A classifieds ad website known as Backpage has been seized by the federal government, for allegations of prostitution and child trafficking.
To me, backpage was a pimp. I see behind the scenes how backpage was taking advantage and capitalizing on the ignorance of the people, or the females posting their ad.
Backpage had found a way for females to post their ad with Visa and MasterCard removing their services from the site as to not partake in the alleged activities that occurred from the site. The alternative to this and what kept backpage afloat was to accept cryptocurrency as a form a payment. Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum and even Bitcoin Cash.
MAny do not know this, except for the females who posted the ad. The part that I found odd was that backpage did not create a wallet for account uses to store their crypto that they paid with. Instead, they provide a deposit address to pay for "ad credits". The crypto was exchanged for these credits and only for receiving. No withdrawals.
So, they were accepting $5 of cryptocurrency just to move an ad to the top or the first ad on a page in exchange for real cryptocurrency.
These females have no idea even now to this day that they acquired the future of money, digital assets that can be bought for cheap and sold for more. The irony was they were buying gift cards and exchanging them for less, to then only receive credits.
If given the education on what crypto-currency is, they could learn that the currency can be sold instead of their bodies.
Now that it is seized I hope that the females are open to learn more about the currecny they once aquired to sell themselves, since there isn't much options.