Funding for Bitcoin - The Documentary (Phase 1)

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Mods, if this thread is moved, please consider putting it in the most appropriate section, hopefully one where as many eyeballs as possible see it. This italic text will be deleted if this thread is moved or after 24 hours.

Thanks, in advance, for your consideration.

...

To start off, Bitcoin 100 will be donating $1,000 USD worth of bitcoins to Bitcoin - The Documentary (BTD).

We have faith that the guys will put forth the best efforts possible to produce a film bitcoiners would be proud of. Johannes and his crew seem to have the equipment, the help from their professors and, most importantly, the gusto. They only lack that thing called money, and that's where I opted to step in to help them reach their stated donation goal.

Although I've previously stated twice prior the how and what I propose to accomplish this task, this thread will now act as the official conduit between all concerns, acting as Phase One working in concert with Phase Two of a two-part fund raising drive.

Currently, Bitcoin 100 has ~BTC430 in our coffer, equating to well over $30K USD at today's exchange rate. I propose transferring out a total $20K USD by the end of April, 2013, with no more than $10K USD ending up in BTD's coffer, provided certain criteria are met.

Phase Two Outline

The following is how the maximum amount of $20K USD in BTC is projected to be allocated.

First, as previously mentioned above, an initial $1,000 USD in BTC will be transferred ASAP from Bitcoin 100 to BTD by Rassah. Yes, we are making an exception to our self-imposed donation guidelines but, as you'll soon read, the reward for doing such outweighs the former stringency. And, for obvious reasons, the strict BTC100 per non-profit will be discontinued, unless Bitcoin proves to be going through another bubble, of which seems unlikely. In the event of such an occurrence, we'll revert back to our previous criterial standards.

That leaves $19,000, of which $10,000 will go to the yet-to-be obtained NPO/NGOs within the next 30 some odd days, ending April 30, 2013, GMT. This equates to $1,000 USD in BTC going to each of the 10 newly accepted charities per the standard Bitcoin 100's criteria, now leaving $9,000 USD. It's this dollar amount that I'll now show how it'll be dole out to BTD.

Each time a new non-profit embeds a donation option on their respective website, they would receive $1,000 USD in BTC, and BTD will immediately receive $500 USD in BTC. If the obtaining of 10 non-profits is accomplished before the end of April 30, 2013, not only will BTD receive $5,000 USD ($500 X 10), but they'll also get the remaining $4,000 USD in BTC of the $20,000 USD allocated for this endeavor.

The onus is firmly on me, working in concert with BTD and fellow bitcoiners to obtain this goal. Although 10 NGOs is the goal, as long as there's still funds available, we'll continue to match the $1,000/$500 USD till the end of April. Therefore, there's a opportunity to add more funds to BTD's coffer.

But that's the easy part. Now, I'll lay out Phase One, a tad more challenging, yet doable.

For lack of better titling, I opted for the terms Phase One and Phase Two, although the steps expressed will function congruently.

Phase One (basically, the core of this thread)

As I've outlined above, it's feasible to accomplish said task without accepting another satoshi from fellow bitcoiners. Frankly, the less than 100 people that have donated to Bitcoin 100, to date, contributed more than enough already, considering what we've done, albeit a lot more could have been accomplished. But, no real harm has been done, and thanks to the recent uptick, the value of our pool has grown several fold, thus allowing us to offer up this unique proposal.

At this point I want to thank all those who've contributed to Bitcoin 100 again for their support. I only wish there were better words to use than the simple thank you.

Thanks to the guys announcing the production of Bitcoin - The Documentary, I immediately recognized an opportunity, one that could prove beneficial to all bitcoiners, not just to Bitcoin 100 or some other singular entity.

But, there is a special request I like to make of proprietors who own viable entities and accept bitcoins as one (if not sole) of their payment options.

I'll present it in the form of a challenge on their part, and in essence they'll only be offering up their support in the form of a pledge. No escrow will be used, nor bitcoins need be transferred unless the goal is met: namely, doing what I've outlined above before the end of April. Looked upon it other way, one could consider it a bet that I can't do it, and if that's the case, then no pledges need to be kept. But if I do, then all pledges will be expected to be honored, with the bitcoins transferred to BTD's Bitcoin address 1MuNPrfNMho5UP9312m3idzauwaCi57fLe.

Prior to the penning of this post, I've yet to contact any entities to present to them what I'm about to request in the form of Challenge Grants.

Challenge grants are funds disbursed by one party (the Grant Maker), usually a Government Agency, Corporation, Foundation or Trust, (sometimes anonymously) typically to a non-profit entity or educational institution (the Grantee) upon completion of the challenge requirement(s). The challenge refers to the actions or results that must be achieved before money is released and usually involves substantial effort, so that the recipients know that they are helping themselves through their own hard work and sacrifice.

Challenge Grants:

  1. Spotlight the recipient organization and provide an endorsement from a well-known entity.
  2. Help other donors feel that their money goes farther.
  3. Enable the recipient to honor and reward the entity that issued the challenge grant.
  4. Provide the maker the opportunity to garner positive publicity with a notably large funding amount they may avoid parting with.

A typical requirement is similar to matching funds where funds be raised or acquired from other sources following a stated matching factor, often 2:1, 3:1 or 4:1. For example, a $1,000 challenge grant with a 3:1 match would require the recipient to raise $3,000 before they would receive the $1,000 grant. The challenge could require a new solution to an existing problem that had been ignored. There could be additional requirements specified that could be virtually anything, from program certification to member participation.

(apologies for quoting the Wikipedia article in its entirety)

In the spirit of the above to further amass donations toward BTD, I desire at least 10 proprietors who own companies to pledge in the form of a Callenge Grant at least $500 USD worth of bitcoins each, payable IFF I'm able to obtain 10 non-profits before April 30, 2013, GMT.

If my part is accomplished, than the $5,000 USD pledged will also be donated to BTD shortly after April 30, 2013. That would make the grand total no less than $15,000 USD in bitcoins donated to BTD.

An individual Bitcoiner is more than welcome to also pledge a similar support, and it doesn't need to be $500 USD--it could be any amount. Likewise, company owners don't need to pledge exactly $500 for whatever reason, whether they can't or won't, for it's only a working figure. But the following is why the highest possible amount pledged is desirable.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and ask for a secondary Challenge Grant from The Bitcoin Foundation (TBF), for I believe this endeavor is right up their alley. Again, it will have to be earned, provided a certain criteria is met.

I formally request a $1,000 USD pledge in BTC from TBF for BTD as another Challenge Grant, payable IFF at least a total of $5,000 USD by no less than 10 entities is pledged via Challenge Grants, of which is predicated upon I/Bitcoin 100 obtaining 10 NPO/NGOs by the end of April 30, 2013, GMT.

If all works out as I envision, that would put no less than $16,000 USD worth of BTC into BTD's coffer. And at the end of the day, Bitcoin 100 will still have funds in our coffer.

Ideally, I would desire a commitment from The Bitcoin Foundation first so that other entities may follow suit.

Apologies for going long, but it took a helluva lot longer to pen this than it took for you to read it.

~Bruno Kucinskas~ (my real full name, sans the Jr., verifiable, for your doxxing pleasure)  

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[Phinnaeus Gage]

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[Monster Tent]

You should get a "bitcoin100" client designed that automatically donates a percentage of each transaction 

[Phinnaeus Gage]

You should get a "bitcoin100" client designed that automatically donates a percentage of each transaction 

Nice suggestion, MT, but for such a few transactions that need be done by hand anyway, implementing automation isn't required at this time. OTOH, sometime in the future a different project may manifest itself that'll need such a device.

[Spekulatius]

Hi Bruno,

Just answered in the project thread

P.S.: Maybe you could break those rules down and make a TLDR version of it?

[surebet]

So basically people donated to fund charities through bitcoin, and then the cash is used to make a prop film?

[Phinnaeus Gage]

So basically people donated to fund charities through bitcoin, and then the cash is used to make a prop film?

Or, looked upon it another way...

Bitcoin 100 was designed to bring further awareness to Bitcoin via the charitable route. Originally, bitcoiners would donate coins with the intent of us donating 100 BTC to any non-profit meeting a somewhat relaxed criteria IFF they embed a donation option onto their respective websites.

In essence, they would be paid for advertising Bitcoin, although Bitcoin is not a company in any sense of the word. Many non-profits do accept advertising to augment their coffer, and most pay for advertising when they accept PayPal, for it's their advertising button seen that we're all too familiar with.

Compare the two images below:



One, non-profits pay to have it on their site through fees, whereas the other, we pay, without them having to pay fees, thanks to our friends at BitPay.

Prior to the recent uptick, Bitcoin 100 had a difficult time getting further donations during at least two fund drives, let alone getting new members to simply pledge. Out of the over 100 people who have pledged, only about 60% honor their pledges, of which I'm not complaining nor judging nor would call out any one of them...well, maybe one, today via a PM, and he knows whom I'm speaking of.   (but done so in jest)

We also had encountered difficulty getting non-profits to accept our offer, for a myriad of reasons, some of which espousing similar concerns.

Fortunately for us, Bitcoin's awareness has gone through the roof, which should make our task easier in obtaining non-profits to embed. But no longer using 100 BTC as bait, so to speak, hence opting for the $1,000 donation amount, of which was by my choice and design, taking the liberty to speak in the capacity of Bitcoin 100.

Short of just letting the coins set, waiting for some charitable entity to come along and accept our kind offer, I opted to act, hopefully in such a manner as not to alienate too many people who've put their trust into this endeavor.

Donating funds to an entity that's already accepting bitcoins as their sole donation option, and also one fairly new onto the scene, is a leap of faith. But I hope to leverage this gesture off their (Bitcoin - The Documentary) project.

For example, perhaps Little People of America may be more inclined to accept our offer if as an added bonus their entity were to be mentioned in the credits of said documentary. That's why I felt it important for Johannes to comment to this aspect. Whether Bitcoin 100 gets billing or not is not as important as making sure that the at least 10 non-profits we obtain get mentioned.

We (all bitcoiners) are putting our faith in the hands of the producers of Bitcoin - The Documentary (BTD) that they will produce the best documentary possibly, considering their experience, time frame, and limited budget.

It's the budget aspect that's the most worrying, for I felt that they would have a very difficult time amassing their initial donation goal off the backs of fellow bitcoiners for a myriad of reasons. Although there's a many bitcoiners who could afford to write the check themselves, myself included, that wouldn't be prudent on several levels, no matter how noble the endeavor. Roger, Jay, Tony, et al., wouldn't do it, and neither would I, nor you if your pocketbook is deep enough. But collectively and creatively, a happy medium could be reached to satisfy all concerns, hence my proposal, of which I'm moving forward on.

Again, thanks to the recent uptick, there's plenty of money in our coffer, and we hope you have enough faith in us that we use those funds wisely. Prior to the said uptick, the best we could have hoped for was about 4 non-profits, provided no more donations came in. Now, we're looking at 10 (11, if you count BTD), with plenty left over, giving Bitcoin that further awareness during its nascent stage, albeit continually to grow exponentially.

I've also touched upon recently that Bitcoin 100 will become self-suported, no longer relying upon donations from the community or elsewhere. In the near future, we will no longer be giving away $1,000 USD donations to non-profits to embed. But, all the funds that are currently residing in our coffer will be used for that purpose. It's the new funding that I'm in reference to that will no longer be allocated, for we will be taking on a greater role as to how Bitcoin benefits NPO/NGOs.

More on that later, but it's suffice to say that this current drive will leverage the next stage of our development, one of which will be dealing with at least three more significant zeros.

I hope I've addressed your concern, surebet, as well as others.

Special thanks to Fuzz-Nuts for bringing this post to my attention.   He knows who he is!

~Bruno K~

[surebet]

You gave a decent reply, so I'll try to throttle down the trolling a bit. Right off the bat, I'll say that I don't have any issues with the documentary, simply it's funding from donated funds.

So basically people donated to fund charities through bitcoin, and then the cash is used to make a prop film?

Or, looked upon it another way...

Bitcoin 100 was designed to bring further awareness to Bitcoin via the charitable route. Originally, bitcoiners would donate coins with the intent of us donating 100 BTC to any non-profit meeting a somewhat relaxed criteria IFF they embed a donation option onto their respective websites.

We had quite a bit of fun over at SA with this, with the whole "if you want my money you'll have to jump through these arbitrary hoops" thing. I get that this is an activist angle, but it's still a bit douchey.

If I own a company that produces crayons, I could give either straight cash or supplies to a charity. Both are of use to them.

If I own an accountancy firm, I could again give cash or provide services.

If I own a jewelry store cash or goods are receivable, since say a donated watch could be raffled off or something.

Giving bitcoins on the other hand forces the receiver to open a Gox account, move coins, sell coins and reimport the money into their bank account. It's a bit of an extra step, though one might argue that this would show them what's involved in accepting coins.

Problem is, I'd wager a lot of people would be turned off from the extra steps. Having worked for many NGOs if you really wanted to make a difference you'd consider handing over USD and calling it a sponsorship.

In essence, they would be paid for advertising Bitcoin, although Bitcoin is not a company in any sense of the word. Many non-profits do accept advertising to augment their coffer, and most pay for advertising when they accept PayPal, for it's their advertising button seen that we're all too familiar with.

Again, giving straight cash would be more in line with the sponsorship/advertising angle.

Compare the two images below:



One, non-profits pay to have it on their site through fees, whereas the other, we pay, without them having to pay fees, thanks to our friends at BitPay.

Well, not really, they don't have to pay to advertise that they accept Paypal/credit cards/whatever. What you meant is that they have to pay a service fee to accept payments via those methods.

Let's be brutally honest here, we both know that converting bitcoins comes with service charges. At the very least there is a 0.6% fee associated with a sell order at Gox, then a percentage and/or flat fee to exfil the fund back into an account.

Now I don't know what kind of experience you have with transaction processors, but this is pretty much what they'll charge you.

Furthermore, since quote "regular people" don't have bitcoins, if they wish to acquire some they'll have to pass through a processor themselves, adding fees and hardship.

No NGO in their right mind would convert to a bitcoin only model, unless they cannot accept regular funding methods for whatever reason.

I get that you want to spread bitcoins, but using point blank lies such as "no fees" will blowback hard. Eventually any NGO that received funds via bitcoins will want to convert them back, and they will see for themselves what's involved. Trust me, it'S a rather small world and word of mouth will hang you if you try to bullshit them about their money.

Prior to the recent uptick, Bitcoin 100 had a difficult time getting further donations during at least two fund drives, let alone getting new members to simply pledge. Out of the over 100 people who have pledged, only about 60% honor their pledges, of which I'm not complaining nor judging nor would call out any one of them...well, maybe one, today via a PM, and he knows whom I'm speaking of.   (but done so in jest)

We also had encountered difficulty getting non-profits to accept our offer, for a myriad of reasons, some of which espousing similar concerns.

Seriously, consider using the money to throw USD grants at people. Attach whatever strings you want such as advertising and accepting further donations via bitcoin, but without finding the rare combination of bitcoin aware (and friendly) NGO staff and compatible local law, it's going to be hard to find people accepting straight bitcoin donations.

Fortunately for us, Bitcoin's awareness has gone through the roof, which should make our task easier in obtaining non-profits to embed. But no longer using 100 BTC as bait, so to speak, hence opting for the $1,000 donation amount, of which was by my choice and design, taking the liberty to speak in the capacity of Bitcoin 100.

Short of just letting the coins set, waiting for some charitable entity to come along and accept our kind offer, I opted to act, hopefully in such a manner as not to alienate too many people who've put their trust into this endeavor.

Donating funds to an entity that's already accepting bitcoins as their sole donation option, and also one fairly new onto the scene, is a leap of faith. But I hope to leverage this gesture off their (Bitcoin - The Documentary) project.

Yes, but despite funding them being a charitable act, it's not helping a charity, it's helping a bunch of film students produce an agit prop piece for bitcoin.

If I ran a breast cancer foundation and raised money to offer grants to further research and provide financial assistance, I'm not sure I could (or should) pay for an awareness piece. You said it yourself, public knowledge of bitcoin is on the rise, I find that funding a movie is both a suboptimal use of the funds entrusted to you and a frankly masturbatory effort.

For example, perhaps Little People of America may be more inclined to accept our offer if as an added bonus their entity were to be mentioned in the credits of said documentary. That's why I felt it important for Johannes to comment to this aspect. Whether Bitcoin 100 gets billing or not is not as important as making sure that the at least 10 non-profits we obtain get mentioned.

Do you even have any NGO partners lined up? I'd cover that before declaring support for an auxiliary piece of film.

We (all bitcoiners) are putting our faith in the hands of the producers of Bitcoin - The Documentary (BTD) that they will produce the best documentary possibly, considering their experience, time frame, and limited budget.

It's the budget aspect that's the most worrying, for I felt that they would have a very difficult time amassing their initial donation goal off the backs of fellow bitcoiners for a myriad of reasons. Although there's a many bitcoiners who could afford to write the check themselves, myself included, that wouldn't be prudent on several levels, no matter how noble the endeavor. Roger, Jay, Tony, et al., wouldn't do it, and neither would I, nor you if your pocketbook is deep enough. But collectively and creatively, a happy medium could be reached to satisfy all concerns, hence my proposal, of which I'm moving forward on.

An interesting sidebar could be had here about the deflationary nature of bitcoin severely impacting the willingness of people to spend it, but meh.

Again, thanks to the recent uptick, there's plenty of money in our coffer, and we hope you have enough faith in us that we use those funds wisely. Prior to the said uptick, the best we could have hoped for was about 4 non-profits, provided no more donations came in. Now, we're looking at 10 (11, if you count BTD), with plenty left over, giving Bitcoin that further awareness during its nascent stage, albeit continually to grow exponentially.

I'd seriously lock down a few before having a documentary espouse the virtues of the community. Seriously.

I've also touched upon recently that Bitcoin 100 will become self-suported, no longer relying upon donations from the community or elsewhere. In the near future, we will no longer be giving away $1,000 USD donations to non-profits to embed. But, all the funds that are currently residing in our coffer will be used for that purpose. It's the new funding that I'm in reference to that will no longer be allocated, for we will be taking on a greater role as to how Bitcoin benefits NPO/NGOs.

So either you're shutting down, or you're investing. Please, tell me you're not launching an ASIC farm or something equally silly.

More on that later, but it's suffice to say that this current drive will leverage the next stage of our development, one of which will be dealing with at least three more significant zeros.

I hope I've addressed your concern, surebet, as well as others.

Special thanks to Fuzz-Nuts for bringing this post to my attention.   He knows who he is!

~Bruno K~

Well, you tried, and credit goes to you for that. I'm still thoroughly unconvinced and I think you should both revise your general policies and specifically hold on the documentary.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

I get that you want to spread bitcoins, but using point blank lies such as "no fees" will blowback hard. Eventually any NGO that received funds via bitcoins will want to convert them back, and they will see for themselves what's involved. Trust me, it'S a rather small world and word of mouth will hang you if you try to bullshit them about their money.

I'll address the above first, getting to your others in another post(s).

Seriously, there are no fees.

https://bitpay.com/bitcoin-for-charities

For Eligible US 501(c)(3) Organizations
If your organization is registered as a 501(c)(3) with the IRS, BitPay will process the bitcoin payments at NO CHARGE.

http://www.irs.gov/app/pub-78/

You must be on the IRS Pub78 list (eligible to receive tax-deductible donations) to qualify for the no-charge processing.

Although it reads like they only carter to non-profits located in the US, I believe they do the same for some select other countries.

The ones they don't cater to, it'll be one of the new roles that Bitcoin 100 will play to obtain payment processors to convert at zero cost in each and every country. And in the off-chance event that none are available, then Bitcoin 100 will pay the fee via donating them bitcoins to cover that expense. Said moneys will come from a pool of funds that were not donated, but from the self-supported funding stream.

Ideally, it'll be best for all concerns if instead of converting bitcoins to the local currency, their donations were used to make purchases of anything they current purchase now with fiat, whether that is via checks, credit cards, PayPal, etc.

The other key feature that the new Bitcoin 100 will have is a list of companies which provide products and services that any non-profit would need at no less than 10% off then anywhere elsewhere. All we would ask of those entities that are on said list is a 1% referral fee, provided a link on our website was utilized.

In essence, Bitcoin 100 will put itself in position to help each and every NPO/NGO stretch their dwindling revenue stream. Also, when ever an issue arises that involves Bitcoin, they can contact us to get it rectified in a timely manner.

Let's consider some numbers for a minute.

In the US alone, well over $200B (with a B) USD is donated to charities. For sake of agument, we'll consider that exact figure. It's probably safe to say that 3% of that figure is paid out for fees and chargeback expenses, equating to $6B USD that never reach their coffer. If every single non-profit in the US alone accepted only Bitcoin, that would be a nice chuck of change.

But, let's take it a little bit further. Of that $200B, easily 10%, or $20B USD, is allocated for expenses. If they used Bitcoin to make all those purchases, they would save no less than another $2B. Taking the best case scenario one step further, if they used the links we provide, we would receive 1% of the sales, or $20M USD--per year.

Remember, the example above was only predicated on the US alone, now consider all the other nations with non-profits (e.g., India has one million NGOs alone), and you can easily see that that $20M USD per year into our coffer is a lot more conceivable, though realistically it'll probably only be $5M a year.

How'd you like them apples?

~Bruno K~

(will address your other concerns later, surebet, and thanks for replying)

[Phinnaeus Gage]

As promised, here's the rest of the reply to surebet's concerns.

Seriously, consider using the money to throw USD grants at people. Attach whatever strings you want such as advertising and accepting further donations via bitcoin, but without finding the rare combination of bitcoin aware (and friendly) NGO staff and compatible local law, it's going to be hard to find people accepting straight bitcoin donations.

Yet, each day it becomes easier and easier. Hopefully, adding a little more leverage does the trick.

Yes, but despite funding them being a charitable act, it's not helping a charity, it's helping a bunch of film students produce an agit prop piece for bitcoin.

If I ran a breast cancer foundation and raised money to offer grants to further research and provide financial assistance, I'm not sure I could (or should) pay for an awareness piece. You said it yourself, public knowledge of bitcoin is on the rise, I find that funding a movie is both a suboptimal use of the funds entrusted to you and a frankly masturbatory effort.

Actually, just the opposite is true: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pallotta_the_way_we_think_about_charity_is_dead_wrong.html Dan even uses the same breast cancer foundation to drive the point home.

Do you even have any NGO partners lined up? I'd cover that before declaring support for an auxiliary piece of film.

Yes, most only in my mind, with a handful previously mentioned, The Little People of America being a prime example.

So either you're shutting down, or you're investing. Please, tell me you're not launching an ASIC farm or something equally silly.

Can you spell alpacas? Well, that's not it either. The reply I quoted is in reference to me stating that Bitcoin 100 will become self-supported. Over and beyond the 1% referral fee earned, of which won't occur till further down the road, I'll be starting up an entity of which 30% of net sales will go directly into the coffer of Bitcoin 100.

The domain name and hosting is complete, with the site being developed as we speak. Currently, there are two of us, with adding more to the team later as needed.

Well, you tried, and credit goes to you for that. I'm still thoroughly unconvinced and I think you should both revise your general policies and specifically hold on the documentary.

I'm sure that many here currently echo the same sentiment in regard to my attempt(s) overall, but as for the documentary, I believe all should be done to help them complete their task without them having to worry about funding, now my task.

Thanks again, surebet, for allowing me to address your concerns. I'm sure you'll let me know if I eluded a topic, albeit not intentionally.

Peace, bro.

~Bruno K~