2. How do bounties capture cyber criminals?

Bounties integrated into Blockchain applications are emerging as a mechanism for policing all forms of cyber crimes.

Hackers were the first digital criminals targeted by bounties. It’s the result of fed up Bitcoin traders whose Bitcoin accounts and emails were being hacked. Soon websites such as Bitcoin Bounty Hunter emerged, offering rewards in BTC to people to locate the crypto thieves.

The structure of a smart contract enables innovative ways of policing cyber crime—the most common and fastest growing area of crime. Piracy, which costs the media and entertainment industries billions of dollars in revenue, is one of the many areas where bounties are applied. Piracy bounty hunters will be able to collect a bounty when they expose digital media that circulate on pirate sites. The media owners embed Bitcoin—the reward—in the digital media. When an individual recognizes a pirated work on a filing sharing site, the Bitcoin bounty will be released to the bounty hunter.

Transparent Blockchain transaction records allow media owners to easily confirm if an illegal copy is indeed circulated. Eliminating a middleman, bounty payment can be instantaneous. When a stipulated action of a smart contract is performed according to the rules, the cryptocurrency is released. Even digital pirates may sometimes rat on other digital pirates.