"High stakes" doesn't even begin to describe the game of global terrorist hunting. Information on the location of a wanted person can net tipsters millions of dollars in some cases. But if you think that hushed telephone conversations and cash seem more like a relic of the 1980s than a product of the age of cryptocurrencies and near-ubiquitous smartphones, you're not alone: the US government agrees.

In February, the US Combatting Terrorism Technical Support Office (CTTSO)—an agency that develops tech for battling terrorists—submitted an open call for anyone to propose a system that would allow the US government to instantaneously pay out "tip-sized amounts of virtual currencies" to people with information on a wanted person's whereabouts.

According to the filing, the CTTSO also wants to switch from the "telephone tipster" model to one that crowdsources geo-tagged photos, texts, and videos with an app. "Current practice ignores the 'street-level' community information that may provide—for cents rather than thousands of dollars—indicators of instability and violence of interest to the [US Government] and its foreign partners," the filing states.