MOSCOW (Sputnik) — According to the BBC broadcaster, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), an organization tracking abuse websites, has started passing data to Elliptic, a company monitoring Bitcoin transactions, while Elliptic is now passing data on such illicit transactions to exchanges and other bitcoin users to help them avoid doing business with "known bad actors."
"This is the first time anybody has started identifying these crimes in Bitcoin and flagging them up in a system like ours," head of Elliptic James Smith said, as quoted by the broadcaster.
Bitcoin, a popular web-based cryptocurrency, was introduced in 2009. It can be used to purchase goods and services from online retailers.
Unlike traditional currencies, bitcoin has no material form and global currency regulation does not apply to it. An unlimited number of anonymous sources can issue and use the cryptocurrency.