BitHappiness -- the bitcoin charity aggregate

[DeusAeterna]

Hi guys, I am new to this forum.

Here's an idea. Given the wide availability of bitcoins to some people who have big mining rigs and whatnot, and the large exchange value of bitcoin to USD and other currencies at the given moment, I paused and thought for a moment that bitcoins could be used as money for charity. I mean that people can now easily donate to other people who truly needs hard cash (for hospital fees, drug fees, desperately staying away from being homeless, getting away from abusive family/country, et cetera urgent needs...) and hardly has any source of money to begin with.

Even a donation of .01 BTC would mean, for a lot of people, another day or two of bread on their table (or another day of electricity, a new twenty four hours of house rent...), while to some others it means another ten minutes of waiting in front of their computer screens (I never mined, so this might not be true). My point is, some people can easily get big-time bitcoins with their big rigs. Why not donate some of it to those who truly need it?

For these matters, and assuming that there isn't any older charity aggregates exist already (it wouldn't matter much if there is, anyway), I decided to set up BitHappiness. The process is as simple as any other bitcoin transaction: the person who needs donations can submit their stories and ask for donations, listing also their wallet addresses; anonymously or named. Those who want to donate can do so through the usual bitcoin transfer process.

The sole purpose I made this Tumblog was to facilitate those who really needs money and saw bitcoins as the light in the end of the tunnel--even if the light is volatile or blurry. Sometimes you really do need a way out and can find none. Now, I hope, there is (another) one.

The Tumblog is still empty at the moment as I'm still waiting for submissions to round up. Advanced clean-ups (adding pages, tutorials etc) will be done later as stories build up. I do wish for your comments and questions.

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[AllergicRacoon]

I like the idea, but it will be very hard to make sure people won't abuse the system.

[DeusAeterna]

I like the idea, but it will be very hard to make sure people won't abuse the system.

Thanks for your comment.

It lights me up for some security concerns regarding the authenticity of the person needing the money. In my head I have right now a way to vaguely construct some kind of authentication process (have the person in need e-mail me directly, providing IDs or such and such info). The system may work like this:

1. A person submits his/her story, giving me his/her contact information.
2. I would then communicate in e-mail with this person, to see if he/she has any identification I can accept.
3. If the person is legitimate then I would certainly submit the content into the Tumblog. Requests for anonymity (or lack thereof) will be taken into account.

In this scheme, there is no way the person behind the story can be anonymous, but only to me as the admin.

I also realized that hoarding may also be a problem (probably a gang of already well-roofed people bringing out IDs even though they're in a same group--then they would share the bounty).

[AllergicRacoon]

Thanks for your comment.

It lights me up for some security concerns regarding the authenticity of the person needing the money. In my head I have right now a way to vaguely construct some kind of authentication process (have the person in need e-mail me directly, providing IDs or such and such info). The system may work like this:

1. A person submits his/her story, giving me his/her contact information.
2. I would then communicate in e-mail with this person, to see if he/she has any identification I can accept.
3. If the person is legitimate then I would certainly submit the content into the Tumblog. Requests for anonymity (or lack thereof) will be taken into account.

In this scheme, there is no way the person behind the story can be anonymous, but only to me as the admin.

I also realized that hoarding may also be a problem (probably a gang of already well-roofed people bringing out IDs even though they're in a same group--then they would share the bounty).

I think this system will work well, this will certainly keep out quite some 'fakers' already.

[DeusAeterna]

I think this system will work well, this will certainly keep out quite some 'fakers' already.

Thank you.

Any other comments? I particularly still need ideas on the "hoarding" section. I think it's a fairly common problem with charities.

[AllergicRacoon]

Thank you.

Any other comments? I particularly still need ideas on the "hoarding" section. I think it's a fairly common problem with charities.

What exactly do you mean by hoarding?

[DeusAeterna]

I covered that up on my last post.

A group of (probably well-roofed) people with the same residence or affiliation may use different IDs with different make-believe stories, then they would all share the money to themselves.

A group of people living together need not have the same last name or family name--bitcoin is global, and the "last name" culture isn't as strong as it is in the Western countries than in the Eastern.

[AllergicRacoon]

I covered that up on my last post.

A group of (probably well-roofed) people with the same residence or affiliation may use different IDs with different make-believe stories, then they would all share the money to themselves.

A group of people living together need not have the same last name or family name--bitcoin is global, and the "last name" culture isn't as strong as it is in the Western countries than in the Eastern.

Why would they not work on their own? They would have more then.

[DeusAeterna]

What would be the consequences if this actually turns up?