Help lushan - First public bitcoin donation in China for lushan earthquake

[lixiaolai]

Caution: Be aware that someone might change the donation receiving address of bitcoin when reposting elsewhere!

The donation address is: 15EhGBC8JBBVDKQ9yp1AqCb1xnzQLk6QHX

Check details here: http://blockchain.info/fb/15ehgb

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2013.4.22 17:48

The donation will be terminated after 100 donation received.

2013.4.23 21:09
100 donations received, the goal achieved, this charity donation is terminated.

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A powerful earthquake jolted China's Sichuan province Saturday near where a devastating quake struck five years ago, killing at least 70 people and leaving more than 2,000 hurt, prompting worries the death toll will climb.

USAToday: Earthquake in China leaves 113 dead, 2,600 injured (updating):
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/04/19/chinas-sichuan-earthquake/2098249/

FoxNews: More than 100 dead after earthquake strikes China's Sichuan region
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/04/20/at-least-2-killed-after-earthquake-strikes-china-sichuan-region/

I'm an early user of Bitcoin (since 2011, not that early...), and I have been supporting bitcoin culture openly in China from the very beginning.
My blog is lixiaolai.com, (older archive was moved to wordpress.lixiaolai.com). Here's my first post on Bitcoin in May, 23, 2011:

此物一出天下反 （it was born to subvert）http://wordpress.lixiaolai.com/archives/10589.html

I'm calling for a BTC donation to help lushan earthquake refugees ...

HELP LUSHAN!

I have a good public reputation in China online community, since I'm a famous teacher, and a writer of several popular books, and financially independent.

This is the donation receiving address (a new wallet created):

15EhGBC8JBBVDKQ9yp1AqCb1xnzQLk6QHX

anyone can see donation records here: http://blockchain.info/fb/15ehgb

... and after going back to beijing (I'm on a short trip in Nanjing) tomorrow night, I'll launch a website for donation as soon as possible, and keep every expense updated online.

Thank you all, I'll keep you posted.

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2013.4.20, 18:49

Any suggestion? please help me!

2013.4.20, 18:49

for Chinese BTC users: Do NOT buy BTC from any exchange center in China, since the price is relatively high. If you don't have any BTC, please donate money through other means.
中国BTC用户: 请不要在国内任何交易中心购买比特币作为捐款，因为国内交易所的价格溢价过高。如果你没有比特币，请使用其它方式捐款。除了我们之外，还有很多其它渠道捐款。

2013.4.20, 20:29
Thanks franky1, I hereby promise that all funds will get spent at the area, and no fund will be spent on plane tickets, hotel rooms, care hire etc...

2013.4.20, 20:46
now confirmed, the first donation is 0.841342 BTC, from one of my friends.

first donation from unknown received: 0.035BTC

Status: 0/unconfirmed
Date: 13-4-20 20:37
From: unknown
To: 15EhGBC8JBBVDKQ9yp1AqCb1xnzQLk6QHX (own address, label: lushan-btc-donation)
Credit: 0.035 BTC
Net amount: +0.035 BTC
Transaction ID: 6277ff138f181c8c5272b439f5d699fdbf9caf4120075bd03d81753f69988224

[/s]

2013.4.20, 21:18

Since China is of a country with restrict financial regulation (it is not allowed to sell/exchange "virtual currency" into RMB without specific license), I originally planned use my own RMB deposit.

However, one of my friend proposed a workaround:

you can organize a charity auction...

and instantly, another friend proposed that he could forge 3D printed "coins" as auction targets...

It seems a nice solution, since by such a manner, the donation could be amplified...

any more suggestions?

2013.4.21, 12:36

63 donations, 20.15481305 BTC in Total.

2013.4.21, 19:14

This is the first time I organize a charity donation.
这是我第一次组织慈善募捐。

I hereby promise that all funds will be spent on rehabilitation of lushan.
我在此保证，所有的善款都用于芦山灾后重建。

No fund will be spent on alleged charity management, such as travelling tickets, hotel rooms, etc. I’ll personally cover such costs.
绝无任何款项用于所谓的善款管理，诸如交通费用，住宿费用等等。我将独自承担此类开销。

I will not spend any fund directly, since I’m not a professional in such an area. I’ll find a professional and trustable individual or organization (NOT including Red Cross of China), and have them take over the fund spending.
因为我并非此领域里的专家，所以我绝不会直接花费这些善款。我将找到一个值得信赖的个人或者机构（绝不可能是中国红十字会），将善款交由他们处理。

Private charity donation is not as simple and easy as imagined in China. Please keep patient.
私人慈善募捐在中国并非想象得那么简单和容易。请务必保持耐心。

The reasons why I chose Bitcoin as donation currency is:
我选择比特币作为募捐工具的理由是：

Bitcoin is ideal for international donation, since bitcoin transactions is faster, and less troublesome than that of any “real currency”.
比特币是理想的国际捐赠工具，因为它的“转账”非常快，相比任何“真实货币”来说，更少麻烦。


I’ll further organize private/public auction meetings with physically 3D printed BITCOIN (tokens of remembrance) as auction targets, by which we could amplify the amount of funds.
我将进一步组织私下的以及公开的拍卖会，将募集到的比特币通过3D打印方式制作成纪念品，进行拍卖，以便进一步放大募集金额。

In case the auction is not successful, I’ll use my personal RMB deposit to cash the funds out.
万一拍卖会并不成功，我将用自己的人民币存款将那些比特币折现。

I hereby promise the exchange rate of BTC from donation is set to the highest price (MtGox USD) within the period of donation.
我在此保证，最终折现汇率将以捐款活动期间最高汇率（MtGox USD）计算。

As of this editing time, 22.92700228 BTC received, 71 transactions of donations. THANK YOU ALL.

2013.4.22 10:14

85 donations, 24.17135348 BTC

[caoxg]

I ， as a Chinese user,was watching TV all day about this earthquake at west of Sichuan province. I drived to the town last year, that's a simple city and villages deep inside great mountains,far from big cities like Chendu or Chongqing. The road condition is very bad, because it near the center of Wenchuan earthquake , and the public traffic system was totally destroyed at that time , and recovering slowly.

I travelled to west Sichuan province several times. There are great views ,but poor natual resource. It's fourtune that the rainy season has not come, or the rescue action will be much more difficult. So we may have better result than Wenchuan earthquake.

I personally is a fan of OP poster. I learn bitcoin from him and @virushuo . And i bought his book before. I'll send donate to the address listed above tomorrow. Anyway I want @xiaolai will publish the usage of this fund later, and keep it open enough.

[franky1]

i request all people seeking donations for charity causes to go through bitcoin 100.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=52543.0

With their proposals of how the funds will be spend as well as how you are personally linked to the area involved to ensure the majority of funds get spent at the area and not on plane tickets and hotel rooms, car hire etc.

then you will see if your scheme is valid you will get much more investment.

[woodrowchai]

I have donated 0.5 btc from 19e8ZbdB2kTi4YWWFhPrSLnRD9GDysZJAe.

[cchan]

Donated, also fully support you, fully support people in Sichuan.

[caoxg]

the latest official number is 156 dead. So lucky it happened in morning not night so people already get up. And it's weekend ,the students are not gathered in rooms.

[lixiaolai]

i request all people seeking donations for charity causes to go through bitcoin 100.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=52543.0

With their proposals of how the funds will be spend as well as how you are personally linked to the area involved to ensure the majority of funds get spent at the area and not on plane tickets and hotel rooms, car hire etc.

then you will see if your scheme is valid you will get much more investment.

Thank you! I'll follow your suggestion.

[caoxg]

The good news is the road from Ya'An to LuShan,the center of the earthquake is paticially fixed.
The bad news it is evening now. And it begin to rain.

Many medical teams , rescue teams, firemen and army have entered. But due to damage of the road, many wounds have to walk out.

[caoxg]

The electric is not recovered, and Mobile phone network is not recovered.
Hospital is running by disel electric maker.

[caoxg]

Over 5000 wounded. Most of heavy wounds have been transfered to Ya'An or Chengdu.
But camps are mot enough, people cannot stay inside buildings because many small earthquakes continue.

[Jimmy2011]

My android phone wallet is out of coin, and I will donate tomorrow.

[xilin]

今天溢价不高了。。基本和mtgox持平。

[snoleo]

Here is my donation:

http://blockchain.info/tx/37842a39280a57a313750792e8b90af26db6249647089afb4f141e45e6c31a1e

1 BTC

Today btc123.com has just received this 1 BTC as an advertisement income which is the 1st ads income of the website.

Best wishes to the refugees and the people who are helping them.

[lixiaolai]

Thank you all, we have almost 30 donations received! within several hours...

[hydrogenesis]

and instantly, another friend proposed that he could forge 3D printed "coins" as auction targets...

Thanks for the honor.

I just donated some satoshi's, and here are the models on thingiverse.

Let's kindle the love.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:77328

http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/f5/33/26/df/76/btcs_preview_featured.jpg
http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/24/a0/1f/69/27/100btc_preview_featured.jpg

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:77328

[hydrogenesis]

Finished.

This QR code stamp and the techniques involved could be helpful in this event around.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:77449

http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/8e/b9/85/91/fb/qr_code.jpg

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:77449

[lixiaolai]

thank you!

beautiful design!

[lixiaolai]

69 donations received.

[BTCisthefuture]

I hate to be so negative (seems like that's happened a lot with me lately).  But how can we confirm this money will reach it's way to the victims who need it ?   Not saying I doubt the OP but I would need some more evidence before I donated something like bitcoin to someone I don't know.  Lots of charity scams in China as I'm sure the OP would agree with, I feel like bitcoin would make it a heck of a lot easier to run such a charity scam.

I respect and appreciate anyone looking to donate money to help out any of the victims,  for me personally though I'm going to stick with one of the more well established charity groups in this situation.

[hydrogenesis]

One viable solution occurs to me with 3 simple steps.

1) needless to say, everyone could track their donations on blockchain.info anytime they wish to.
2) the bitcoins collected could be sent to a quick auction in exchange for RMB or USD. This event ought to be made public and everyone can see the inventory of real-world money.
3) this money goes to a trustworthy third-party NGO, who will be responsible for the public disclosure of all the charity activities that follow.

Nasty things could happen in each step if operated by evil hands, where I can only trust the operator, in this case, lixiaolai, who has been active in Chinese bitcoin community for a considerably long period of time.

If things could be handled in a decentralized manner, that'll be very cool and I'd be too happy to see such an application where bitcoin accelerates charity come true.