Are y'all going to do work in the US? Maybe not long term, but potentially as a test case? Are you looking for part time or volunteer staff in those areas?
Ask HN: How to give cryptocurrency to people in need?
21–30 of 34 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to give cryptocurrency to people in need?
#22I can't think of a situation where a donating cryptocurrency would be better than a donation of fiat cash to the same groups. Honestly, I can only see negatives from going down that route (lack of accountability for fund usage is a major one) and very few, if any, positives. If the concern is volatility of the local fiat currency, make the donation in another more stable currency. Cryptocurrency will only add to that…
Not OP, but I've seen suggestions that it should replace aid[0] if mild conditions are attached to the cash grant. There is, of course, the recent re-analysis of Mincome, Manitoba's well known Basic Income trial[1] that found numerous unintended, positive consequences like fewer hospital visits.
[0] https://www.economist.com/international/2013/12/12/pennies-f...
Re: Ask HN: How to give cryptocurrency to people in need?
#231. Target specific towns and villages in need; perhaps anywhere M-Pesa is used is a good place to start??
2. Hire mobile money agents in those places to facilitate crypto to fiat exchange (when necessary)
3. Monitor progress extensively.
4. Incentivize merchants in the selected towns and villages to accept crypto for payment (granted, easier said then done, but I have some ideas there as well)
Re: Ask HN: How to give cryptocurrency to people in need?
#24One group of people desperately in need is Venezuelans. You could circumvent the government restrictions and install a form of Exchange in neighboring towns of Colombia e.g Cúcuta. This would be more helpful than cash because 1. They can’t receive/withdraw money in Venezuela at this point reliably 2. They will know they have money saved for their journey out of Venezuela in Colombia and will take the decision to leave the country now.
Source: I live in Colombia and talk with Venezuelans all the time about their situation.
Re: Ask HN: How to give cryptocurrency to people in need?
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sending money long distances especially crossing borders is a non-trivial problem.
Is that problem any harder than sending Bitcoin, converting it to real money, and then trying to spend it? Because converting Bitcoin to Venezuelan Bolivars (or USD in Venezuela) is also a non-trivial problem.
Agreed. Imo one of the benefits of Bitcoin is that it should provide a ceiling of cost of remittance that is Bitcoin tx fees 2x + inconvenience of using it to acquire goods. Unfortunately the progress on the second front has been extremely slow
Re: Ask HN: How to give cryptocurrency to people in need?
#26Hi Joe.
This answer is a bit rambly, but I think my subconscious has a point to make, and I'm trying to tease it out.
This may come across the wrong way, but: which poor people? Your town, your country, or your whole planet?
I'm not an expert, but my hunch is if you start with a very local project (depending on where you live, it shouldn't be hard to find your local poverty), you'll get the answers you need - and I think if you're going to make a big impact, it will grow from that.
When I lived in L.A., young-me sat down with someone I thought was homeless - a panhandling gent sitting on some steps in Hollywood - we talked, about a bunch of things, he told me about his routine. Said he made about 30 bucks at night at that spot - also turned out he had a home, so I'd made an incorrect assumption.
A lot of my friends thought it was pretty weird that I would engage with the guy. Guess they had bad experiences with similar situations? I don't know. I doubt it; I suspect people were afraid. But what do you have to lose?
Talk to some of the people you're looking to help. A few small things will stand out in your mind - scale those.
I'm jumping the gun here, but if your mind's reaction is that that's not 'global' enough - I don't think anything grows to be a global force without a solid kernel, and that should be able to succeed at a small scale.
For what it's worth, that's my take.
Best of luck.
Re: Ask HN: How to give cryptocurrency to people in need?
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is no situation in which you have a broken government (i.e., refugee camps) where it is possible that crypto-currency will be useful. In refugee camps, even the doctors and aid workers have minimal access to the internet, and certainly not the type of stable connection you would need to transact crypto. Moreover, you would have extreme difficulty finding counterparties for the crypto-fiat exchange that don't ch…
While I agree that there are a number of challenges around actually utilizing crypto in places like this, you must also agree that some of crypto's unique characteristics are actually very compelling in these situations. For example, it is very expensive to get supplies or money into these 'camps'. The (relatively) immediate and peer-to-peer nature of cryptocurrency is perfect for this kind of help.
I don't have to agree with any of your response. Crypto's unique characteristics make it even more problematic in the situations you've described, not less. Crypto is by far the worst possible unit of exchange since it actually places additional requirements on people in already unstable conditions, namely, the requirement of stable access to the internet and electricity.
Re: Ask HN: How to give cryptocurrency to people in need?
#28I can't think of a situation where a donating cryptocurrency would be better than a donation of fiat cash to the same groups. Honestly, I can only see negatives from going down that route (lack of accountability for fund usage is a major one) and very few, if any, positives. If the concern is volatility of the local fiat currency, make the donation in another more stable currency. Cryptocurrency will only add to that…
> lack of accountability for fund usage is a major one
So you give them money and then tell them how they can use it? I thought the whole point of giving them cash was to allow the recipient to determine how best to use it, given their circumstances at the time.
Re: Ask HN: How to give cryptocurrency to people in need?
#29I can't think of a situation where a donating cryptocurrency would be better than a donation of fiat cash to the same groups. Honestly, I can only see negatives from going down that route (lack of accountability for fund usage is a major one) and very few, if any, positives. If the concern is volatility of the local fiat currency, make the donation in another more stable currency. Cryptocurrency will only add to that…
> lack of accountability for fund usage is a major one So you give them money and then tell them how they can use it? I thought the whole point of giving them cash was to allow the recipient to determine how best to use it, given their circumstances at the time.
Likely with most organizations built around donating funds to pre-existing efforts, the lack of accountability would come from the NGO/Government Organization itself, who (for better or worse in terms of enforcement) often have regulations in regards of spending donated funds in terms of documentation and accounting.
Re: Ask HN: How to give cryptocurrency to people in need?
#30I can't think of a situation where a donating cryptocurrency would be better than a donation of fiat cash to the same groups. Honestly, I can only see negatives from going down that route (lack of accountability for fund usage is a major one) and very few, if any, positives. If the concern is volatility of the local fiat currency, make the donation in another more stable currency. Cryptocurrency will only add to that…
The reason people want to give crypto is because they haven't reported it to the IRS. There are a lot of people with big gains in crypto that they should have reported years ago, and they're not sure what to do with it now. If they can directly give it without a reporting requirement, they're happy. Perhaps there's a secondary (primary?) business in people receiving anonymous donations from a generous benefactor, which they then are able to report as income and get square with the government without admitting to underreporting income.