Bitcoin Forum

The below is an idea I've been mulling over for a while in some form, a way to make good use of the fact that we have an inflating currency. To be clear, it is only a concept - it's not happening unless people want it to happen.

Inspiration: The Wellcome Trust, but for science/tech as a whole and science engagement.

PROPOSAL: The Satoshi Science and Technology Trust (SSTT)

A global charitable foundation dedicated to furthering knowledge and improving the well being of humanity through scientific research and education.

KEY FOCUS POINTS

Targeted research with a clear benefit to humanity
Theoretical research to further human knowledge
Identification and sponsorship of outstanding researchers and technologists
Improving public engagement and science education worldwide

Independent of both political and commercial interests.

WHY?

A friend always asks me what I want to do in life if money was no object; if I could go off and do anything I wanted. Eventually I worked it out.

I want to get people excited about science and technology.

I want to ensure good science continues to be done.

I want to find to enable the best people to find solutions to major problems, both in theoretical and practical disciplines.

I'd really like to see a revamped World's Fair type event, full of inspiring people, experiments and technology!

(My friend said - "I want to bring the moon buggy back to Earth")

Bitcoin has the power to do bring about change on many fronts. In this case, planning and fund raising now could bring about important advances in the future.

WHY BITCOIN?
It dawned on me that small donations now would lead to a large fund later. The trust wouldn't move into operational mode until a pre-agreed target, while the legal structures would be in place to protect the funds accordingly. With a Bitcoin Bank hopefully on the way, Neo, the funds can be safely stored under a multi-sig and legally compliant environment.

HOW WOULD IT BE FUNDED?
It would request sponsorship and backing from the Bitcoin community, both businesses and individuals. If 1000 people donated 1 Bitcoin, that could be worth $10-$100,000,000 in a few years. Of course I'd like to see more than that raised, but I feel that 1000 is a great first target.

WHAT NEXT?
This is just an idea. For it to happen it needs people, supporters, to put a framework together.

Any thoughts?

Anyone inspired?

I'm in.

If I can afford 1 bitcoin for a ticket to the "When-bitcoin-reaches 1000" party in Frankfurt, I can afford this.   :)

With this argument above, you got me! Very nice and wonderful idea...

i like your idea. we need bitcoin based charity projects like this to give some of gold that has been poured upon our heads to people in need.
1 btc is reasonable, maybe smaller donations should be possible. or people could team up to donate 1 btc.

It's a good idea, but to be frank, I don't think a central organization is the optimal solution. Bitcoin enables us to do these things transparently and without the need of accumulating capital in one place. Openly discussed and funded projects are the way to go, in my opinion.

So, instead of a foundation, why not design an open forum specifically for this purpose, maybe even the first one of such funded projects?

The accumulation of capital in one place is key to the whole idea - which is to benefit from an inflating currency. You can invest $50 now and it may be worth $5000 in a few years.

Note that there are significant legal and organisational issues to funding individual projects as they have to conform to e.g. university funding regulations in the relevant territories and so on.

I think Kickstarter is a better approach for project based fund raising, and I also don't believe science should be a popularity contest. That's crucial to the whole approach. Hopefully Kickstarter will accept Bitcoin soon enough :)

A monolithic aggregation of BTC capital in one place won't require the SSTT to be an unresponsive or wasteful bureaucratic entity, interested only in its own survival at the expense of its mission. We often associate ineffective institutions with massive pots of capital because that is they way things have been until now - Bitcoin lets us break that link.

I'd say you want as much money as possible held by the SSTT so it is taken extremely seriously from the get-go. We need scientists and technologists who volunteer their skills to be confident a non-state actor is capable of funding incredible, world-changing research. What better way than keeping the equivalent of hundreds of millions to billions of USD on deposit? Ofc, it will be helpful to employ a few frugal accountants to oversee the funds and there is always blockchain.info which will let us watch how they are spent ;)

The entity can certainly exist as a coherent structure to interact and oversee, but an ultimately transparent fund with completely distributed control is no different in function to no central fund at all. I don't think the association you are talking about is baseless, since control and opaqueness is not a side effect of centralized capital, but rather its purpose. Bitcoin lets us break free by not requiring centralization for efficiency.


Fully transparent accounting would be an interesting project in itself. :)


My humble opinion on the matter is: who cares? I think what such an organization can accomplish and benefit from is freedom from territories and (some) regulations. Otherwise, what's the difference?

Either way, I think I would still be in, regardless of how you structure it. It's a step in the right direction.

Crowdfund it. Allow anyone to donate Bitcoins within the next 6 months to receive membership level access (early access) to the latest research papers before it's released to the world. Perhaps give voting rights and free them from ever having to pay for membership dues.

Well, your idea is great. I like to contribute it later.

Good luck.

I like the motivations behind this idea!

Having a way of decoupling funding for scientific research from government and politics would be something I would love to see.

Not sure, if having a centralized pool of capital for funding research projects is the best solution - it runs into the decision-making problem of "who is going to decide which projects get funded?"

Ideally I would like to see a culture of crowdfunding arise around areas like this, where people acknowledge their responsibility and involve themselves and their capital in funding projects they deem worthwhile.

Meanwhile I'll be happy to support your idea and donate to such a fund.

I would love to support and be a part of this organization, though like others I am also concerned about the beurocratic concerns with a large fund sitting in one place, and people fighting over who should get what.
Perhaps it can be set up as a venture capital competition, where people with science and tech ideas can compete to get funding for their ideas, which can either be loans or grants. I often point out that incentives drive everything, and we have to figure out how to structure the incentives in this proposed organization so that there is some risk involved with making bad decisions, and rewards for making good ones. Just sitting on a large pile of ever growing money is a massive incentive to just continue to sit on it.

Keep the feedback coming. It's all being listened to.

I've come back to this idea now I have a little more time available.

If anyone reading this would like to talk further please PM me.