--- title: Five Best Ideas of the Day: February 5 description: How #Blockchain could power a secure Internet, crowdfunding the fight against human trafficking, virtual college counselors and more. canonical: https://time.com/3697074/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-february-5/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-05T17:01:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:05:50.143Z article:section: Ideas og:title: These Are Today's Best Ideas og:description: How #Blockchain could power a secure Internet, crowdfunding the fight against human trafficking, virtual college counselors and more og:url: https://time.com/3697074/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-february-5/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: These Are Today's Best Ideas twitter:description: How #Blockchain could power a secure Internet, crowdfunding the fight against human trafficking, virtual college counselors and more twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Five Best Ideas of the Day: February 5 by [The Aspen Institute](/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Feb 5, 2015 5:01 PM CUT by [The Aspen Institute](/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Feb 5, 2015 5:01 PM CUT **1\.** [**Could Blockchain — the secure, encrypted network that powers Bitcoin transactions — be used to build a safer alternate Internet?**](https://medium.com/backchannel/how-bitcoins-blockchain-could-power-an-alternate-internet-bb501855af67 "undefined") By Scott Rosenberg in Backchannel, on Medium **2\.** [**One NGO is crowdfunding the fight against human trafficking.**](http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2015/01/30/crowd-sourcing-to-fight-human-trafficking/ "undefined") By Leif Coorlim at the CNN Freedom Project **3\.** [**High-achieving, low-income students get into selective colleges when they actually apply. Virtual college counselors can make sure they do.**](http://www.bloomberg.org/blog/eadvising/ "undefined") By Bloomberg Philanthropies **4\.** [**“Vocal fry” and other patterns in the speech of younger women might signal a change for generations to come.**](http://daily.jstor.org/young-womens-language-patterns-at-the-forefront-of-linguistic-change/ "undefined") By Chi Luu in JSTOR Daily **5\.** [**Scientists are hoping genetically-modified coral can save the Great Barrier Reef.**](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/australia-considers-genetically-altering-coral-help-it-survive-climate-change-180954139/ "undefined") By Laura Clark in Smithsonian Magazine  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/ "undefined") _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3697074/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-february-5/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3697074/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-february-5/"},"headline":"Five Best Ideas of the Day: February 5","datePublished":"2015-02-05T17:01:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:05:50.143Z","description":"How #Blockchain could power a secure Internet, crowdfunding the fight against human trafficking, virtual college counselors and more.","url":"https://time.com/3697074/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-february-5/","keywords":["Innovation","women","climate change","Internet","College","Bitcoin","Oceans","Crowdfunding","linguistics","Security","Students","Speech","human trafficking","Encryption","University"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3697074/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-february-5/","name":"Five Best Ideas of the Day: February 5"}}]}] ```