When Laura was 18, a fortune teller told her she could earn $180 a month on a beet farm in Russia, and that even if she didn’t have a passport, her future employer would help her get across the border. $180 is a lot of money for Laura, who makes a living in the poor northern city of Drochia in Moldova.

In an interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, Laura said: "They gave me a fake birth certificate that said I was 14 years old." When crossing the border, traffickers posing as her parents were in the car, although Not too technical, but it's enough to get Lara across the border "safely".

This is the beginning of Laura's miserable life. But for most people living in Moldova, this isn't big news.

Government data shows that Moldova, with a population of 3.5 million, is one of the poorest countries in Europe, with an average monthly disposable income of $135. Widespread poverty and unemployment in the country force many young people to seek job opportunities overseas, coupled with poor border management. , making Moldova one of the countries with the highest rates of human trafficking in Europe. Because of the insidious nature of human trafficking, we don't know how many people have been trafficked from the former Soviet country, but the IOM has rescued some 3,400 Moldovan victims since 2001, 10 percent of whom were children.

Collusion between traffickers and officials is high in Moldova, according to the U.S. State Department. The U.S. State Department downgraded Moldova's human trafficking rate to Tier 2 last year. Moldova is eager to prove it is taking action, as further downgrades could block access to US aid and loans.

Moldova plans to pilot a digital identity system with Brooklyn-based software firm ConsenSys. The company won a United Nations competition in March for designing a digital identity system to combat child trafficking. Under the digital identity system, which links children's personal information with family members, children trying to cross the border will be required to have their eyes or fingerprints scanned.

Greenfield, who is in charge of the project, said: "By scanning children's eyes or fingerprints, they can quickly get in touch with their legal guardians, and at least two people are required to approve this crossing."Any attempt to take a child out of the country without the consent of the guardian will be permanently recorded in the database. The information in the database will help arrest traffickers and be used as evidence in court. No one can pass Bribery and other means to delete or modify such information.

Before the blockchain project began, many details had not been agreed, including funding, target audience, the type of data collected and where it would be stored.

Although this plan is indeed beneficial to reduce human trafficking in the long run, it has also encountered resistance from some anti-trafficking groups. They believe that human trafficking in Moldova is ultimately due to the country's poverty and the reduction of employment opportunities. If these problems are not solved at the root, those children and minors who are forced by poverty will still try their best to cross the border.

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