Bitcoin Forum

ok so if a whale hands out Bitcoin paper wallets to homeless people
would they know how to redeem and use the money or hold the bitcoin?
would they learn it?
maybe some of them would become bitcoiners or even programmers and valuable to the ecosystem

who wants to join me doing this

we need people in the usa, where there are the most homeless people on the planet, who are whales and want to help the cause handing out some paper wallets on a daily basis

Instead of handing over paper wallets to an homeless man who would probably use it to wrap weed to smoke or use it for something less worth the value, why not just convert the bitcoin into cash and donate to his life to make it more meaningful. Even majority of people here if given paper wallet will still have to carry out some readings to know how to go about it not to talk of those individuals who would probably be hearing it for the first time and the stress of redemption might even be too stressful on them.

I do not believe that among the homeless you will be able to find good programmers. Homeless is not social status is a way of life. The main number of them have chosen this way of life and do not want to change anything.

Both situation are really possible. There are homeless people which is not that innocent. Most of them are smart tho not so wise in a way however when they are being thought eventually they'll learn

i think this is the strangest comment i have read today.

a homeless person can not do anything with a bitcoin paper wallet. he first needs a computer, then internet access then knowledge of how to use any of these. then knowledge of how to spend bitcoin.

and if that wasn't enough he then needs to either find a place to spend these coins or find an exchange to sell them for fiat and use that fiat. and in an exchange he needs to sign up then verify his identity. so he needs a scanner, a passport, utility bill and a camera to take a selfie whilst holding these!

all that said they may curse you if you give them bitcoin!

edit:
http://itsamoneything.com/money/wp-content/uploads/Homeless-Bitcoin-Not-Accepted-e1429997932950.jpg

googling "homeless bitcoin" brought up so many fun pictures"!

In some cases this is true, although some homless people ended this way because of some tragic circumstances. Anyway, I don't think this is very good idea and I beleive the majority of homless are not able or don't have the possibility to use these paper wallets properly. So, if you want to help them use more traditional methods.

But do you ever imagine how they will convert the paper wallet?  If they are a mixture of ignorant and knowledgeable about bitcoin, then most of this paperwallet will not serve its purpose.  It would be better to do what the early reply stated.  Convert it to cash and give them to the homeless, you can always put an add if you want to advertise about bitcoin.  Things like banner stating about your intent of promoting bitcoins by doing such stuff.

i have done this in the past. (done giveaways).

so ill break it down for you
1. to rebut basmic: stereotyping homeless as a choice is so narrow minded that it seems you have never talked to a homeless person in your life.
2. to rebut red-apple: though the homeless may have been rejected from society they can still go to libraries or other places and borrow their internet services

now what i experienced
1. homeless people under 30 are somewhat computer literate, the problem is more about how to get that btc to legal tender to spend (meaning only really works in area's of a local bitcoin meetup to do cash -in-hand which then also counters the requirement of computer literacy as they can go to local meetups and find someone to help them)
2. only about 20% of the donations of paper wallets got 'claimed'(due to concentrating on area's of good helpful local meetup/exchange area's, otherwise it would have been under 1%)
3. however handing funds to them can never guarantee they will use the funds wisely. i have seen many different outcomes and if i was to narrow it down to lets say 10 'scenarios' of the claimed funds, only 1 out of 10 was a wise utility of the funds.(2% overall positive utility of funds)

also things like in area's of high bitcoin population area's some homeless people having a btc QR code has allowed them to receive funds directly from passers by( as seen where homeless people sitting outside merchants that 'accept btc' see those btc people happily donate to the homeless person sat outside). this is something that would never happen if a homeless guy had a "i accept credit card" due to the fear by passers by of handing over credit card details to a homeless person.
in a utopian future where many people had just some btc, the trust of doing an electronic payment to a homeless person is safe/easy/no risk via btc rather than credit card.

but all in all.
things like seans outpost turned out as a better donation plan than others i have seen/experienced/know of. instead of just handing a homeless person $4 or paying for a mcdonalds/subway to hand out. having someone hand make sandwiches etc allows for the funds to help more people (EG $4 could make 5 meals at best(unsure how many seans outpost make)

id recommend if you live in an area of high bitcoin utility. and a regular place for bitcoin meetups and there is a homeless issue in the area. then there is a good possibility of making a good use of donations by setting up a local exchange and also a foodbank

That's awesome man. Just because he lacks knowledge he's sitting homeless. There are several other cases where they are successful even without learning, but here how to provide a paper wallet and ask him to use for building home. If he has got that knowledge he could have earned and made his own home.

I feel this thread somehow takes the piss of the one category of people whose life situation is utterly tragic.

Sure there have been more people ending up on the street this past decade due to the economy and world crisis and could therefore be more resourceful and educated than you'd give them credit for if judged solely on their living conditions but at the same time, if they're on the street is how they live, it means they can barely provide for their very basic needs otherwise they would have a place to live and would not be begging for food. Skipping knowledge, there are expensive devices one would need to have to run any Bitcoin investment that it is hardly compatible with their life situation.

Wanna really help someone on the street? Hire them for minor maintenance jobs and pay them regularly, then find friends and family who could need their manpower so they have an incoming stream, however modest and unstable. Eventually invite them in for a warm meal and explain to them how coins work. If they seem keen, educate them and let them take it from there. The truth of the matter is that as long as they have no money (never mind disposable money!) they can get no coins and therefore need no wallet.

Everything else is just cheap speculation if not downright denigration.

They will have to use a laptop or smartphone for this, they would have to find a service that converts Bitcoin into USD for their urgent needs. Such services are expensive, they may get a couple of USD just as start. Also using them for small amounts is a total waste. The recipients will have to find the best services (cheap and reliable) and even myself have hard times to find some good enough...
Let's also mention the tx fees.

All in all I see it like a huge waste of money (percents wise), money which for them could make a difference.


In the days I've started into Crypto world there was a homeless guy that got donations in Dogecoin on reddit.
He had to go to MacDonald's to use their internet to stay in touch, to transfer, to exchange into USD.
I feel that many homeless can't do that. And not because they'd be stupid or careless.

Honestly? I don't think someone who is homeless will have time to learn about bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general, he is probably busy finding a shelter or something to eat for the night, If you really want to help someone, just give him cash. If your goal is to teach him about bitcoin then take him to a Bitcoin ATM, explain to him how things works and give him the cash from the ATM.

What you said is the main reason of this homeless peoples because they dont want to work and live life happily by begging it and now they are use to it and dont want to work or do any job, when they are getting freely what they want. so nothing can change them.

Bitcoin Homeless Man Makes $800 In 4 Days.


http://bitcoinchaser.com/bitcoin-homeless-man

Around 3.5 million Americans experience homelessness every year, "homeless people" are like us, the stereotypical notion of homeless people especially in America is a misconception. Either they have a job, but not enough earnings to rent an apartment, some of them are well educated, and most importantly people who are homeless know that smartphones are their lifeline because from local homelessness resources to Social Security benefits to finding a job, all these types of services are mostly available online only. Some of them had smartphones before they became homeless and smartphones are cheaper now.

This is an article from 2013,
Unemployed, homeless, and surviving on bitcoin, https://www.wired.com/2013/09/bitcoin-homeless/


I guess homeless people in America do know about bitcoins and if so tipping them with bitcoins would definitely be a good deed and this way they also would be less worried about getting mugged, but like everywhere there would be con artists, just putting a board with a bitcoin address, looking to get away with free bitcoins.

If you cannot directly help them then you can indirectly donate bitcoins to homeless people through HandUp.

https://handup.org

Seriously, what's the point? They are homeless and they don't even have access to a computer let alone a decent smart phone that they can use to transact using those bitcoins anybody will tip. It's impractical, they'll likely throw that back to your face. They for sure don't even know what the hell you are talking about and what that piece of paper is.

You don't know nothing, as a passionate smoker I would never roll a cigar in some crap paper, and I'm little disturbed by your statement, a lot actually! Before you take weed in your words next time try to learn more about it, you are acting like some smart ass and its very annoying.
This topic is not a discussion about bitcoins at all, op is talking about giving money that he probably doesn't have, like this guy here that talks about smoking weed but he never saw weed in his life.
This topic is a pure miss and deserves to be placed in of topic.

If a homeless person wants to accept Bitcoin, they can put up a QR code for a Bitcoin address and accept payments from passers-by.  Creating paper wallets for giving to people who don't even ask for coins would be extremely inefficient and it would require a lot of explanation.  To be worth the effort, it would have to be quite a lot of money that you put in those wallets and you'd have to think about if you're really willing to donate that much.

I think that all these claims that homeless people can't use computers are bullshit, but there's no point giving paper wallets specifically just because you can.

Instead of giving away money to homeless people, why not educate them to fish for themselves. Many homeless people might be educated, but

might not be able to find a job. Get donations to fund a computer centre at a soup kitchen and get these people online. Create micro jobs for

them and pay them in bitcoins. One of my friends lost his job recently and I showed him this forum... he joined a signature campaign and he

gets some income from this.. until he finds a new job. This forum is putting food in his families stomach at the moment.  ;)

Chances are they will not understand anything and lose the paper, get robbed and so on. If you give them cash or gold, im sure they would keep it, but the average person is still oblivious to the value of bitcoin. I would guess a homeless is totally out of touch with any developments that have to do with technology because they have to think about where to sleep that night more than anything else, unfortunately.

You would need to give them a tutorial along with the bitcoins or else its useless. We also need lightning network so tipping small amounts and moving said amounts is actually possible, otherwise the fees will be higher than the tips.

Not a bad idea but there are also other better ways to tip because this is not familiar and not user friendly to spend or use the bitcoins.

It would be better something more portable like a phone with a wallet that you can use it through NFC and make purchases physically on the stores offline.

Homeless? Paper wallets? How do you even want to start explaining to them? I am sure most of them would think you just finish rolling some pots! Instead, if you feel you want to do some charity, and you have enough to go around, why not just build a homeless shelter and give them some token to take care of themselves monthly. They have a lot to worry about than trying to understand what bitcoin is all about.

Not a few homeless people who have above average intelligence they just do not have a decent shelter but actually their minds are smart because of a very high curiosity, and if a homeless person gets a bitcoin paper wallet but they do not know how to use it but I'm sure they Must learn to let them know everything about bitcoin. And that will be the question of how they can use the internet while their daily life is very simple.

I think they need food, water, clothes and shelter as well as some love, care, attention and maybe some discipline more than they need some satoshis. Maybe if you have some Bitcoin and you feel a little bit generous, just convert your cryptocurrency into fiat money and hand it to a reputable agency handling a program for the homeless people.

We can use cryptocurrency for some humanitarian projects but not directly involving giving them some amount of cryptocurrency as it can surely just be wasted. In fact, even giving them fiat money can only be helping short-term as it will not help them stand on their own feet and be independent again.

Our society can already be considered as abundant except for places suffering from conflict and government corruption but for many regions around the world food production and wealth creation have already been revolutionized. Yet we are still having poor and homeless people -- I think it has become a curse for our modern world so that in the face of abundance we still have people who are not getting a part of it.

If you hand a paper wallet without a private key what use will it be? Secondly it's not easy for every one, to know about Bitcoins. I like your concept but if you will just give them a wallet without taking any time to explain them then it's a waste, if you are keen then I would suggest take time and explain them, if not write a short line, how they can benefit from it, otherwise we shall loose precious Bitcoins. Also have you started your idea?

If anyone would even tip an homeless man with paper wallet, then be sure to provide him with the necessary details on how to redeem it because without that, its just another worthless paper and also its not going to be about tipping but enough amount to change his situation because giving him a $10 tip might not do anything considering the stress of redemption and the miners fees to be paid in other to get it converted into cash might outweigh the benefit of just giving him the $10 note.

This sounds like a bad idea, for many reasons, first do the homeless know what you are talking about? I have known people that dig technology and most of them do not know anything about bitcoin, so what are the chances someone living in the street does? Then I would not recommend donating money since some may try to buy something illegal with it, you could donate food or clothes but not money.

Fuck this.  Most homeless are either too drug-addled or too mentally ill to even comprehend the significance of a paper wallet of anything.   Handing out money to bums is a bad idea anyway.  They'll just drink it up or otherwise squander it.  No sense in that.

I thought US is the land of dreams  :D i am not sure why there are more homeless people in US but i am not sure whether the so called homeless could understand what a paper wallet is,let alone will they understand what bitcoin is,you can hand out fiat rather than giving out bitcoin paper wallets,never complicate things with the poor people,make sure that they can understand what you are handing out rather than doing a publicity stunt. ;)

Too much homelessness is driven by addiction and mental illness for paper-wallet handouts to be claimed at any significant rate.
Those most likely to lay claim to the funds therein would be the people who, after a day of panhandling, drive home to the houses that they pretend not to have during the day.
College students would be a better target group.  Given their average debt, they are also almost surely poorer ( if only on paper ).

No, it won't work. If someone is homeless on the world these days there is some problem with this person... Familiar issues, drugs issues, alcohol issues, gambling issues and it's not with Bitcoins that you will save their lifes. These people won't manage well the coins and will waste it very fast.

If money was the solution for them they would be rich by saving all the tips they earn every day (they have food, and drinks for free), specially in the USA where you say there are more homeless people in the world... What would work better is if you give them some job, tasks to be completed, so you can reward them with BTCs for their job.

homeless dont use bitcoin

I'd rather donate to charitable institutions or non-government organizations than give pittance to the homeless. Because giving money to the homeless on an everyday basis is like encouraging them to continue with that way of life. There are many other ways you can help them, if that is what you really intend to do, but letting them depend on dole outs might not be the wisest of ideas.

Is it useless ? I mean, the homeless can't even afford a computer and maybe they don't know about bitcoin too. They already so hard on living and they need to learn a new thing like bitcoin ? I thing they will refuse it, just give them money lol.

imho, thats not a great idea, for him its just a peice of paper, and in current times he prolly doesnt even know what to do with it, so either he will loose it or if sombody knows what the paper wallet is , then without knowing the amount in his wallet, someone might steal it from him or exchange it for real cash.,
if you really wanna help , why not give them, what they really want like food, cash, some clothes.

No that's not a good idea.

Using those coins needs:
a) a computer
b) with internet access
c) knowledge how to redeem it.

Literally 98% of them would just coil it around and have fun.
The remaining 2% would resell that "piece of paper" if they know it has value.

Want to help ? Do it in a reasonable way.

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One line that caught my attention though is this :


Why would those so called "whales" go through that painful process of sending small amounts to new addresses, get the keys of each of them onto paper AND on a DAILY basis !!

Too much work while they could just donate to a charity or give them cash on their way to work.

Its pretty nice that you have this kind of concern for homeless people but we should really be realistic here.We might mold or create programmers or whatsoever on those people but giving them bitcoin paper wallet would be somehow useless since they dont have much idea on what would they do on those papers since they do have lack of knowledge on it and also how they gonna engage if they dont have the money to sustain? Being practical and avoiding too much hassled better simply give them local fiat since we can spread bitcoin awareness on more simplier things.

It looks good idea and your thoughts are amazing BUT the thing is if people are homeless then how would they know about bitcoin use. They might be having other problems like solving issue of food and drinking water for the day? May be how to get shelter while it's cold and raining. You can't just donate high tech toy to such people and imagine that they will become pro in it and use it for better future. It will need big efforts than that. Better buy food and water for them.

Yes,if you want to help them tuely,just convert the bitcoins into cash and give it to them.If you want to make them familiar with bitcoins,then you could explain them about bitcoins since there is a chines proverb,"Instead of giving a fish to the needy,better teach him how to catch a fish"

Yikes, not all homeless people are bums and drunks and drug addicts. ^grrrrrr^ I help out at a homeless shelter every second Saturday and I see whole families without a roof over their head, because they either lost their jobs or they ran into financial difficulty because someone in their family could not afford health insurance and they had to sell their house to pay for medical bills. So STFU if you have not dealt with these people and shared their misery.

OP, Do what you need to do to help these people, because some people judge them without knowing their personal circumstances. ^grrrrrrr^ 

They will lose most of the tips in transaction fees so instead of filing the pockets of miners you can just give them cash  ;D

but the homeless dont use bitcoin dummy

I like the sentiment behind this idea but I feel awareness of bitcoin is not at the level that would make this a practical idea. 

Many homeless people might not have a phone or a bank account to cash out, maybe in the future when it is recognised and accepted more it would work.

If you fill a paper wallet with like 0.01BTC, you'll end up paying (assuming the transaction has an average byte size) around 75K satoshi in fees. If you're a penny pincher and don't mind having to wait a while, you could even do it with 40-50K in fees. Give them food, or at least pay for a place where they can sleep for a few bucks - handing out money just like that isn't the right option.

Homeless man won't have any way to cash it out or even use it. If you choose to donate bitcoin to a homeless person, you should also give them a cellphone too. It's not very realistic at this time. However, it can stop lot of crime against homeless.

This question shouldn't be asked anyway. What do you think a homeless man can do? Let's say he has a knowledge before about computers but not all of them are updated with crypto currencies and with bitcoin. It's better if a whale hand will give him directly a place to stay or cash in hand.

It's a good idea. Instead of giving awaiy just food or money, give them something that will help them understand what is worng with the country's economy and why they should switch to this alternative.

Paper wallets are a good means of handing bitcoins out, i guess. Because if you give them a private key on a usb stick they're probably going to be clueless about how to redeem the coins and use them. Paper wallets with written instructions on them are the best way to do this.

The trouble that you'll find with your plan is
1. Lack of whales willing to give away btc
2. Lack of people willing to go up to people randomly and give them free btc.
3. Lack of homeless people have computer access

Still, it's a good idea. After all, a lot of wrong about how many homeless people there are in US.

Well I think if they don't have some proper knowledge or even education, the paper wallet will be just a waste and Bitcoin will be lost. What I'm trying to say is this people ( especially who grew up homeless, don't even go to school or don't even have an experience using the internet so I guess it's better to hand out some real money to them or ask them if they are good at programming or motivate them and show them how a paper wallet can turn into cash and tell him that if you learn programming you might be able to earn something like this, I bet that some of them is willing to learn if they really want to have a shelter.

I don't always have a stomach for first-world responses like these... my guess is if you wanted to help homeless people, you'd give them assistance in addressing their main problem: not having a home. Maybe once that's out of the way you can start with the crypto tipping. Or have I just gotten too old to understand hipster altruism?

Giving homeless people BTC would be the dumbest thing any Bitcoin holder can do. If I saw a homeless person and want to help him or her, I would prefer to give them food and some used clothes, or maybe even a tent.

This is a nice idea for charity and maybe one or two media coverage stories, but IMO it doesn't change much. it would be a nice stunt but it would unlikely result in plenty of more users since people would just cashout the BTC.
Not that I'm against a bitcoin charity organization, people here might be even more willing to give BTC than USD in real life.

For me it is good for tipping the homeless people but please give them a real paper money or fiat and not bitcoin paper wallet because they can't used it or they just trow it away  :(.

I see that a very good nature deed and will help these people for the worth of the paper wallet bitcoin and can encourage someone to consider bitcoin again, it can help them to start a new life and a new vision of how it works.

I think this is a good way to make other people know bitcoin because even the homeless doesn't know about bitcoin then they can still learn it because they will might get curious if we will give them tips from paper wallets of bitcoin because they will ask us if what is the thing that we gave and how they can get the money then we should just teach them or just tell them to keep it for more years and it might give them huge amount of money in the future.

Okay I see the point that you want to help but how will you do it?  Considering that these people are homeless meaning they might have no access with the computers and do not know maybe to use one.  Or in case, they have no idea what bitcoins is.  Probably you could just give a donation in terms of paper money and give it to them or make a charity.  Build an organization and get some donations. 

...

The homeless in the USA and the beggars here in Italy (on vacation here in Italy) would not know what to do with paper BTC wallets.  They don't have computers, nor likely know what to do with a paper wallet.  

Most educated people (with computers) I know personally do not know what to do with a paper wallet either!

Stick to giving them a euro or a buck.  That's what they want and can easily use.

True true true ;D

I guess the general idea here is to get someone into using bitcoin, and make sure that they understand how bitcoin work. I mean give a man a fish... yeah you get the point there. Giving cash will only increase people's dependency on it, whilst telling them about something else that will be cash v2.0 is much more beneficial to them than just getting them something to eat for a day.

I wouldn't say that the best way to do it is to use paper wallets though. Most of these people don't even have electronic devices to import the private keys. Nor can they safely store that paper wallet somewhere. If you're a bitcoin philantropist, making a mini phone that is only able to conduct btc transactions that sells for like $20 each and giving some away makes a lot of sense.

I think I dont like this idea, there is a chance that homeless dont know bitcoin and it will be difficult for the homeless to cash it out, as not all shop is accepting bitcoin and I doubt the homeless got phone with wifi, I think cash is more reasonable for the homeless

With paper wallets you can not buy beer or cigarettes, so they have no interest receiving it ! That may sound harsh, but this is the cold hard truth !

It is stupid idea, in order for homeless to use bitcoin they need a smartphone and internet connection. Even if there's so many free internet connection, they still need a smartphone, bank account (to exchange it to fiat). Too much work to do (assuming they know bitcoin). Better give them the cash or food if you want to give them something.

Hahaha, that made my day sir :)

I really don't believe that giving someone bitcoins in the form of paper wallet is going to change their life for the better. The worst that can happen is that the guy thinks you're mocking him and giving him magic internet monies, and throws it away in disgust. The best that can happen is that he redeems the bitcoin, and sells it for cash(idk how he/she has an internet connection and a working pc when they are homeless on the streets, though ::))

Rather, if you really care about homeless people, approach them with what they need. Get them some food, which is probably their most immediate need, and IF they have the interest, then talk to them about bitcoin. Or better yet, offer them work opportunities which pays in bitcoin. Obviously, it'll be hard to achieve, but if some big bitcoin personality can help make this happen, it's going to boost the public imageg of btc drastically.

i was mainly speaking locally based on my experience and the situation in my country. where i live there is no "free internet" and libraries don't offer such services!
and besides it is not a matter of if they can do it or not it is how much harder it is to use bitcoin for a homeless person than using cash is!

First of all, I don't like giving homeless people money. I would much rather get them a meal or a drink so I know what I am spending the money on. God knows what they would use the money for if you just handed it to them. Secondly, there are practically no homeless people that have access to the internet, which basically renders all use of Bitcoin obsolete. Also, I doubt they would have any knowledge on what Bitcoin is and probably no clue on how to use it to buy anything. We haven't reached a point in Bitcoin's life where we can start giving people money in the form of Bitcoin and expect them to already know what it is and how to use it. Maybe in a couple years, maybe never, who knows when we will be able to give homeless people paper wallets, knowing that they know how to, and have the resources, to use it.

I think it would be better to give the homeless people with either fiat money or food, it is much better than giving them bitcoin paper wallets as I think they might not even know what is bitcoin in the first place. Even if they do knew about bitcoin, it still requires them to have some knowledge to exchange the bitcoins into fiat money, and it would not be an easy task for them.

giving a homeless people bitcoin instead of simple cash is like giving a hungry person spoon, fork, plate, glass in different shapes and sizes but no food!

i think it's impossible because of the these reasons:
1. they don't know anything about bitcoin or any technology stuff because they can't afford to buy a smartphone.
2. even though someone gave bitcoin they know how to turn it into cash they don't have a bank account to receive their money.
So, it's better to give them a fiat and even a food to help them to satisfy their daily need atleast for once.
 

Give homeless a paper wallet will require them to learn how to use it properly and for sure, to learn something they will need another money. Since homeless needs something faster to use, cash or foods, gave them a paper wallet is not a good choice to make.

They are homeless for a reason and if we would stop helping them they would die and the problem would be solved.  We need to be creating a stronger race and not supporting to broken portions of the race, diluting the gene pool. 

Also Those that cannot sppport themselves in the animal kingdoem die and that is the place that humans need to get back to, we are destroying who we are and we are destroying the future.

there is a saying 'your only 3 missed mortgage repayments away from being homeless'
seems like your the kind of person that if someone cant pay a mortgage they should die....

im guessing you love how banks work and feel only the rich should own the planet..

i think the original purpose, ethos and ideology of bitcoin is completely lost on you

P.S being rich is not a stronger race.
Kim kardasian, trump, kenye west are not a good/strong gene pool for our future

Homeless ppl dont even have phones dude...

but they can hold onto a piece of paper. and use a library or jobcentre computer.

the real problem is not technology but ability to convert bitcoin into fiat. (online exchanges need bank accounts and ID / residence checks)

i think a 'foodbank'/cafe/meetup service that accept bitcoin would be better strategy so that the homeless that have been given a paperwallet have a place to go to to use it.

Its purpose is good but we need to think more about this. We should think about their way to use that wallet. How can they use them when they dont even have a house. When they redeem that wallet, it's still hard for them to exchange into real cash. We should work more on this idea.

That is commendable from you but at the same time those organizations are very inefficient, most of the money goes to operative costs, and marketing campaigns, so it is not like they are helping as much people as they could, that is why it is a difficult decision sometimes to decide to give money to charities since you know that most of the money you donate is not going to help anyone.

I deal with homeless every day.  I wouldn't give any of them any money--especially not bitcoin--unless you had a gun to my head.   And it's not that I don't care.  I just believe money in most of their hands is wasted.   A lot of it goes towards drugs and alcohol and that's pretty hard to deny.  And I'm not even talking about homeless shelter people.   I'm talking about the real bums living in cardboard tents,  shitting themselves.   They should not have money.  And as pointed out,  a paper wallet is useless and cruel if you give it to them.

Capitalism encourages greed, which is a negative trait.  It's safe to say that the working and middle classes tend to be more morally sound than particularly rich and/or famous people.  You can say "the rich donate to charity", but the amount that say, Bill Gates lives on is still dramatically higher than any normal person, so he is not generous.  Nor is he responsible for everything that Microsoft has done.

Homelessness can be for a variety of reasons and drugs or alcohol can be a contributing factor, but it's futile to suggest that it has to be the reason or that homeless people are incapable of having money.

The point is, giving paper wallets to homeless people is dumb.  It would be much better to just explain to them ways in which you believe Bitcoin would help them and potentially donate after that to give them an incentive to use it (if that's the aim of giving them a paper wallet anyway).

How would the use that currency, immediately to get food or smokes or booze or whatever they need? They really can't...unless you handed out prepaid debit cards with loaded bitcoin. The adoption by retailers is way to slow and decentralized.

There was a guy in San Francisco that was giving away bitcoin as a treasure hunt of sorts. S/he would tweet clues about where they left the bitcoin wallet. You can still read the twitter feed here: https://twitter.com/sfhiddenbitcoin?lang=en (https://twitter.com/sfhiddenbitcoin?lang=en)

It's a great idea, I just think you need to make it incredibly easy for the homeless recipient to spend the bitcoin, after all what they need most is spending power (not bitcoin locked in a wallet).

I've seen a fair few pics of the homeless with QR codes and so on. Obviously they'd need certain amount of infrastructure but everyone has a phone these days. I guess you could do cash via localbitcoins.

It's not as silly as it sounds.

Exactly good comparison, how can a homeless man cash it out if he only thinks all the time that if it's not money, he won't be having benefit on it. Better to directly give him a cash or anything that can help him to survive but just like the saying, it's better to teach a homeless man how to fish instead of giving him a fish to eat. Teach him on how to use and earn bitcoin instead of tipping him paper wallets.

I can understand that it is your dumb opinion,but no one will agree to this,how do you create a strong race if you are not able to show compassionate because humans are known for that and that is the difference between an animal and a human being.You are just a Nazi and i am out talking to you,get a life dude.If anyone wants to tip the homeless make sure that you could do that with fiat currency because it will be more useful for them than getting a paper wallet.

Just please check if these are real homeless not some gypsy mafia beggars. Never heard of gypsy mafia? Here's how it works.
They offer work, usually to women with children. They give them transport and housing, in London for instance, and every morning send them on their way to beg. IN the evening they pick them up by car and take most of their money.

Never give beggars money, offer them a meal.

I have watched a video of a woman that is begging money on the road but she is only on disguise. She didn't know that there is someone spying and taking her on video after a while when possible she collected well. She get on her car and undress with her beggar costume. But still there are some real people who are homeless, you can observe most of them are not begging.

Awesome idea but the fee is high. So when you give paper wallet, they can't send it to somewhere else to cash out. The amount disappears due to fee.

good idea but we should never give them illegitimate paper wallet to troll them. however, printing the bitcoin paper wallet, especially when you are planning to print certainly  large amount of that, make sure to have some crowdfunding to seek some of the group's support.
use altcoin, they are most likely to have far less dollar equivalent transaction fees.

Capitalism does not encourage anything, that comes from the people, whether you like capitalism or not that is the only system that is proven to work on a massive scale, is it perfect? No, but it is way better than communism and all other systems that have been created, because people will only work if they can keep most of the benefits of their work to themselves.

It is exactly this "helping" that causes the society to become how it is now.  These are not people that are going to change, they are people that are going to destroy us and create a race that the universe will laugh at and scorn.  God help us if aliens ever do take a peek at us, perhaps they have a that is why they marked a few fields and moved on.  Crop circle reading "avoid, damaged goods!". 

In my opinion, You keep feeding the homeless and we will keep building those that have something to offer and we will compare the results in ten years and see what happens.