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Hello my name is Christopher Franko, as you are all aware of the #IceBucketChallenge (http://www.alsa.org/fight-als/ice-bucket-challenge.html) I decided to do it in order to show my support of Hal Finney and to do my part in bringing attention to ALS.

For more information about how you can help bring awareness and to ALS check out this link:

http://www.alsa.org/fight-als/ice-bucket-challenge.html

All bitcoin donated will be sent to the ALS community to help fund research.

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The Video: http://youtu.be/-phN1Xtrq_I (http://youtu.be/-phN1Xtrq_I)

I also Challenge:

 Gregory Simon, Sean Dennis, From ribbit.me
 Gavin Andresen, (https://twitter.com/gavinandresen)
 Elizabeth Ploshay, (http://elizabethtploshay.com)
  Christopher Ellis (https://twitter.com/MrChrisEllis),
 and Tom from Mad Bitcoins (https://twitter.com/MadBitcoins)

Guidestar.org   Check it out before donating!!

Less than 30% of your money donated gets used to help people with ALS or R&D for ALS. Less than 30%!!! 0.30 cents per 1 usd. $30 per $100 usd. The person that runs ALS.org gets PAID!!! $320,000 IN 2012. The most recent tax filings. The % paid to run the "charity" *cough* operating costs, are greater than the % given out to help! A true travesty!!

It's a shitty charity!! This "Ice Bucket Challenge" is ridiculous!



Guidestar.org   Check it out before donating!!

glad to see someone else is h elping spread awareness! and people, please remember, don't just do the ice bucket challenge, also please donate as well! so many ppl on my facebook are ignorant and just doing the challenge to be cool because it went viral, please at least donate 10 or 20 bucks and then spread the word!!!

good job!

You should challenge Satoshi

You know nothing about 3rd sector organisational structure clearly.

$320k is not that much for director of a charity.

Charities are immensely complicated and require professionals to run them like any organisation.

Every $ donated helps the cause, but the 70% you quote makes the 30% spent more efficient.

Calling it a shitty charity and the ice bucket challenge ridiculous is hugely ignorant.

Thank you guys for all your support!

This person has very little trust. I would personally not want to donate via someone with this amount of trust. I have personally already both taken the ice bucket challenge to spread awareness and donated a significant amount of fiat money to this cause. I do think that BTC related donations does have potential for ALS research but I think it should be done in a more reputable way.

I have little trust? lol That means alot coming from someone that noone knows. You dont have to send btc to me at all that is why I provided all the contact information for ALS, sending fiat is GREAT! But for the crypto community that may want to donate BTC I can do that completely transparently, gotta love blockchain technology <3 Thanks for your input and I hope you have a great day!

I would have to agree.  30% is terrible.  I helped start two charities - one end of 1998 into early 1999 that I stayed on the Board for 5 years - and has as of 2014 now donated more than $25 million for cancer research.  The people who started it were volunteers and yes, we paid a few professionals (attorneys and accountants, but many donated time) but nothing like 70% overhead, maybe 1% for filing fees and the like. 

ALS is a terrible disease and donating to it is very worthwhile, but using only 30% for research is, as 1CoolNewb said, a travesty.  If this guy really cared, he'd be taking 1/5th or 1/4th of what he is getting paid.

The other way to donate is to look at researchers at Universities who are actually doing research, and donating directly to the University for that department or researcher.  Then there is no overhead and you do more good.

Yea that is a good idea. ^_^

I vowed not to do the ice bucket challenge since california is undergoing a serious drought rigt now.

You can do the California Dirt Bucket challenge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSx83WNNo6M

Yeah I noticed kids and people taking on the icebucket challenge and really dont have understanding that is a charity act for ALS,  I didnt see video saying they are going to donate any funds nor any nominate anyone for it.  I feel like calling them and asking why did you add ice in a bucket of water and splash yourself, was you bored?

Yup there are no excuses :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML3zaY5FZ9E (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML3zaY5FZ9E)

Great work OP.  Nice to see a challenge video with a focus on the cause :D

I wonder what the next charity fad, pushed by viral social media, will be.

Hi you have to also realize that ALS didn't get much support before. They've made 56 million already, 30% of that isn't going to be the only amount given. If you only make 2 million in donations.. And your expenses are high, obviously a lower % will be used for research. Their bills will stay the same.. So more will go for research.

Warm 10 Gallon of Shit Challenge introduced: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=752435.0

Update: Now on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2eawbv/warm_10_gallon_bucket_of_shit_challenge/

Stupid challenge, because i take cold shower every day.

Well I have donated $30 to the cause.
But seriously?
The california dirt bucket challenge?
You're going to have to wash the dirt off anyways. Lol

so you think!

No one has to know me, as I am not asking to do business with anyone nor am I asking for money to give to a charity. Yes, you can use the blockchain to be transparent, but this would only confirm the amount that needs to be donated. The blockchain will not force you to actually use the money you receive to actually donate.

If you really want to get people to donate to this cause via BTC then I would suggest finding a reputable escrow service to take the donations, sell the BTC on an exchange and donate to the ALS foundation. The escrow's reputation would increase the chances that people will trust that their money will actually go to the cause. 

Thanks for your input. Coinbase is pretty reputable and all the transactions are stored publicly on the blockchain.

I will have to agree with itsAj on this one. The donations are not being given to coinbase. They may (or may not be) processed through coinbase however they are not going to force you to donate funds to the ALS foundation. To be honest this smells like a scam to me.

EDIT: especially considering the fact that the donation address receive exactly one donation almost right after the OP was posted and has received exactly nothing since then.

That was one thing that made me very suspicious as well. I thought it was very strange the someone was donating a very small amount almost right after the OP was posted.

Yall are right! This must be a scam because only one person donated via bitcoin >_< #CryptoLogic

It is not the fact that only one person donated, it is the fact that one person donated almost immediately. If you don't want to find someone reputable to collect donations to give to the ALS foundation then I will find someone myself that is reputable that the community will trust to forward the fund to what many think is a good cause.

Do what you think you have to whiteknight. I'm publicly known, all my information is publicly known and quit frankly it would be absolutely ludicrous to think that I would scam the community out of $1 that someone on youtube said they sent. Bitpay is already working on an alternative and when they land their deal and start to collect fee's from the donations, well at least they are trust worthy!

Only on bitcointalk can people turn a noble thread about donating coin into a scam accusation.

I'll second this. I've worked for a charity (I shan't name it, but it's huge) that really is a scam. They donated less than 5% to the cause they "supported". 30 percent direct is actually pretty good. The regulatory hoops to operate a 503(c) registered charity are immense, and the workforce is only partially volunteer. Problem with volunteers is that they are under no obligation. Guy getting paid has to show up and work. So that's the model they follow, almost without exception, and the officers make a fair living. Just because the charity is set up to make a profit and THEN deliver it does not mean they aren't doing the right thing. You'd be pretty happy with a 30% dividend on you holding in a for profit, wouldn't you?

EDIT: To the idiots crying scam. I personally know Chris Franko. He's a stand up guy. I also had an uncle, Rollin Putzier, who died from ALS. At the time of his death, he had survived with the disease longer than anyone on record. He was my favorite uncle, and I'm convinced that he lived as long as he did simply because he was too damn stubborn to die. But it was tough watching him deteriorate in his final years. This is a cause that's close to me. I personally have donated thousands of dollars to ALS research over the last two decades and will continue to do so as I have the ability. I particularly want to see research into nanotechnology and nanosurgery, because it might reverse the ravages of the disease while they figure out how to eradicate it.

Hal Finney has died:
http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/2014-August/082585.html

Yea I just learned about it this morning :((

Terrible terrible news. On the bright side, cryogenics!

www.btlsfoundation.org = A wonderful charity. Even if you do not believe in their cause, the way the charity is run is a superb example of how a charity should work. Over 60%+ giveback. No one on the board takes a salary. That is the purpose of a charity. To give back.
https://www.btlsfoundation.org/images/pdf/2013BTLSFoundation990-EZ.pdf
http://www.btls.com/news/amyotrophic-lateral-sclerosis-assn-als.html

AS an example of a terrible way to run a charity look at the Wounded Warrior Project. $150,000,000 raised and less than $6,000,000 in givebacks. WTF is that all about? I'll explain... It's all about padding the pockets of those involved.

Do your due diligence as a responsible person and look up the charities you want to donate to. You may change your mind and find another more worthy cause. If ALS is your cause... Graet They need all the help they can get. Find a charity that actually gives back.  

since this thread was resurrected from the dead, I might as well add input. (sorry to kinda hijack your thread chris, but i think we both are excited about this one)

I've been blessed to become friends with Fran Finney over the last month now, she has been so encouraged by the bitcoiners that are doing this!


Chris has been another one who has been a very awesome and supportive person to fran and participated in the icebucket challenge along with me before hal passed. thanks dude!


The groups out there that we (fran and I) are talking to about taking cryptos for the donations would be putting 100% of funds towards actual research and/or treatment/prevention/cure of ALS. Hopefully in the next few weeks we can present something to the bitcoin community to be added in the running for the ALS donations (or get some more continuous donations going to support ALS research more longterm). ALS research/prevention/care/etc is something that I think the community can fund and blow away any other donation group!

I know that she and I have been talking about getting some "Hal's Pals" tees printed up through a local print shop (since they are unable to donate financially, but can donate through tee shirts) as a way to get some funding together in cryptos so we can honor hal and also connect with others with ALS who may be encouraged to hear the Finney story (and bring to light the goodness in the cryptocommunity at large).

Please do not think that the tee shirt funding would be anything that is taking funding away from ALS research/care but as a way for those who can't/won't financially donate but can justify a donation otherwise (be it printing tees, sending a donation in return for a tee, or just want to donate to a "smaller" cause). It will also give some inherent value to all coins as I'm aiming to bring to light that any crypto donation is a donation in honor of hal and in honor of ALS treatment/prevention/cure (plus possibly pay for some of the costs for hal's preservation), which I think would make hal excited.



proof of my friendship with fran for anyone who doubts https://twitter.com/franfinney/status/507344700366286849


I did not ask her about posting this before I did, so if this ends up being offensive I may take it down, and be aware that I am speaking for myself, and from my point of view.