Bitcoin Forum

So I'm playing with the idea of having all my current and future bitcoin businesses donate 1% to some kind of bitcoin development fund.  It's something I'm hoping will spread to other bitcoin businesses.  1% isn't a lot of coin right now, but it will add up over time and as overall bitcoin commerce picks up, and it could become significant, especially if I'm successful in recruiting others.

My main question is if there is already a fund to which I could pass the coins along?  Should we just give to the dev team?  Is there an organization that collects funds and then tries to use them for things like development and/or bitcoin promotion (like the weusecoins video)?

I'm working on an ebook that explains bitcoins to people who don't know anything about them. The goal is to raise awareness and value of the bitcoin in general. While we wouldn't accept donations, we are accepting contributions to the free ebook. Metaco.in looks cool if you want to trade links.

1% donations anywhere isn't necessary now, however we'll need to find a lobbyist to start fighting for bitcoin if the government starts outlawing it.

The purpose of our group ( http://bitcoinconsultancy.com/ ) is to generate enough funds to support Bitcoin developers and drive Bitcoin forwards.

A list of open source bitcoin developers and writers is maintained at:
https://github.com/Unthinkingbit/charity/blob/master/bitcoindonationinformation.txt

The condensed version of that list, with only the bitcoin donation addresses and shares is at:
https://github.com/Unthinkingbit/charity/blob/master/almoner.csv

People can suggest other open source developers and writers by sending a message to me through the forum, or posting on the Bitcoin Donation Information thread at:
https://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=18498

You've gotta be kidding, right?

Look to businesses (who are mostly latecomers) for donations? If anything, they ought to be incentivized to do business in bitcoins.

It's the early entrants who are hoarding who ought to be donating and creating some liquidity in the market. Hoarding it all is killing development.

The businesses are the last who should donate.

The incentive for doing business in bitcoin is profit.  If business give back a % of profit to development/promotion, possibly hoarders will be more willing to part with some of their money.  It benefits both sets of people if Bitcoin does well.

Maybe put this 1% up for bounties that YOU would deem necessary/beneficial for Bitcoin.

I like the developers, but I don't think they would code any faster/better if I just throw them a few coins. Also I doubt they would implement the stuff I'd like to see as a first priority. If I pay/motivate someone else to create a patch though, I guess they are more than happy to pull this in the main client or whatever.

Well I sell products in USD. I have no reason to sell anything in BTC.

OK I have one reason, for novelty value to gather some BTC. I have tried selling some things and got no biters. Because people hoard it and don't spend it.

To get them to spend, I'd have to offer massive discounts. Actually I tried this already then thought "why should I?" I'll just keep selling in USD.

The problem is my 1% isn't very significant.  If bitcoin businesses banded together we might be able to make the 1% significant.  If we paid one or more developers for full time work, much more would get done.

I don't think we're to the point where you can just take anything that you can sell for other currencies and pop up a bitcoin version.  But there are certain areas where transactions in bitcoin have a comparative advantage.  The key is finding, developing, and marketing those.  There's money to be made; you just have to find it.

In USA the price of gas is calculated to 4 digits, like 2.899 dollars/gallon. Do you really think businesses would give away 1% when they're greedy enough to make customers read 4 digits just so they can get an extra penny? What's in it for them? Most people don't know about Bitcoin. If they want to give money away, its usually so they can advertise that they give to charity, and they put in the fine print the small fraction that goes to the charity or sometimes don't say at all. How will giving x money to bitcoin make those businesses more than x money? It won't, so they won't give x money to bitcoin.

If someone gave some money to charity and told people about it enough times that, if they had worked a job for that much time their pay would exceed the amount they gave to charity, then what would you think of that person? But when businesses do it, somehow people are fooled into thinking more positively about those businesses.

If you really want to give businesses a reason to accept Bitcoin, tell them you'll pay 110% of the price every time you come in if you can pay it in Bitcoin, and get an organization started that makes such an offer, backed by lots of members, and tell the owners of such businesses about such organization. Its the same idea as government giving tax deductions for certain things government wants you to do. We pay 10% more, and the Federal Reserve gets 100% less. Sounds like a good deal to me.

What are they? Apart from the illegal, of course.

Well, I can't just tell you, then I'd be giving away all my future businesses. :)

I like the idea, but can't afford another 1% and wouldn't expect to be able to convince anyone else to either.

Come on now, can't afford 1%?  Is BiddingPond your sole source of income?  Are your margins that tight?  Aren't you more concerned with bitcoin succeeding in the long run rather than making an extra 1% right now?  Won't all of us early businesses be much more successful if we band together to help the project?

Sign me up

Yup, see here for how businesses could be incentivized:

http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=19130.0