ads, according to New Scientist.

Portnoff said sex traffickers use the internet to reach customers without having to reveal much information about themselves.

Carrie Pemberton Ford at the Cambridge Center for Applied Research and Human Trafficking said the tool will assist in investigations of sex traffickers and support prosecution in areas where funds move rapidly across financial instruments.

Sex Traffickers Use Backpage

About 4.5 million people have been forced into sexual exploitation. In the U.S., many are advertised on Backpage, the second largest classified advertising website. The typical sign that an advertisement involves trafficking is that the advertiser places numerous other ads on the site.

Normally, the tell-tale sign that an ad involves sex trafficking is that the person behind it is responsible for many other advertisements across the site.

AI Examines Writing Styles

Portnoff’s tool examines the way ads are written. Artificial intelligence highlights when similar styles are used.

Each bitcoin transaction gets logged on the blockchain, which does not store identities, but every bitcoin user has a wallet recorded next to their transaction. The AI tool searches the blockchain to identify the wallet corresponding to each advertisement.

Portnoff said it is easy to see when each ad was posted. She looks at the ad’s cost and time stamp, then ties it to a specific individual or group, giving the police a good candidate for investigation.
The tool narrows the number of ads that the police need to read for their investigations.

Tool Proves Effective

The researchers tested the tool on 10,000 advertisements in a four-week period, correctly identifying close to 90 percent of ads with the same author. The test yielded a “false positive” rate of only 1 percent. One bitcoin wallet was responsible for $150,000 worth of sex advertisements.

Backpage did not respond to New Scientist’s requests for comment at the time of this report. Portnoff’s team is working with various police departments and non-government organizations.

One trafficker who drugged and beat a 13-year-old girl was caught and sentenced to five years in prison.

Read more: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/researchers-use-blockchain-and-artificial-intelligence-to-trace-sex-traffickers/