Confession: When I hear "Bitcoin" mentioned in conversation at work or a party (and it comes up more and more lately) I nod knowingly and quickly shove food in my mouth in hopes that no one calls me out on my utter ignorance: I have no idea what Bitcoin is. So I took it upon myself to find out. I learned that it's a digital currency, not a tangible thing, that it's independent of government regulation, and that its exchange rate to the US dollar is super-volatile. I also learned that it's accepted in some surprising places, like on Overstock.com and Reddit, the glorified Internet bulletin board, where people are trading the high-tech currency for everything from Swahili language translations to stripping. Yes, stripping.

Here, one Bitcoin stripper tells her story. The 27-year-old, who wished to remain anonymous, shares how she got into swapping pics of "her naughty bits" (to crib a Reddit phrase) for digital currency—a growing-by-the-second trade that relies, largely, on total amateurs like her.

The weird thing is that this all started because I was interested in Bitcoin, not because I was interested in stripping. I discovered Bitcoin about six months ago and wanted to invest some of my own cash in it, but I hesitated. Then one day I was poking around Reddit—I've been going there for years just to consume news and headlines— and I found /r/Jobs4Bitcoins, which is where anyone can post anything from web design services to lawn mowing to even just filming themselves doing something embarrassing, and people will pay them for it with Bitcoin. From there, I stumbled across /r/GirlsGoneBitcoin and had a sort of "aha!" moment.

I would never have considered stripping, doing web cam shows, or any other type of sexy photography before that. But when I read the guidelines—I never have to show my face—and realized I could protect my identity, I got kind of into it. I've got a boyfriend, though, and I wanted everything to be above board with him, so I tested the waters there first. When I showed him and he screamed "Let's do it!" I pretended like I was too shy and he had to convince me, but really that wasn't the case. I wanted to do it all along. GirlsGoneBitcoin seemed like a perfect way to get invested in Bitcoin without tying any real currency up, and it seemed kinda fun.

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I've only been verified on GirlsGoneBitcoin for about two weeks—you have to get verified to be able to accept Bitcoin—but in that time I've received probably $400 USD. It's tough to tell looking back since it's in Bitcoin and the exchange rate varies drastically. But it's a lot of money, and I've been saving it all. Every bit.

From what I've seen, I'd guess hardly any of the girls on GirlsGoneBitcoin have any sort of stripping or porn background. Just like myself, it seems like college girls who don't quite wanna get up on that pole, but still wanna leverage their assets when it's convenient and safe for them. And it is, mostly, safe and convenient. I haven't had any scary experiences. I think because it's still relatively small, there isn't much of that yet. If it goes more mainstream, then naturally that will come with the territory. Obviously you're worried about someone figuring out who you are in real life, but Reddit does a good job with their verification process, which makes you slow down and take the necessary precautions before jumping in the deep end.

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Also, Reddit's moderators absolutely help out with policing things. There was one case recently where a group was trying to identify one of the girls, and the admins immediately and permanently banned them all from the site. And beyond that, they don't even allow any type of derogatory comments, even the ones that are meant as compliments but could definitely be worded a little nicer. If they see things like that, they take them down.

It's nice knowing that there's someone watching out for our safety and identities, because I do worry about my privacy all the time despite the fact that I never show my face on camera. My boyfriend and I have a young son and neither of us would ever want him to see his mom show up on the Internet in this fashion, so we take lots of precautions. For one, all e-mail correspondence (which is just for sign ups and Bitcoin transactions, never communication with another Reddit user) is done under an alias. My screenname and web cam name on Reddit are obviously fake and tied to my alias e-mail. My age, height, weight, location, etc. are all misleading. Even to the point that when I say, "Hey I'll be on cam at 12pm EST," I'm not even in that time zone!

I also never go on camera without my boyfriend in the same chat room on an alias of his own, which always changes so no one connects the dots. It's important that he's in the loop 100%, both to protect us, but also to keep our relationship transparent.

And in that way, it's actually been fun! My boyfriend and I are enjoying it beyond the money part. We're pretty normal people: We live in a great community, where I go to college full time and my boyfriend has a great career. At home, I'm an excellent mom and neither of us drinks or does any drugs. But whenever we have a little spare time, we jump online and make some Bitcoin. It's a good thing, and it actually has made our already great relationship that much more exciting. I can go online be anyone I want to be. Which, right now, is someone who just organized a deal with a guy who will pay the Bitcoin equivalent $100 USD for a pretty short video where I don't show my face or anything.

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