Bitcoin Forum

Welcome to the Australian Bitcoin Foundation


Objectives

To promote the peoples financial freedom liberty and choice while minimizing costs.

Crypto Currencies, with the originator Bitcoin represent a financial paradigm shift for our and future generations. We represent the interests of this innovation to Australian Government, Business and Consumers alike and their international interfaces.

We look to embrace International Bitcoin Foundations and Associations, and represent Australia's voice and innovation.

As a non-political innovation Bitcoin is backed exclusively by maths and its code.

We look to fund the Bitcoin ecology, representation, advocacy and education to broader society, being a touchstone of information, and fora for public discussion. Bitcoin will thrive by the meritocracy of its ideas and codebase and claer advantages it offers.

Optimal decision making for all stakeholders will be decisions that promote financial efficiency and improved standards of commerce and living while reducing costs.
 
In this context we serve to answer many of the misconceptions, and questions in relation to Bitcoin, as well as explain how it all works.

Join us.

Reserved

Probably a good idea.

So far, the only surefire way I found to get my Aussie friends interested was to send a bunch of free mBTC to the more technologically open-minded ones.

I'm a Jamaican guy but run a FB Page that pays homage to Aussie girls (http://aussiegirls4.me/) and, unsurprisingly, we accept bitcoin for tips or special requests, and are currently giving away a possible BTC0,05 prize just for answering a simple question and Liking its corresponding post.

So we would definitely endorse such a foundation, if not with donation/membership fee then at least a supportive nod and FB Like. :)

Hi Jubalix, we are in the process of registering Bitcoin Association of Australia and negotiating with the US foundation. If you'd like to get involved we run a Google hangout every Tuesday night at 6:45. Pm me your gmail if you're keen to say hi.

As curator of The Bitcoin Museum I fully support this!

We should get Kano on board too!

Not an aussie. But glad to see decentralization at work.

I wish you all success!


ya.ya.yo!

Who is Kano? (Sorry, newbie question)

I don't live in Australia but I am an Aussie citizen, so I'm interested.

Definitely needs to happen.

Cgminer Dev

good luck  :D

we have quite a few notables here in Oz.

Hi All,

This will be happening soon.

Information to be released in the near future.

Would you be interested in a startup kit from the Bitcoin Foundation? (Not that one exists, but maybe we should package a web site, forum, customizable logos, mail server, etc for use with a virtual server...this way localized foundations could assemble and organize quickly).

Yes this sounds like an excellent idea!

I'll float the idea and see if it gains any traction. I'll ping Elizabeth as I think it's right up her alley.

The Australian Bitcoin Foundation is already being established as we speak. The contact you're after is Jason Williams, the organiser of the Sydney Bitcoin Meetup group:

http://meetup.com/Sydney-Bitcoin/

We've been busy recently organising the Beers for Bitcoins event and features on Today Tonight!

They already have a number of people who represent at the higher level foundation meetings.

Twitter @bitcoinsyd

If you're based in Sydney, come down to the GPO for our weekly bitcoin meet ups on Wednesdays.

You should call it something other than Bitcoin Foundation. The Hells Angels have a charter in dozens of places around the world but everyone knows where the mother charter is: http://www.hells-angels.com/?HA=charters (http://www.hells-angels.com/?HA=charters) Maybe something like Australian Bitcoin Collective.

Well done guys! Stop Talking and lets Do it! Do it Right!. I'm relatively new on blogs but i'm closely monitoring bitcoin economy from last year and half. Bitcoin is going to face some serious blows somethime next year  from Mid Jan-May, I can't tell how i know it, but i'm serious. I'm not 100% sure if its true, but if it is then there are not gonna be disasters but they are not good ether. I'm qualified welfare worker and doing extensive research on bitcoin. I'm not lawyer,  but research is my strength. There are few things we need to look at, main one is Corporation Act 2001. Section 763(1), Section 762C, Section 763D, section 764A(1) and section 766A and list keeps going. They don't effect individuals but any business planning to setup need to watch out. They are all in gray, So if anyone had to go to court, the chances are they might loose. So now what can we do.. GET TOGETHER now before its too late.
There are some idiots who tried to contact some government bodies with stupid question. This just doesn't work. They don't have time to waste with any average nerd. Long story short in Australia we don't have legs and head, we are all going in different directions without any clue. I'm already consulting with some lawyers, this week I might go see another one. If we start now we can face it with smile or we have to fix the mess and then follow the laws which doesn't make any scene.

I have some plans as well, I would like to share them and then we can get seal from lawyers as well if we plan to go ahead with them.

PLEASE!! GET TOGETHER!!! I'M IN... and Already working..

This is great, if there is any way i can help just let me know, Im in, I am based in Brisbane QLD, i am connected with Jason Williams on linkedin.

/me raises hand

Mackay Qld here, been into Bitcoin since May 2011 had a motherboard running 5 6950s for not long enough. Just a basic PC hobbiest but Bitcoin passionate, puts hand up for numbers.

Great to see a bunch of Aussie enthusiasts! Based in Brisbane myself :)

If you are looking for business owners I'd love to be a member. Bitcoin has been hugely important for me and I am very optimistic about its future (it's kind of hard not to be).

Just as a note, after all of the inputs.io dramas I would advise against TradeFortress being on the board. Just my opinion but I don't think it'd be a good look.

Hi,

Any Adelaide based people here?

Anyhow, I would be interested in getting involved and helping out. Keep me posted on any events :)


Daniel

I would advise exactly the contrary. Please by all means get TradeFortress on the board, lots of people are interested in knowing where he actually is and how to reach him.

Hi all,

On the note of Australian Bitcoin not-for-profits, myself and 6 other Australians have just launched the Bitcoin Association of Australia.

My name's Max, and I'm currently the treasurer.

A little prepared statement: (we'll do a proper ANN soon)

-----
Please find below details of The Bitcoin Association of Australia - https://bitcoin.asn.au/

Preliminary announcement was done here: (we're working on more press currently)
http://bitcoinmagazine.com/7862/the-bitcoin-association-of-australia/

We are a not-for-profit incorporated association (registered in NSW, but able to act Australia wide without issue).

We've been talking with the US Foundation for the 3 months or so about forming an official relationship.
However, further to that we have also just started our preliminary membership drive.

Our President is Jason Williams of Beers 4 Bitcoin and the Sydney Bitcoin meet-up crew.
Feel free to liase with him or Max Kaye for further details regarding membership.
Contact details available on request.
-----

Cheers,
Max

Great work guys!

its called death by association

Hey guys, another aussie bitcoiner here.

I just posted about this in the Association thread that Jason made, but there seem to be more people here, and I wanted to draw the attention of Aussies to my thread anyway, as I'm hoping to stimulate useful conversation (yes on bitcointalk! shocking!).

I just created a thread about bitcoins and taxation in Australia (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=362560.0), and one of my mid-term goals is to obtain a private ruling on Bitcoin from the ATO. I think it would be great if the request for such a ruling came from a Bitcoin nonprofit such as the association, foundation, or whatever it is we end up creating.

Great job!

"proper" announcement, how is one announcement more proper than another?

anyway, it seems the association is also a good idea, but was not first to market, but maybe we should merge threads/objectives or something in the greater interest.

actually, why even think about forming an australian bitcoin foundation ...

why not insist on australian representation on the executive of the bitcoin foundation as it already stands ??

couldn't we do both

also I think the name foundation is better than association, I'm not sure of the logic behind the others using Association?

Actually I think using association is a better idea as it prevents confusion with the bitcoin foundation, and doesn' t dilute that usage. Whatever entity is set up as the australian bitcoin group - and it sounds like one has already been created - should be distinct from the US Foundation.

I would like to get involved.  I run the Brisbane meet up.  www.meetup.com/brisbanebitcoin

I just like the name foundation better than association. The Brand identity foundation may also be a benefit.

Association sounds more like a club.

but both have their merits

Great Job man.

Glade to see the next step.

Well done on taking the initiative, its definitely the time for such an organisation.


I have some questions that I hope you guys could answer :).


- What are the members rights/benefits. What is the governance structure of the organisation?


- I personally really like the Canadian model for their Alliance and how it got started.  Calling out for involvement, and electing the board by a vote of Canadian bitcoin enthusiasts. This allowed them to get the community enthusiastic and engaged, as well as giving a sense of ownership of their Alliance. What is the approach you guys will take?


- What exactly are you negotiating about with the US foundation? Are they going to be receiving money? Does the Australian foundation or its members have any say or vote in the US foundation?


- On that note, what do you guys intend to do with the money you receive ?



Cheers

NOTE: I'm making a new topic (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=369137) now. Please use that one instead of this topic for Bitcoin Association of Australia discussion. LINK (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=369137)


I'd like to make a proper [ANN] thread about BAA instead of hijacking an older thread where the original posts have no relevance to what we're discussing now.


Cheers, it's been quite the ordeal getting everything set up - it's taken a few months. Nice to be up and running now :)


Member rights/benefits are everything from the BF + some stuff from us. We're expanding the list now, but wiki editing rights, access to an as-yet not set up forum, voting rights, if we have grants then access to that (if things work out this is a matter of time I suspect), etc. There's some more stuff we might add down the line that I won't mention here, but it'd be cool if it works out.

Governance: our constitution is based on the template from fair trading NSW. Similar governance structure: board with no less than 5 and no more than 9 members; only 4 positions are president, vice, treasurer, and secretary. It's very loose: we've started working with an 'area-of-control' type model, not really needing approval for things you want to do within the area. This ranges from anything like the website or social media to an organiser of local events and the like. There's a lot of flexibility there.


As do I, we took a slightly different approach to the Alliance, though. Firstly we were a fairly well connected group - I knew half the board before we began. This might be taken as more 'exclusive' but we were put in contact with each other through the foundation and none of us knew any of the others had talked to the foundation about setting up an aussie assn. So we didn't collude to get together, it just sort of happened.

We decided to go with more of a closed setup phase because none of us could dedicate enough resources to opening it up. If one of us had no or few obligations through the week then it'd be far easier, but given we all have full time jobs it was simpler to coordinate by not opening it up till we launched. We (or at least I) want to have an AGM shortly after the 6 month mark to transition into a properly democratic assn. At the moment if you join up you get a 'founding member' flag (till the end of Jan) that will hopefully help the idea of community ownership.


Not sure what you mean when you say 'australian foundation'; I'll presume you're talking about BAA.

We were negotiating the affiliate agreement, which is what allows us to share members and resources.

We were always going to sign it at some point; we're (the board) all members of the Foundation and they're a good organisation. I've met many of them personally and I don't believe they mean any harm to Bitcoin. Furthermore, there are many advantages; cross-org membership being one of them - it will substantially aid accessibility for Australians; both to our organisation and the Foundation.

Since all members are shared being a member of BAA implies you're a member of the BF and you receive voting rights for both organisations.

Technically, BAA receives a proportion of membership funds from the Foundation when members from Australia sign up. The sign-up process for the Foundation and BAA is identical (or close enough to make no odds).


Our goals are the same as the foundation: protection, promotion, standardisation.

We plan to use our funding on endeavours related to the above. Community events, educational videos or events, grants, development (I'm building a multisig wallet for BAA atm so we can distribute funds safely amongst the board members; there will be three 2-of-3 wallets.)

What we specifically use funding for is still up in the air. If you've got something you think needs doing let us know!

Oh, and there's expenses like website, email, fair trading fees, etc.


Using 'Foundation' in your trading name in Aust comes with strings. There's a great framework for Associations and ultimately it's just a legal framework.


Well we can't insist on something like that; we'd need to go through the process set out in the bylaws - IE getting elected.

In addition, without some sort of organisation backing such a request, how would you decide who that is and why would anyone listen?

We'll keep in regular contact with the Foundation and if any members would like the Foundation board to discuss something they should add it to the agenda.

Cheers everyone,
Max

Hi Australian Bitcoin Foundation,

Im pretty disappointed with the lack of responses (my emails and posts here).  I run the brisbane meet up and i have 70 members and getting 30+ to our events.

I was also asked to do a piece for channel 10 news http://tenplay.com.au/news/brisbane/2014/1/7/online-currency

What are the Aus Foundation *actually* doing to promote btc awareness down under??

This is another thread for the Oz foundation https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=369137.0

When is the next meetup by the way?