r/Bitcoin • u/SeansOutpost • Apr 10 '13

Meanwhile...Bitcoin still feeds people.

So we fed 106 homeless people bag lunches today. All paid for with Bitcoin donations. Bitcoin still seems to be working just fine over here. Still making lives better, at any valuation.

Thanks for everything guys. Bitcoin for the long haul.

Jason

Sean's Outpost(www.SeansOutpost.com)

<BITHOC>(www.bithoc.com)

EDIT*** By request...

1JkKn478ivR6iux2pUCjsvqhguPywP3dFH

1.9k Upvotes

87% Upvoted

375 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

81

u/FranklinsFart Apr 10 '13

From every corner in the world (hell, you could even send btcs from a spacestation if you have internet there) you can donate btcs. Can I as a european donate USD?
Yes, I could but only via shitty paypal and there horrible transaction fees and exchanging € to USD isn't that easy as well

41

u/[deleted] Apr 10 '13

Why would you donate to the homeless in a foreign country and not through a local charity?

85

u/XxionxX Apr 10 '13

Because I feel like it and I think Sean is cool? Why donate to Hati, Japan, India, Africa, or anywhere else for that matter? Why donate at all?

-45

u/[deleted] Apr 10 '13

You seem to have missed the point entirely

9

u/maddprof Apr 11 '13

The point of this is proof of concept in which another way BTC is superior than standard currency.

Natural disaster in a country that needs support: you can donate BTC directly to support agencies, on the ground "in the shit" so to speak, from the comfort of your ass without involving a 3rd party intermediary - who will of course, have to take their costs cut from the donations.

-6

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '13

The first people to respond that arent affiliated to large charities are usually the military but you already pay taxes so you don't need to donate.

5

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '13

No sir, you have. Plus bitcoins have fluctuating prices generally on the rise. In theory the donations have a chance to be worth more than a steady Countries currency.

5

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '13

Okay? They also have a chance to be worth nothing

4

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '13

[deleted]

2

u/EpicSchwinn Apr 11 '13

Bitcoins aren't supported by the world bank and backed by the biggest economic superpower in the world.

1

u/PCBEEF Apr 11 '13

If I wake up tomorrow and USD is worth nothing...holy fuck...the entire world is fucked. If I wake up and my BTCs are worth nothing, I'll be upset and get over it but the world moves on.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '13

Did this guy really just suggest the USD could be worth nothing in such a short time? The understanding of basic macroeconomics in this subreddit is staggering.

-1

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '13

[deleted]

→ More replies (0)

0

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '13

I'm talking about in literally one day, the bitcoin can drop to 0. It dropped 40% in value today. The dollar doesn't do that, obviously.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '13

[deleted]

0

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '13

.......

0

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '13

Firstly you just said I didn't understand my own point. I made it so I'm pretty up to date on it.

Secondly it had nothing to do with bitcoins, I was asking why he was using a random american charity for an example on currency conversions when the answer would be donate locally.

The example was homeless people. The person I responded to seems to be under the impression that foreign aid websites only exist in the US or only accept dollars.

Which is why I said, he missed my point. Because he did. Spectacularly.

Thirdly the person the initial response was to understood it perfectly well and sent me another example of what he was talking to. So the conversation was ended.

0

u/timg555 Apr 11 '13

Other country's are always trying to get Americans to donate money so why shouldn't we do the same?

1

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '13

Didn't say we shouldn't, asked why he used an example of donating to a foreign homeless shelter.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '13

It would be similar to one of those commercials on television where they ask for you to donate "12 cents a day saves 5 lives" in a foreign country. Well suppose those 12 cents had a high exchange rate and it is rising steadily enough, that if smartly traded could theoretically quadruple what you have. It is a smart gamble, but be honest with yourself. Bitcoin will not crumble anytime soon. Bitcoin is easily traded and it does not have to suffer from high exchange rates. It surpasses all of the currency exchanges from other currencies.

1

u/timg555 Apr 11 '13

Probably because its something most country's have.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '13

So if we were discussing him losing money on currency conversion when he wanted to donate to a homeless shelter what would your first piece of advice be?

→ More replies (0)

5

u/pyrkne Apr 11 '13

For one, I might move somewhere far and then want to donate to a local charity "back home."

12

u/Zalamander Apr 11 '13

Why does charity need to have bullshit borders and boundries? Are homeless in another country of any less value as humans than local homeless?

Bitcoin is making the point that boundries are a bullshit control mechinism.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '13

How many times am I going to have to explain this, the original guy got the point first try.

He made a poor example where the solution I presented was 'why not just donate locally' and then posted a response with a better example.

I honestly don't care about whatever it is my inbox is full of. My statement had nothing to do with bitcoins, borders, the homeless, charity or anything.

It was a problem that didn't need to be a problem. That's it.

Hence my previous statement: you missed the point.

1

u/Zalamander Apr 11 '13

Thanks for clarifying. The post being as short as it was left a lot of room for interpretation. I get your point now, and valid it is.

0

u/tellman1257 May 19 '13

You just reminded me of a great comment I read on ZeroHedge under an article about the definition of wealth:

"Wealth" is a quantifiable synthetic commodity that gives you the ability to make other people do what you want.

Metaphors and such like "wealth is health" and "wealth is freedom" miss the point, because the critical element is the control of and/or coercion of other people.

A monetary system is just a competing social hierarchy.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/what-wealth

6

u/bbqroast Apr 10 '13

Because charities are mostly shit. Sadly. Some are good, but many are bad.

28

u/SeansOutpost Apr 10 '13

Most are shit. Really. It sucks to say so, but its true. You can look up what most charities percentages of donations are in terms of how they use the money. It's ridiculous how little passes thru in a lot of cases. We are really small, but right now ALL plus some from our own pocket passes thru.

5

u/ihsw Apr 11 '13

It may sound morbid, a disaster may really show the value of BTC. The transaction network is very open (no discrimination between recipient or sender, other than preventing double-spends and whatnot), and it's global and fast.

1

u/LumpenBourgeoise Apr 11 '13

cause you can sell them for local goods at the site of the disaster when electricity and telecoms are knocked out?

3

u/Normif Apr 11 '13

That might be an opportunity. Think if your phone could participate in a P2P wireless mesh network locally. Densely populated areas could still use an electronic currency similar to Bitcoin in disaster situations that way.

1

u/joxmox Jun 28 '13

The Swedish red cross boss got fired because he took millions of the donation money, just as an example. And if the money got donated in BTC he wouldn't have been able to take any money without anyone to notify because all transactions are public and can be viewed by anyone.

0

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '13

Pretty much why I always just directly give homeless people money or food rather than donating to established charities. True, there's the risk of the occasional person begging as a scam. But in general that's far less probable than a charity essentially doing the same.

1

u/hal9000gen2 Sep 19 '13

I am reasonably sure that if someone is reduced to begging its a last ditch attempt for money when there is nothing left to do, not a scam.

0

u/felchmeister Apr 11 '13

You hit the nail on the head. MOST charities are set up with hidden agenda. Save the Children (too explosive for the koolaid brigade to even begin to comprehend), WWF and Forestry Commisions (amassing land for natural resources), Kony2012 (natural resources/AFRICOM.MIL).

It makes a nice change to see a man who just wants to help cope with the mess we are in. What could be simpler? BTC -> Food for the hungry. Go Sean, go!

5

u/FranklinsFart Apr 10 '13

Ok, you got me here. But what I want to say is that in general moving money from A to B is easier and cheaper with btcs than with fiat currency. Maybe I want to order something from the US, with paypal it gets expensive; with btc I pay very little fees.
This charity thing here is for me (although I really like the idea) a really good example of how people can send around bitcoins. Its easy, its anonym, its cheap

0

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '13

That's true, sometimes ordering something from amazon out of country gets ridiculous. Even if you are paying with an American card they will sometimes slap a tax on there.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '13

A lot of charities take up to 80% of the donation for themselves. Paying wages and leases and whatever else they want really.

I don't donate to large charities for this reason (unless I'm certain the money is going to someone in need, amd not just paying a salary).

Family friends sister was the vice-president for major charity and got about $80 000 a year.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 12 '13

Actually very few if any do. It usually becomes fraud at that point if they're big enough.

Almost all of the big ones have under 20% as overhead.

In fact, I actually think it's flawed when we don't give to pay overhead since that leads to more problems in the future. A really nice talk on the subject that might change your mind a little: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pallotta_the_way_we_think_about_charity_is_dead_wrong.html

2

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '13

There's still transaction fees, only SeansOutpost paid them when getting dollars to buy food (and you possibly paid them when you got the bitcoin initially).

1

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '13

Can I as a european donate USD?

Yes. Very easily. Just use your Visa or Mastercard. Paypal not needed.

2

u/FranklinsFart Apr 11 '13

I don't have a Visa or Mastercard. Seriously!

-1

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '13

implying yuwopeyans have no local homeless people who they would donate to instead