Bitcoin Forum

Today business products and even ideas are recognized as worthless if they don't promote ethnic diversity.

Ethnic diversity is quickly being realized as the single most important objective for human endeavor. Fortune 500 companies realize this and have complex plans to encourage diversity. Workers are often sent, on company time, to diversity seminars. For the government, the same is true. Since the 1950s, the United States Federal Government has worked relentlessly to promote integration and diversity in the United States and abroad.

What use is Bitcoin if it doesn't do the same? How can we ensure that Bitcoins are distributed equitably to traditionally underrepresented groups? What is being done to ensure the proliferation of Bitcoin infrastructure amongst communities of color?

I suppose that you could start a charity that subsidizes the cost of ATI video cards for minorities.

Nothing beyond it's own economic characteristics; which are certainly colorblind.

Wow, the UN-commies are coming  ??? Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition...

It's economically neutral - there are no barriers to entry, so it should propagate to whoever is interested. If you want more <insert minority here> to use bitcoin, by all means go tell them about it! :D

This sort of attitude, denying white privilege while claiming an equal playing field exists, merely perpetuates racial inequality. It's nothing more than an excuse for inaction and an attempt to moralize imperialism.

Erhm, what?

There literally is no white privilege in bitcoin. I guarantee you that if someone logs onto bitcoin-otc, or pms me on the forums, they can be sold bitcoins for either a check in the mail or a wire transfer, or dwolla - there are tons of ways to get bitcoins.

Unless something drastic has happened lately, minorities can get bank accounts, write checks, mail a letter, and use the internet. Thus, anyone that can do those things can use bitcoins.  I don't offer a 5% bonus to whites buying bitcoins with my service, or anything like that.

There's no racial inequality built into bitcoin  ::)

example http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=17.0

bitcredit:  do you have ideas or suggestions?

I think a global currency like bitcoin will do a lot to promote understanding and diversity, but did you have something specific in mind?

There's no such thing as race.

Talking about the "need for racial diversity" is inherently racist.

race plays no factor in an anonymous environment and even so I've never heard anyone complain its all white dudes on usd.

Is that right?  Well, based on your deep understanding of this subject, what color am I?

These three questions in brief:

What use? Money is money. Like conventional currencies, distribution of bitcoin is dependent on market forces and regulatory bodies.

Equitable distribution? Perhaps some benevolent actor will start pre-loading One Laptop per Child machines with the client and one bitcoin.

What is being done? Nothing that I'm aware of. There's some idle talk of hawala networks, and if bitcoin becomes useful it will certainly be widely adopted in the Southern hemisphere. As Garret Burgwart noted, go tell someone - charitable organizations are an especially good way to get bitcoin circulating amongst whatever communities interest you.

At any rate, examples of racial equality  based on what Fortune 500 companies do suggests to me "troll post" but I'm willing to believe you're acting in good faith. Just so you know, board members of that group of companies are currently around 73% white males, not exactly a benchmark of diversity.

i have an idea, gavin - if you will pardon my tiny voice...

i'm not convinced that, on a world-wide basis, race is anywhere near as important to Bitcoin as numbers.  and numbers are clear:  the vast majority of the world is poor.  that may be partly because of racism, but from a capitalist perspective that doesn't matter.  pure capitalism is color-blind.  so...

if we want acceptance, we therefore want numbers.  massive numbers.  micropayments is not so much the issue -  what about microloans?

have you approached kiva (http://www.kiva.org/ )?

has anybody?

they have a [claimed] 98.71% re-payment rate.  good business there.

maybe everybody on earth doesn't have a computer - but really, we'd like to get away from the mining paradigm anyway, wouldn't we?

tell you what though - damn near everybody on the planet has a phone...

there could be some serious money in those numbers.  and some even more serious acceptance...

Hear, hear!

Money is colour-blind ....


just like the man said, no action needed.

You guys are too kind to the OP.

Fortune 500 companies are not bastions of any kind of society I want to live in.  They're ruthless dictatorships. In the U.S., there's no social contract to receive a corporate charter.  That is at least given lip service in Europe and Asia.

Fiat money is a weapon to steal wealth. You are expected to put up something of scarcity as collateral to get a loan. Bankers print fiat money so there's no scarcity but if you fail to give it back at the end of a loan you lose this scarce collateral.

How is that more equitable than bitcoin?

Some people take so-called "diversity" as their religion.  I prefer to be more rational.

Hey that's not fair.  We have Genjix, our token terrorist and Satoshi is Japanese so he's our Asian guy.  We are diverse.

I'm going to guess either Vulcan or Asgard.

I am Puerto Rican, my skin town is brown. Due to the thread starters logic, I deserve free bitcoins due to the color of my skin and origin of birth.

Give me bitcoins or you are racist and propagate white dominion over the lesser races. Don't be racist, send me your BTCs here and I declare you non-racist.

1J1HRekySAL1NbubY5W88esaDZnVgeGydf

Yes, but I'm a black-Asian-Navajo autistic kid who's also paraplegic, so I think that trumps your Boricua awesomeness.  Sorry.  Send ME all YOUR bitcoins, or you are a hater.  Also, did I mention I'm mentally retarded? 

My hammer is amazing at driving nails, pulling nails, and many other hammerly things, but it doesn't feed starving kids in Africa. Should I be looking for a new hammer?

Oh wait no, it's a tool with specific purposes. I would be insane to expect my hammer to feed staving kids in Africa, just like I would be if I expected bitcoin to promote ethnic diversity.

You didn't allready buy half the coins in circulation and gave them away? pfff you racist pig.  >:(

Seriously, everybody has just as much opportunities to earn bitcoins with working for them or mining them as anyone else. It's a currency, what do you expect from it? Solving every problem in the whole wide world? It can be a start and solve many things but I don't think promoting ethnic diversity is on the list.

Ironically the "diversity" movement is making the human race less diverse as we all start to interbreed. 100 years from now everyone will be a light shade of brown.

"Ethnic diversity" is just a way to discriminate against white males.

Example:  College scholarships.  You get special scholarships for being of a different culture, something besides white.  Whites get nothing.  Fair?  No.  Equal?  No.  Racist?  Absolutely.

I stopped taking so-called "equality" seriously a long time ago.  There is nothing equal about it.

When I´m gona become rich, I will share my BTC with prostitutes of all races. :-* I promise. :D Many other of the "white" nerds and geeks here will do the same for sure, so there´s no need to sorrow...  8) Also for sure this is gonna work better than every govermental programm. :D

Full ACK

Obvious troll is obvious.

Bitcoin is money, ironically enough money will not solve poverty or discrimination any more than thermometers or the FTP protocol can. It's an insult to people dealing with these problems to pull this question out of the hat in the way you have, your intention is to ridicule those who work to address such issues.

Yeah, white males have had a long history of being kept down by da man.

gavin looked like a vulcan in his last interview with jason calacanis.  :D

Bitcoin was invented by a japanese person.

Theres also this guy who regularly pimps bitcoin on his youtube videos. The only people who need help are old white guys in the current banking system .  :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry17VN5udFE&feature=relmfu (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry17VN5udFE&feature=relmfu)

The use of Bitcoin is trading. Personally I couldn't care less about ethnicity of people I trade with.

But a racist like you, interested in maintaining some particular ethnic proportions (in this case as evenly distributed as possible), is free to start a foundation, buy Bitcoins and give them away to people because of their skin color, size, gender or whatever.

Bitcoin doesn't discriminate against any ethnicity so I don't quite see what else needs to be done. The need to promote arises from existing discriminations. Bitcoin inflicts none so it has no responsibility to promote anything.

I can't fathom how Bitcoin is to promote ethnic diversity anyways, besides providing some translation on the wiki. Unless you're suggesting your BTC should be served with couscous stuffed in a vuvuzela held by a Buddha statue drifting on the Rio Grande?

This might be racist but they do it all the time in TV commercials and ads.  Sometimes they'll add a black guy or some other minority to an ad so it looks like everyone and every race is into it.  Or, to make a product "cool" they will use a black guy or black rapper.

We could promote Bitcoin by getting Jay-Z to rap about Bitcoins, Bill Gates, and Donald Trump and then Bitcoin would look cool.

Here is a sample commercial.

"Bitcoins is for white people." - Gavin
"Bitcoins is for black people." - Jay-Z
"Bitcoins is for asian people." - Satoshi
"Bitcoins is for all people." - (Said together)

Now Gavin and Satoshi will look cooler with Jay-Z next to them.

Correction:  Gavin and Jay-Z will look cooler with Satoshi next to them.

Neat idea!  All sorts of chicken-and-egg hurdles to overcome (what good is a bitcoin loan if there is nothing to spend the bitcoins on?), but microlending bitcoins would be great.  I'm spread a little thin at the moment, but if you think a conversation with kiva right now might be worthwhile then go for it.  You don't need anybody's permission or advice to become the Bitcoin-Kiva Liason Officer.

Just a word of warning here. Loaning in a deflationary money like bitcoin is hell for the borrowers, since they will probably exchange it into the local currency and then when they come to convert back to pay it off they will get hammered on any appreciation in bitcoin value.

For poor people to be loaning in bitcoins right now would be very, very tough to pay back later. It is like what happend to the Eastern Europeans who loaned "low interest" Swiss franc loans. They got killed when their local currency depreciated and they are suddenly saddled with huge loans they will never pay back.

you're right about borrowers getting hammered - if they're required to pay back in Bitcoin.

what i was thinking of was more along the lines of getting Kiva to accept Bitcoin, do the currency conversion themselves, loan the money out, and re-payment would be in fiat currency at the basis value.  i.e.:

i send Kiva 1 BTC, valued at $10.
Kiva loans $10 to a borrower.
the borrower pays back $10 plus 10% interest.
Kiva sends me $11.

sure, i'd take the deflationary hit, but the cause is good, and what the hell - if i'd sold the Bitcoin for $10 i wouldn't enjoy the [potential] increase in value anyway, would i?  this way, i get $11...

BUT - more to the point, getting Kiva to do business in Bitcoin (even if only in one direction) would be a huge (thank you donald...) win for Bitcoin.  i mean, the guy who thought up Kiva won a Nobel Prize, didn't he?  serious press...

Much better to promote Bitcoin in the third world as a system for micro-savings rather than micro-borrowings.

how does one save, without income?

Income isn't something handed to people by fiat. Income is something people get by working. And even in poor countries there are some jobs that you can do which don't require capital.

So you could work even harder than you otherwise would have to, and live even more frugally than you otherwise would have to, and save the difference as bitcoins. Providing for a better future.

I'm not saying it's easy. Just that it's desirable, and for many people is possible.

agreed.

but it is also possible to earn more - and save more thereby - with one's own business; and the higher income implied by that.

and i don't make any money from somebody in the third world gluing sneakers together for nike.  i do if they owe me interest... and are capable of paying it.

A universal currency, particularly one that is easy to transfer between nations, will do much to level the playing field of economic disparity. Much of it has been maintained by vested interests who manage national currencies. Just think you easily see how much it really costs to glue those Nike shoes together in any country in the world.

Comparative advantage will kick in with an unimaginable viciousness.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_advantage

It also raises interesting questions about where on earth all the bitcoin reserves will pile up over time, like the current situation with T-bonds in China.