Bitcoin Forum

would it be a good idea to try & get a Billionaire interested in Bitcoins at this stage?

I would much appreciate feedback on this & if you think that it would be then how would you suggest I approach this person, who I shall call E, I can pretty much be sure that E will read a brief proposal & maybe links to a more in-depth one, here's some background on E

E is someone I admire greatly, creative, fun, open minded, very very generous with an active philanthropic foundation that supports many varied worthy causes & projects - such as medical research, human rights, female empowerment, the arts, child & animal charities, ecological products & issues, construction, to the tune of about $40M over around the last 10 years in nearly 70 different countries worldwide & also has contributed to projects in the arts/women in my local area related of a good friend of mine who I persuaded to contact E's foundation & ask for help with funding what she was doing (my friend's husband was very grateful to me, as in "do you know how much you've just saved me per year?" - it was in the 5 figures)

E lives & works in the US & a couple of countries in the EU mostly & plenty of work too - not just a philanthropist

I am a long time neighbor of E & while not knowing E personally (I have though met & been to one of E's functions) I am good friends with at least one of E's buddies (though they don't hang out together nowadays, though are close - E came to his 50th BD party etc) whose house/s E bought at a good price so he could buy an amazing deal/property nearby & who's son (E's godchild) works full time now for E at an ecological production unit that E started under 5 years ago with an initial investment of some $15M - I organized with my friend's son a private group tour of the facilities & it's impeccable, everyone was very impressed with it

I have also witnessed, by chance, anonymous incredible generosity from this person that probably no one else who even knows E actually knows anything about at all

If E does choose to support something new then generally prefers to do that as a lump sum in to some project rather than as an ongoing commitment, though has contributed regularly to my friend's bi-annual arts/women projects

I obviously have no idea if E will have the slightest interest in Bitcoin or if interested what E may choose to do, E lead quite a rebellious bohemian life when younger so I'm thinking it may appeal & as a very high net worth individual may see personal advantages to it, E uses cash a lot - the donations to my friend's project are in cash (at least the first one was, I haven't asked how subsequent ones were given), on the other hand E may be quite indifferent to it, E may find it of interest that instead of being approached for funding here for once someone may be offering an opportunity to make money whist hopefully doing something that may be of long term benefit to Bitcoin

I shall ask my friend if I can use his name when sending my proposal, I'm sure that it would be fine - in fact even if I didn't ask him it wouldn't be any big deal for him - but as his son now works for E it is only right that I run it by him first

So, feedback, brief initial proposal ideas, deeper linked info, proposals of what E could contribute to Bitcoins if liking the concept wished to see it grow & support it & how E might benefit in various ways by doing so or at least not be out of pocket - or that the good done was worth the expenditure which would be E's main motivation I'm sure

I shall probably take my time with this as I'd like to get it right, it's a one shot deal I imagine, though I can be quite impulsive & just say screw it - let's do it & send it off when I feel that it's hot enough to be worth a crack at & to continue tweaking & faffing around may mean a lost op

this is a dynamic post in that I shall edit it to fill in the bits where I've just left ***s atm & need to look up or check - plus adding to it anything else that comes to mind re this later & correct typos & stuff as I haven't read it back tho even, as other stuff to get in to ~ partying etc.  :P

posting this early stages idea (though I've had it for a while) here in Speculation, if & when it's ready to propose to E then I shall start a post on it in the main Bitcoin forum unless peeps think that it would be better off just continuing here with this initial one

No offense, but the speculation forum was the worst place to put this :(

Our goal is not to sell billionaires large quantities of bitcoins so that the price can go up... instead, we want these billionaires to support adoption with whatever influence they have.  This should be moved to Bitcoin Discussion.

Agreed. Enough with the penny stock nonsense.

The more I read about such stuff the more bearish I become because it’s like we are desperate.

I think you should do this.

Tell him to buy about $100k at first so as to not raise the price too much. ;D

Start the rally engine ! :D

People like you make me vomit in disgust.

I said that this person works for the greater good & not personal gain so you are totally incorrect, if E was in to this it would be first off for Bitcoin as a whole because of wishing to support it, if E found personal financial uses for BTC then that prob would also be good for BTC, E is not a shark as you seem to assume all wealthy peeps are & would be well aware of the consequences of destabilizing the market by excessive buys - did you even read my OP?

I am sorry for the reception this has got, the topic is not a troll & the chances of E even being interested are I imagine very slim (none of my friends for instance that I have tried to sell on BTC have been persuaded, even the one's that I advised strongly to get in to gold in early 2007 - pre housing derivatives crash, which I also told them was imminent), but everything I have said is true & I was thinking of what good may be done for Bitcoins's development if a VHNW individual took an early & sympathetic interest

there are plenty of open source efforts well worth funding & developing, ie Armory wallet, if someone with those type of funds had my level of interest it would be both beneficial to the Bitcoin concept as a whole as to them personally for investing in related start ups etc - I was also recalling a thread on how best to support Bitcoin if you had $x00,000 or $1M - there were some very constructive ideas on what one could do there, ie - for one: stable exchange rate held for 1 year plus say by bid ask walls of $1M/BTC anywhere you choose to plant it, great for merchants & an eye opener for the media, getting legal precedents set in important jurisdictions re Bitcoins status & tons more...

Seems like your sarcasm detector needs a check mate.

Take it easy !

last year, I sent an e- mail to Jim Rogers,
inocently :) asking him for his opinion about bitcoin,
suggested him to start looking into it on wikipedia

I got the response within 30 hours
maybe it was not himself who wrote back,
but it was something like an apology  for not being able to say anything, because
he did not do his due diligence,
and suggested to me to take a look into commodities markets for investment opportunities

hopefully, seed planted...

Now I think it would go much better with Marc Faber.

Bitcoin is not ready for Prime Time. Sure, any invester would be a fool to not have some Bitcoin. It would be better to find investers that will help with businesses that are developing software and hardware for the next generations of Bitcoin markets.

exactly & exactly why I made this thread, for input on that & not to troll the Nigerian prince OMG someone may be about to drop $1M on this penny stock BS as ineededausername seemed to think

& also why I hope to move this forward in rl too, initial feedback is disappointing but if I feel it may be worthwhile I do it without any np

 E by gum E's a goodun'

 E's are good, Ebanezar's good, m.m.move any mountain

Forget investors and billionaires.

Someone speak to Mexican and Colombian cartels please.

Here's the pitch I would make to a billionaire, since I happen to have been thinking about this for a little while --

Peg Bitcoin to a basket of physical commodities.

Just as an experiment.  Bitcoin has the potential to be the first digital currency that is pegged (by the market even) to a small handful of physical elements.  All it needs is a little push in the right direction by someone with the means and motivation to do so.

Unfortunately I don't know what the consequence (including benefit) of this would be.  I couldn't really say how to monetize this idea.  I can see how it might be profitable.  It could qualify as philanthropy.  Or it could just end up being a really novel failure.  Regardless, someone should do it.

I mean, if I were a billionaire, I would throw a million dollars at fun ideas like this just to see what happens.  Of course, that's probably one reason I'm not a billionaire...

I'm sorry if that was not your intent... but you posted a thread about a billionaire + bitcoin in speculation, so it's easy to read it that way.

In my opinion it would be best to influence all of those people between you and him to use Bitcoins. People like your friend, his godson, other people who regularly interact with him.

Go for the most likely users, maybe e-mail them a few Bitcoins to spend as a birthday gift.

Fuck the billionairas



that is all.

+1

Surround him with it so it's not the first time he's heard of it when you suggest it.

Suggest that he set up a benevolent mining monopoly which controls the majority of hashing power, but excludes all other miners. Point out the profitability of this venture as the ability to earn 100% of newly generated bitcoin with just 51% of available hashing power.

I doubt this billionaire would want to become a millionaire for the sake of bitcoin.  51% would require the largest datacenter in the world.

Maybe E could fund a "Bitcoin Foundation" which would advertise/advocate Bitcoin and provide legal help for people regarding Bitcoins.
Sort of like the EFF.

You want billionaire E to support a cyrptocurrency that is in direct competition to the fiat currency that makes this billionaire a billionaire with its inflation practices that keeps securities such as stocks moving up.

The only way you can get the billionaire to buy some bitcoins is to scare them into thinking that it is only a matter of time before hyperinflation impacts USD and EUR and bitcoins would be a good hedge.  You have to get them off of gold.  If they are a billionaire then they have the ability to buy large sums of gold close to spot market price.  Maybe use the history of gold and silver confiscation to keep E away from precious metals.

apology accepted, I posted in the Speculation thread as it's mostly where I hang out & didn't want to make a big deal of this by posting it on the main Bitcoin forum where I expect it would attract even more pathetic fucktard comments like adamstgBit's

As Bitcoins is the currency of The Silk Road where those further down the narco food chain hang out & as they are constantly innovating to stay ahead of the curve re bizness & survival then I'm sure that it's on their radar screens, I bet it would cause some jaw dropping losses of coins as Carlos after a line too many accidentally wipes the wallet dat for equivalent of a shipment or 2, the logistical hurdle for them is probably how to move the coins in & out of cash as exchanges tend to want to KYC for such large sums, but then there is the convenience factor as opposed to say moving & storing room fulls of fiat to take in to account on the plus side for them, those lawless Ruskies are at the world number 3 spot for BTC interest I note

http://cdn.cnwimg.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/cash2.jpg?cda6c1

a typical room full of fiat

http://www.pclaunches.com/entry_images/0809/11/verbatim_tuff-n-tiny-thumb-450x315.jpg

https://imgur.com/a/VENE3vf

a typical pen drive full of the same amount of coins

this makes sense, but E is very hands offs I believe in running things so I doubt that my my friend's son has much if hardly any contact, he's fairly young & isn't the boss of it but I shall ask him & also tell him about Bitcoins, as for my friend I shall do the same but again they move in such different worlds that there is little contact between them - in the past they used to hang out & my best friend really used to know E well, unfortunately they had a terminal falling out so that road is closed, I've been trying to get him (my best friend) interested in coins as I think that the peeps he does business with, international art dealers, would be able to really benefit from it but his reaction to a virtual crypto currency is "& then poof! it's gone" - I told him it's 'the art of money' (Satoshi being the maestro artist who created it) which he liked, unfortunately that was just before the Linode hax so yep he wasn't wrong about how it can just go poof if you're not totally careful in handling it & tech savvy & it even happens to those that are & repeatedly too, though of course anything that isn't sufficiently well secured & looked after can be subject to theft or loss through carelessness so Bitcoin isn't alone in that regard

10 terahash is 10 million USD or about 1% of the billionare's net worth. He won't actually need 10 Terahash because many miners will exit once one agent fires up so many rigs. Once he has 51% and is able to prohibit competition, all other miners will exit mining because private mining will no longer generate bitcoin. As a result, he will be able to mine all of the world's bitcion using just a few hundred gigahash. The other 9.5 terahash can be kept offline as a threat to any potential competition. Using just a few hundred gigahash  worth of electricity expenditure per month, he will take in a revenue of 216,000 bitcoin per month or about 1 million USD per month. In about one year he will have recovered his initial investment. Certainly, if he is aware of safer investments which also have a 100% per annum expected return then he should pursue them. However it is extremely difficult to find opportunities this good.

hmmm, perhaps I won't after all make this pitch  :-\, many thanks to all those who gave constructive feedback, I shall add some more replies later - I was also just thinking that the BTC  100 charity effort may be a way to go, offer to add Bitcoin charity support via E's foundation to some of E's favorite & sometimes niche charitable ventures if they were to accept them & that would be bound to get E's interest in what Bitcoin was

No, please make the pitch. If he is a reasonable guy, then a mining monopoly under his control will be a good thing.

If I knew a billionaire I'd ask him to fund an independent evaluation of Bitcoin. Hire a prominent IT firm to take it completely apart, evaluate it's properties, it's soundness but avoid any economic evaluation, just the functionality. And then have them give it their stamp of approval.

Bitcoin doesn't need big money investment. It needs small money to feel comfortable using it.

That and throw some lawyers at it to see what they might have to say.

Just checked out E's foundation & it's awarded about $40M in total over the last 10 years or so to projects in nearly 70 different countries worldwide, the application process is quite formal, not surprisingly & geared towards non-profit organizations only as the foundation is a non-profit, so it would be best to set one of those up before applying & do it properly with the aims of the BTC NPO clearly stated, the benefits of various projects - just one per application I imagine & best to start with one clear & achievable one, the funding required, the time & geographical frame

So suggestions for the first project, it doesn't have to be the most important for BTC but more perhaps of a hook to get the foundation's initial interest & support, they are willing to make bets on visionary or risky projects which certainly sounds like Bitcoin to me

The bad news, new applications for grants are closed atm, I shall keep an eye out for when a new funding window opens (a bit like pirate@40's FPT&S) - this though gives time to set up an official BTC NPO or maybe the developers already have one, or an unofficial one for any particular project that I/the consensus here believe would appeal - so please state your interest in being part of this & what you'd bring to the table, it would have to be official & all legal & stuff so rl IDs needed etc, E's NPO requires verifiable official paperwork - it also prefers 2 years of certified accounts but will accept newly formed ones too, another question would be which country to form it in & I'd imagine the States but would welcome suggestions & obviously any grants awarded would have to be accounted for rigorously in their spending so references may be required to be exchanged amongst everyone involved to make sure of trust & liability for misuse, a bank account would be needed to receive the funds unless E does what happened to my friend here & just says yep, I like it, pop round & see my peeps - there's an envelope waiting for you

The other way to do this is informally & not directly though the foundation, but I think that the formal approach to show serious intent & professionalism is needed, I do know of one person who was helped via a direct approach though that was more charity than the type of funding BTC projects are looking for

I'm going out now to play & dinner after, so will be afk for a few hours & maybe not fully on my game after, but would welcome any suggestions re this, many thanks

Check out this thread:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=49841.0

this is a great idea and even better linking it to Gavin's proposed foundation

That's hardware only.... you need a building, huge power lines, a massive cooling system, and 24 hour security to keep people from running off with your expensive hardware.  Not to mention, keeping that many rigs running would be a full time job for at least one person.

You obviously have never dealt with large-scale computing.

Many thanks to you both, I'm picking up very positive vibes that the universe or whatever wants this to go ahead & enabling Gavin's BTC NPO seems the ideal way to do it, I read Mageant's post with much interest & will later check out the full thread that he referenced

In other news on the way to dinner with my best friend I met up with the friend who knows E longtime, these 2 are actually neighbors & he just happened to be out by the road, so I stopped to chat & for a couple of beers & he's well in to the concept of Bitcoin & it's possibilities, he's French & strongly of the 'Liberté, égalité, fraternité' school of thought, is a life long trade union head, is strongly behind the Arab Spring movement & believes it is the inevitable result of new tech like the Internets & mobile coms, he's perfectly happy that I use his name when applying to E for funding & this will make a big difference I'm sure to how it's received as it's from not just someone local but a friend of someone E really likes, my friend said he'd send me another contact email address for the foundation that's more local to me here, it's centralized elsewhere atm so I'll see, his info may be out of date if there's still an office here, but if so then that would be a much better way to approach it, in any case the application will now for sure stand out from the crowd of worthy causes & definitely be refereed to E rather than been just dealt with by E's NPO's board

& just as a side note that I mostly put here to remind myself, I intuitively think the Bitcoin concept & it's potential benefits may be especially relevant or applicable/beneficial to the African continent, where E supports a load of charitable initiatives - building hospitals, schools, orphanages, refuges etc - so if anyone had any proposals of how to blend a project that was good for BTC & also something Africa related then I'd be very grateful to hear any input on that or brain storming, it may be a good way to get E's & the foundation's initial interest & funding

Thanks again & if this seems to be moving forward to something more than just throwing an idea out there in a speculative manner to see what may happen, then I would be more than happy for this thread to be moved to a more appropriate section, Bitcoin forum, maybe development, which ever - I haven't explored so much to know which would be best for this at this stage

I've read mobile payments are big in Africa, but that fees are very high.  Perhaps bitcoin could help people keep more of their money while still enabling instant mobile to mobile transfers.

the friend I just had dinner with rang now to say he'd had a call from a very close friend of his who's also a very good friend of E with totally unexpected news re something that just happened* that in some way may (just maybe) be the beginning of a rapprochement of the long standing fall out between them, it's a big happening & so totally unexpected that it really reinforces to me that the gods are behind this one or at least find it amusing enough to encourage, it also reminded me that this other guy who I also know well is actually even more buddy's with E than my French friend, so maybe I can drop both of their names with the pitch for the foundation's support, the synchronicity it's timing are quite mind blowing to me atm

* he asked me not to let anyone know about it as though it's no big deal is still confidential atm

There actually has been some discussion on how Bitcoin could be useful for Africa:

Bitcoin – a real chance for Africa?
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=16230.0
http://78.47.182.40/gromobir/gromobirblog/?p=109

The idea basically is that Bitcoin could be used as a cheap method for African expatriates sending money back home.
Currently used systems like Western Union have very high fees.

many thanks for both suggestions, I will follow the threads up tomorrow

Gosh!..., I had written a very long post that unfortunately disappeared. Will try to remember and spew parts of it since I'm now very tired.
--------
I always found the speculation sub to be the best place to find trools, / not surprised.

I would be very careful in spending large amount of money onto bitcoin before it has matured natually.

Core:
First, There are some needed changes and research to be done around the core protocol definition that would benefits from minimal funding, ~250k$

Ecosystem - distribution :
Then supporting development of related software and services...
Finding new ways to distribute bitcoins as evenly as possible via freebies and offers but mostly through empowering people to work and earn them for simple yet engaging tasks.

Mining:
Bitcoins generation (mining) is more and more at risk of being centralized and prohibitive due to private large scale fgpa / ASIC mining operations.

We are struggling to coordinate and fund development of dedicated mining hardware.  People in the industry give estimates between 500 000 and 10m$ for a fully custom ASIC (depending on technologies and scale).  This would be the holy grail for affordable network security.  

There has to be a balanced momentum of people joining in, security going up and affordable mining hardware being deployed.

Increased network security would in turn attract biger player.

Anyone with enough money wouldn't use GPUs to mine though, it would be far more cost effective to develop an ASIC that could do a GHash/watt. Actually developing it wouldn't be that hard, you could even use the open source FPGA code, but implement it much more efficiently in hardware, the main barrier is having a run of the chips produced. With ASICs, I could see a single rack containing several THash.

So you could potentially run it out of your garage. Awesome.

Re long posts disappearing before posting, I mostly write ones that I don't wish to risk of that happening on gmail compose which auto saves every couple of minutes or so & you can save at any other time with 1 click (after  something that you particularly don't want to lose say) or keep as a draft & add to, tweak, finish later - so at least the bulk of one's text is usually not lost

All your points sound good to me, unless E was one of the few peeps who became an instant Bitcoin fan on coming across it & seeing it's revolutionary potential then I doubt that a 6 figure grant application would be the best way to start, I was thinking more of a small project that could be achieved in under 1 year say & would be relatively peanuts to the foundation, under $100,000 - preferably low 5 figures, my friend's first was for $13,300 & that worked very well. The main point being to get the foundation & E interested in Bitcoins as a concept & maybe they will start coming up with potential applications of how it could benefit their other projects, once 1 Bitcoin related project had been funded then it would be easier pitching the more technical, esoteric, less sexy ones that were more important to Bitcoin development

So maybe a smallish project, maybe something that could have a very obvious benefit to a cause that E likes & already supports (see my OP), maybe something Africa related, I also have a friend who is communications director of a company & dealing with the launch of a product in to a new market, the US & she may be willing to do some freelance media relations on this NPO project, I can already see some fairly snappy headlines for press releases ie, Billionaire Backs Bitcoins - blar, blar, blar or perhaps better more low key

Also if it tickled E's fancy that the application was coming from a neighbor & friend of a couple of E's buddies, then I imagine future & more ambitious Bitcoin related project would be way easier to get funded & there's even a slim chance E may wish to hear more about Bitcoin in person from me - which would be awesome

all of these suggestions sound good to me, but for later down the road if E was showing an active interest in Bitcoin's development & potential

I've checked out & read all the Africa links & topics suggested & something that made mobile to mobile (smart phones being big there) Bitcoin payments & linked to M-Pesa or was an alternative for it would be excellent, as would exchanges in Africa so that peeps could get the local fiat - but if something linked BTC to M-Pesa then that would work & once done money can be easily transferred back home to Africa from abroad in Bitcoins saving the senders being ripped off for up to 20% of their funds by Western Union etc

Obviously the apps for Bitcoin mobile function-ability are in the works & already coming out, so the link to M-Pesa or African exchanges is all that's needed right now - it has to be an initiative from a NPO though to apply for foundation funding

http://www.technologyreview.com/business/39829/?p1=BI

I'm still interested in trying to help fund any NPO doing this btw

Based on the size of the investment and expected balance of trade, this is going to end up being one guy in Nairobi buying Bitcoins until his $20,000 runs out, isn't it?

I mean, do you have any idea how much was invested in Tradehill?  And it failed and could never even afford a MSB license.

I have a feeling licensing would be less of an issue outside the US.

yes. promote the adoption of bitcoin. after all, we don't just use it for speculation, or do we? i at least don't. and i would love to see a bright future for bitcoin guaranteed!

"This should be moved to Bitcoin Discussion"

I agree

many thanks for the move & those I know who could potentially help move this forward have been very positive about that so far

https://encrypted-tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQSmp1Jjj9m_peyonxLMD_sTcfoDhr0bIetV1ioLXPeIXolYZxTvA

He should get his movie star friends to talk about it.

Otoh, I'm in a similar situation. I know a millionaire who I've been talking to about Bitcoin myself so I'll provide some advice.

I'd just talk to them about money and ask what they think is the makeup of sound currency.

This is of course, a discussion best had after a ton of research, but I'll be frank with you and you can be frank with him: There is just too much risk in fiat money right now.

There was a documentary called "The Money Masters" that I saw about a decade ago. It completely changed my life. It's done in perfect 90s theme, a complete three-and-a-half hours long. Don't let that scare you, though, ultimately it was the most informational piece I've ever watched in probably my entire life, and it does so in a very non-conspiratorial fashion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXt1cayx0hs

Most of our political differences could be resolved if we just had sound currency. From there we could deal with issues in a very straightforward fashion. Bitcoin provides us an avenue to do so.

PLEASE watch Money Masters some night after you've put the kids to bed and have nothing else to do. I promise you that you will not regret it. The guy who made it has also gone on to do other things, and he was wrong with some of his predictions, but ultimately he provided enough warning for me to make adjustments to my investments that have saved me and helped me preserve my finances over the years.

You're probably looking at a situation where that billionaire might be willing to be an angel investor. But this means that you need a solid business idea. After all, what I think bitcoin needs right now is an economy, and that means LOTS OF BUSINESSES.

If you want to somehow give your idea a philanthropic slant, how about creating a non-profit consumer protection scheme that provides a viable alternative to chargeback? A "consumer insurance union" of some kind?

For the past few days, I've been thinking about something like this, but didn't know how viable it would be until now--seeing it penned by another user.

~Bruno~

I want to know how this going.

I have to agree with this. We don't need 'em... :P

The best thing a billionaire could do would be to buy into companies (or use companies they already have large investments in) and convince them to add bitcoin to their payment/withdraw methods. A few midlevel online retailers accepting bitcoins could make a huge difference. Also another area would be companies that buy/sell online ads, imagine an ad network that could pay out hourly/daily with no chargebacks.

If I were a billionaire, and I wanted to give a few of my friends/cronies a nice Christmas present, I would tell each of them, independently, to invest part of their portfolio in Bitcoin, for come later this year I'm going to announce something big. Most likely, each investor will at least double their investment due in part to me following through with my kind gesture.

~Bruno~

Thanks! All I know is there's a gap and ordinary buyers can be easily caught out with no easy recourse. I'm thinking it's really an amalgamation of two ideas.

1) A "Fair Go" like website that educates people with a list of known scams, a stay-safe checklist, basic training on web security/encrypting wallets etc, instructions on going to the police with the right information, and maybe a database of suspicious recipient addresses and/or convicted individuals. An FAQ? And definitely balance it out with some coaching on Bitcoin's natural advantages. Basically a sincere place that I could send my Aunt to arm her with knowledge without worrying (too much) that's she'll get put off.
2) Insurance where members are willing to pay a fee to a "refund pool" that they own shares in. I suspect there could be loopholes, which would make that a trickier venture.

My 0.02BTC:

A billionaire investment in either mining or simply bitcoins themselves would be a waste of effort and money I think.  For bitcoin to succeed it needs broad acceptance; not narrow.  Regardless of how much capital that narrow acceptance has behind it.  Either of these "investments" would do nothing other than make lot of other people a little bit richer (us who already hold bitcoins).  And ideally we don't want mining under control of any one entity.

Better then is the philanthropic angle (and I believe it would be good non-philanthropically as well).  Before bitcoin can be widely accepted as payment; merchants need to see that they aren't accepting some potentially worthless trinket-token.  The way they can see that is from the exchanges.  They provide liquidity and price-finding.

Trying to fight the legal system in the developed countries is an obvious nightmare, for a not-huge reward (relative to the size of those developed economies).  Getting working exchanges in underdeveloped countries would be hugely beneficial; to bitcoin the project, but more importantly, to the country.

I really do believe that free trade has the power to transform.  Bitcoin is the embodiment of the free-trade-tool.

Therefore if I had the ear of a philanthropic billionaire, I would be trying to persuade him to open exchanges in underdeveloped countries and put some PR and legal backing behind them.  Kenya would be my first choice; then Nigeria; if it weren't for the insane political climates, Iran and North Korea would be good too.  It's a bit late for Brazil (it's already doing fine on its own), but some of the smaller South American countries would benefit enormously from a solid bitcoin.

Here's the pitch then: "Rich western mobile company, Vodafone, has managed to become an integral part of the Kenyan economy.  They've done it with their mobile-to-mobile payment system m-Pesa.  They are a centralised private company and are charging relatively large fees to provide, essentially banking services to poor Kenyans.  That centralisation gives them a discomfiting amount of control over Kenyan trade; and those fees are a yoke around the neck of people trying to dig themselves out of an economic hole.  We could help them.  Bitcoin is a decentralised payment system with minimal transfer fees.  It can transfer value from any point on the internet to any other point on the internet near instantaneously.  There is no single entity profiting from these transfers, and anyone can join in with the system that earns those fees, with no barrier to their entry.  Using bitcoins as a method of transferring value is economically highly efficient.  That efficiency can translate to profit.  Even more so in the African continent as there are very few competing services.

Kenyan's need the banking facilities that we take for granted to grow their economy.  Bitcoin would give them those facilities.  It needs infrastructure and marketing investment to penetrate the market though.  While that investment will take care of itself in rich countries, it is unlikely to in poor countries.  For the first time in the history of the world, an African country could be ahead of the game.  All it will take is to sow the seeds."

The biggest problem of course, is finding someone with the drive to push a project like this.  I suspect that that, more than the money, is where the billionaire can help you.  They must have access to lots of get-up-and-go people.  Get one of them on board, and get them funded and I genuinely believe that Bitcoin could remake Africa.

How is a country with no money going to get Bitcoin? It's another common problem we have. Fiat -> BTC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc8O1VevmcI

I don't know if this fits here, but I think it's an interesting development.

How did any country go from 0 to something?

Let's imagine that the entire Kenyan economy was worth $10.  I could turn up there with an exchange and $10 worth of bitcoins and they would have the facilities they need.

It makes no difference how much money they have.  It makes a difference that they have the ability to trade.  First with each other, then with the rest of the world.  Bitcoins would help with that.

What the billionaire could finance is a network of exchange shops in Africa (or other developing countries) where people could convert the Bitcoins they receive into the local currency.

What Bitcoin needs most is the creation of a Bitcoin foundation that does PR, legal matters and development.

+1

either this or funding of separate projects in those areas. imho right now development is still the most important part. thats why i am a bit sad that armory's crowdfunding wasnt more successful. i also hope gavin and the other developers get an occasional donation but a bigger and more steady flow of money would surely help.

many thanks for the positive posts especially the pitch here above & any further ideas along these lines would be most welcome, I'm wondering if the way to go may be to give the Africa, South America etc as examples of what could be done & that will probably develop naturally especially if the BTC price becomes more stable (say closer to the % daily/monthly moves in the gold price) & concentrate on trying to get funding for an obvious general good Bitcoin development project then ask the foundation which if any they may be more interested in backing - I shall also go & have a chat with my friend who already receives funding re this & her husband who's involved in charity & NPO work

edit: Bitcoin 419s coming to an email inbox near you soon - I need your help to move my coins to $s with a bank/exchange in your country  :P

This is the first I've heard of this and I frequent almost every forum but Bitcoin Discussion and Technical/Development on a regular basis. It sounds like posts need to be made in forums outside of these two. And possibly also on Bitcoin subreddit.

https://i.imgur.com/qZlTZPx.jpg

Just in the interests of historical completeness, I'm necro-ing this thread, I never did make this pitch in the end, over eight years ago, and sometimes I wonder what may have happened had I had done so and if she would have been receptive to it.

I think that the main reason that I didn't follow through with a pitch was that I thought it would work best as a fundraising appeal to her charity for some worthwhile bitcoin-related project which would need to be made via an NPO and there wasn't the enthusiasm or momentum for setting one up unless I was to do it all by myself.

Most likely one to do with remittances via BTC could have been well received and possible to appeal to her interests, or I could have just pitched bitcoin as the superior alternative to fiat & gold and see if she caught my enthusiasm for it, but inertia won the day.

I was amused that it was assumed a billionaire philanthropist must be a male, it was, in fact, my erstwhile sometimes neighbour (https://interiorsmagazine.com/stories/june-july-2016/design-icon-elsa-peretti/) at that time Elsa Peretti (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsa_Peretti).

https://d32dm0rphc51dk.cloudfront.net/chdCkyzTdwCGkC8DeEek7w/large.jpg