Bitcoin Angel Group

[technowizard12]

Hey all,

What do you think about a bunch of people getting together to donate a bunch of Bitcoins to a specific Bitcoin related project? We'd vote on which project to support, with a new project each month, and we'd donate coins to that worthy project.

It wouldn't be donated in one lump sum by a group pool. Rather, we would all pledge money on the webpage and, at the end of the month, donate it individually. What do you think?

[1714165063]

1714165063

[1714165063]

1714165063

[1714165063]

1714165063

[billyjoeallen]

Hey all,

What do you think about a bunch of people getting together to donate a bunch of Bitcoins to a specific Bitcoin related project? We'd vote on which project to support, with a new project each month, and we'd donate coins to that worthy project.

It wouldn't be donated in one lump sum by a group pool. Rather, we would all pledge money on the webpage and, at the end of the month, donate it individually. What do you think?

the smart way to finance these types of projects are with assurance contracts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assurance_contract

until we set up our own bit-coin denominated site, we can easily set up dollar contracts on ThePoint
http://www.thepoint.com/

[technowizard12]

Will The Point allow you to fundraise in whatever currency you want?

I'll set up a website over the weekend. For the time being, we could have a google form where people put their pledge amounts which show up on a spreadsheet that's publicly viewable (but not publicly editable) on the site.

[Nefario]

Isn't this taken care of by glbse.com?

[technowizard12]

This is more of an angel finance thing. No return on investment expected. Just pure kickstart money.

Additionally, the company doesn't have to list themselves. We decide who we want to fund and approach them. If they're willing, we raise funds for them.

[jerfelix]

What do you think about a bunch of people getting together to donate a bunch of Bitcoins to a specific Bitcoin related project? We'd vote on which project to support, with a new project each month, and we'd donate coins to that worthy project.

I actually had a similar idea.  The project that I was thinking of mentioning was one that is trying to the save largest inland lake in Ohio.  It's a dying lake thanks to algae and farm run-off, and it's killing the local economy.  It's going to cost a lot of money to fix the lake - millions of dollars.  Maybe a Bitcoin effort can save a lake, and get the local cities using Bitcoins at the same time!  I know it's not a "tech project" which might be more like what you were thinking, but it could benefit Bitcoin simply through the press and awareness campaign.


I was thinking of a plan like this:

1.  Raise a bunch of Bitcoins for lake restoration through the generous donations of the Bitcoin community - from an international community of donors.

2.  Have a press release - a big announcement - donating the funds in Bitcoins to one or two of the non-profit organizations that are trying to save the lake.  (Picture a photo-op press conference where someone hands a giant "bitcoin Check" to the head of the Lake Restoration committee or the mayor.)

3.  Perhaps this could lead to a greater effort to "Save the Lake with Bitcoins" where local businesses (who are dependent on the lake and tourism) might accept Bitcoins for transactions, and commit to donating 1% of their transactions to Lake Improvement.  Donating 1% of their transactions to Lake Improvement, rather than donating 2.5% to Visa/Mastercard seems like a no brainer.  Many of these businesses will fail without the lake tourism.


The two primary lake cities of Celina Ohio (population  10,300) and St. Marys Ohio (pop 8,300) are small enough that they could get Bitcoins going in the local economy.  It might take some Bitbills to make it work, but could you imagine a CITY using Bitcoins?  That would create quite a buzz!  And being within short driving distance (100 Miles) of some much larger cities (Columbus, Dayton, Cincinnati), it might actually create a stir that gets attention to Bitcoin and saves the lake.  The lake is in the center of a circle of 150 mile radius that touches some major US cities:  Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Cleveland.


If we could raise even 10,000 BTC for something like this, it would get so much positive press, it would be amazing.  And with two rival cities on the lake, it might just spur a competition as to who can raise the most money through Bitcoin acceptance (after the donation).  10,000 BTC is a donation of 1 BTC from each member of this forum.
 

Bottom line - I think a GEOGRAPHIC based fund raiser - something like this - would make a lot of sense, and actually benefit the Bitcoin community in the long run.  If you can do good, AND make a big press release, AND get more people using Bitcoin (in the local economy), that seems like a winning formula.



At the risk of my reputation, I'll volunteer to lead this, if you guys think it might work.  (It'll be embarrassing if I only end up collecting .7 BTC or something.)  
Now you guys don't know me from Adam, and you might be reluctant to donate to a project thinking it's a scam.   But I'll be glad to tell you all about me, or do what I can do earn your confidence.  And you'll be able to WATCH the transactions in BlockExplorer.

This post is getting kind of long, so I'll give you a donation address, and end with links and stuff.

Donations for Save Grand Lake can be made via me:
1D1MC9fYjvhH3vw89vSEiQpBp1uf2T7X9s


Here's an article describing the situation.  (You can find many more in Google)
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/05/21/toxic-algaes-return-a-blow-to-businesses.html?sid=101


If you want to make a contingent donation (Like "I like the idea, but I don't want to be the only person to donate, so here's 5 BTC, but I want it back if you don't get 1000 BTC or more by July 1, 2011."), I am totally fine with that.  But you have to tell me BEFORE you send the money (since anyone can see the transaction and claim that they made it.)  Send me such stipulations in emails to jerfelix on Hotmail - I'll need to know the sending address and the BTC amount so I can watch for the transaction.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Lake_St._Marys_State_Park  The Wikipedia page has some info about the lake issues.

Donations for Save Grand Lake can be made via me:
1D1MC9fYjvhH3vw89vSEiQpBp1uf2T7X9s

What do you guys think?  Not exactly an "Angel" investment in a company, but it might actually benefit Bitcoin.  Didn't mean to hijack the thread!

[technowizard12]

The group could help out the lake, too. Maybe we could have two funds, one philanthropic and one investment.

[finack]

I actually had a similar idea.  The project that I was thinking of mentioning was one that is trying to the save largest inland lake in Ohio.  It's a dying lake thanks to algae and farm run-off, and it's killing the local economy.  It's going to cost a lot of money to fix the lake - millions of dollars.

I'm just curious what the donations go towards or what solution is proposed? It seems the problem is with runoff from high nitrogen chemical fertilizers causing algae blooms? In water ways I'm familiar with that had algae blooms, a public private partnership focusing attention on existing regulations managed to get waste products from livestock manged better and dramatically reduced the blooms and the harm that came from them. It didn't need a lot of money, it just needed people to pay attention to the right things, and some agri business to put out some costs to change to comply with existing laws. Obviously that isn't true everywhere, I'm just wondering what your situation is - is it to stop ongoing problems or to get it out?

[billyjoeallen]

Will The Point allow you to fundraise in whatever currency you want?

I'll set up a website over the weekend. For the time being, we could have a google form where people put their pledge amounts which show up on a spreadsheet that's publicly viewable (but not publicly editable) on the site.

You would need some way to make the contract (pledges) enforceable.  This would typically involve some sort of escrow account by a trusted third party, only with credit instead of cash.

[jerfelix]

I actually had a similar idea.  The project that I was thinking of mentioning was one that is trying to the save largest inland lake in Ohio.  It's a dying lake thanks to algae and farm run-off, and it's killing the local economy.  It's going to cost a lot of money to fix the lake - millions of dollars.

I'm just curious what the donations go towards or what solution is proposed? It seems the problem is with runoff from high nitrogen chemical fertilizers causing algae blooms? In water ways I'm familiar with that had algae blooms, a public private partnership focusing attention on existing regulations managed to get waste products from livestock manged better and dramatically reduced the blooms and the harm that came from them. It didn't need a lot of money, it just needed people to pay attention to the right things, and some agri business to put out some costs to change to comply with existing laws. Obviously that isn't true everywhere, I'm just wondering what your situation is - is it to stop ongoing problems or to get it out?

There are several non-profit organizations that are collecting and spending funds for lake improvement, and there have been several studies done to try to figure out the best course of action.  And the state has some funds directed at the effort.

My Bitcoin idea is to raise money and hand the money to one or two of the organizations that have studied the problem.  I'm not pretending to be the expert on the correct solution. Rather, I am trusting the people who have already spent thousands of dollars studying the problem.  I would just act as the public figure of the Bitcoin community, handing over the giant symbolic Bitcoin to the organization.  That would be cool.   

Here's one of the organization's solutions page:  http://www.lakeimprovement.com/sites/default/files/edseries/solutions/solutions.html .  As you can see, they have some solutions including both clean-up and prevention.  Everything costs a lot of money, of course.

But I DO think the idea of trying to get a local community to rally around Bitcoins as a solution to THEIR problem would be pretty cool.  There are a lot of local business people whose livelihood is threatened because of the dramatic drop in tourism.

[Jaime Frontero]

please note:

charity is a wonderful thing - i donate to various charities myself, and am richer for doing that.

HOWEVER...

it isn't written anywhere that in donating to worthy causes, one cannot advance one's own.  so i would add one caveat to your proposal:

donate only to charities which do not currently accept Bitcoin.  and donate ONLY in Bitcoin.  include in the donation an explanation of Bitcoin, a set of standard links, and a quick "Getting Started for Organizations" tutorial.  this will have the salubrious effect of spreading the use and utility of Bitcoin to more and more individuals and organizations - there is a definite multiplier effect to be had from that.

a good approach?

[Jaime Frontero]

I think this is a great idea,

We can do this to promote the bitcoin systems, as for the details, how should we approach them? Like 'if you start using bitcoins we are about to give you 1000 dollars'?

As for the investment case, I think there should be an ultimate goal, like IPO for VCs,

What would the vision for such angel group be, purely promote bitcoin system?

nope: "Like 'if you start using bitcoins we are about to give you 1000 dollars'?"

who has the time for an endless series of objections to overcome?

more like "here's 100 BTC.  you might as well figure out how to use it, hmmm?"

[technowizard12]

I think the angel group should promote bitcoin, both online and off, through the collection and donation of bitcoins to causes both related to the currency and not.