Title: [2016-03-10]How Bitcoin Brought Electricity to a South African Schoo Post by: WendBTC on March 10, 2016, 04:10:34 PM The concept of using digital currency to prepay for electricity isn’t a new one – Gamaroff himself was involved in a previous effort back in 2014 aimed at facilitating prepaid electricity to South African residents using bitcoin.
Yet the new effort takes a more philanthropic approach, emphasizing bitcoin's use case for international aid through its crowdfunding platform structure. As demonstrated by Gamaroff and Hesse, the project involves two components – the smart meter programmed to accept digital currency and positioned at the building set to receive power, and the crowdfunding platform through which donors can contribute bitcoin. Gamaroff shared photos on Twitter prior to the MIT event, showcasing the installation of the smart meter: Installing the #Blockchain #SmartMeter for the #Usizo project at Emaweni Primary School in #Soweto #Johannesburg pic.twitter.com/Cua35eQXzo — Lorien Gamaroff (@gamaroff) February 19, 2016 Donors who contribute using the platform can see how much electricity a school consumes over a given period and can calculate how much power will be contributed based on how much BTC is given. http://www.coindesk.com/south-african-primary-school-blockchain/ Title: Re: [2016-03-10]How Bitcoin Brought Electricity to a South African Schoo Post by: Kprawn on March 10, 2016, 07:19:52 PM A while ago, someone had a water bucket system with a live stream to the internet... when you donate Bitcoin, water would drop from the faucet into the buckets and when it was full it tipped over
and it watered the garden. I think a similar system should be used to do this for the donor payments for the electricity. People can donate and see a immediate feedback on how their donation made a difference via a live stream into the class rooms. The visual direct proof, could motivate more people to donate. |