How can we make a coin/hardware that will go the poor, in the third world

[psybits]

Sorry aa I can't hear you - and I can't see all of the porn in your signature 

[aa]

You should probably get that cerebrovascular accident checked out.

[DataPlumber]

Wow, this thread devolved quickly.

But if I might probe an assumption of the OP- why do people need to be involved in mining in order to participate in a cryptocurrency system?

[psybits]

Wow, this thread devolved quickly.

But if I might probe an assumption of the OP- why do people need to be involved in mining in order to participate in a cryptocurrency system?

Well I think when people are mining it empowers them as they are doing something to earn the coins, and they are participating in the network.

But then again. perhaps we could just do the mining ourselves and then distribute the coins based on other criteria, similar to Devcoin.

[blastbob]

But then again. perhaps we could just do the mining ourselves and then distribute the coins based on other criteria, similar to Devcoin.

And why isn't devcoin on btc-e then? Need some forcing hands to make it work. Else greed will take overhand

[psybits]

But then again. perhaps we could just do the mining ourselves and then distribute the coins based on other criteria, similar to Devcoin.

And why isn't devcoin on btc-e then? Need some forcing hands to make it work. Else greed will take overhand

Devcoin used to be on BTC-e, but they did not continue supporting it as they were not willing to support that many decimal places in their system. Devcoin is one of the original alt coins and it has a very strong community.

I would like to stick with your original vision of easier mining as well blastbob - as I said it is something I have been thinking of too

[phillyj]

Why are you all trying to make mining accessible to those who can't afford it? Why not focus on building a BTC based charity? Build the use of BTC and not the mining of BTC. It's hard to buy things with BTC now but it is possible to trade BTC within the community, like a real currency.

So trade for services or community-created objects that can be provided to the poor. If all you people think about is mining, you can't advance BTC as a currency.

Maybe we can work with an NGO for logistics of the final service/product delivery. This might shift the image of BTC from bad (silkroad) to good (benefiting society).

Otherwise, BTC is only useful for llama socks and speculators.

[GSnak]

The phones in Africa are usually not $400 iPhones or Galaxy S3, they're old Nokias with little processing power. Also, running a miner in the background would limit battery life. Food and clean water is what they need most, and simple things like shoes.

Also, Devcoin is not worth very much.

[Barnacle_Ed]

Also, Devcoin is not worth very much.

Of course each individual devcoin isn't worth much...there's 50,000 DVC/block and a few billion in circulation at this point. Saying the currency itself isn't worth much based on that is ignorant.


On topic: BBC had an article today in a somewhat similar vein. Perhaps a charity-based cryptocurrency can be used to help microlenders or entrepreneurs trying to support poor nations, rather than having citizens of those nations try to mine themselves.

[GSnak]

Mergemining DVC adds 2.9%, not exactly huge additional value we're dealing with here. Though I suppose if you have a billion of them...

[Barnacle_Ed]

Mergemining DVC adds 2.9%, not exactly huge additional value we're dealing with here. Though I suppose if you have a billion of them...

I suppose that's true. They don't add a whole lot of benefit for miners. Still, 2.9% extra profit is still 2.9% extra profit.


And yeah, for the developers who have racked up a few hundred million devcoins, I'm sure they're happy with how things have played out.

[blastbob]

microloans through kiva.org is a good thing, i got around xxx$ into that. Some are lost in fees, but they are optional.

http://screencast.com/t/GfR4k5FRMdJl

Edit:

Found Bitcoin KIVA group - http://www.kiva.org/team/bitcoin

Someone need to share more

[markm]

I was thinking about this to, calling it Charity Coin. Have 50% going to a charity pool and 50% going to miners.

Read the history of DeVCoin.

Charity pools were tried.

DIdn't work.

Thus DeVCoin was created instead.

-MarkM-

[tjamz]

.. and it creates a crypto currency that we all can buy in on and make it prosper?

Some brainfarts:
-- USB/Other device with ( insert special hardware chip here ) inbuilt simcard for edge usage. AirDrop/Handouts in part of the world where its needed.
-- Need official pools where these these will auto connect to.
-- Need to work with any latency 100-1000ms
-- Need a organization that makes sure everything is done as right as possible.

Of cause in Africa one warlord will take them all anyway..

I got some of my brainfarts from this thread - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=196281.0

it could run on the 'one laptop per child'

[digitalindustry]

Places that require airdrops usually don't have internet access.

air drop  the newly announced "PovertyCoin" ..?

could work? 

[blastbob]

They could always snail mail their hashes

[TiagoTiago]

Well, sneakernet has bigger bandwidth than broadband internet; the latency sucks though...

[digitalindustry]

Places that require airdrops usually don't have internet access.

air drop  the newly announced "PovertyCoin" ..?

could work? 

picturing the forum readers rushing to the front page to check for "Povertycoin [ANN]"

but seriously what about a coin that is mined by the Government of the day only, then distributed how they see fit? - that would make for an improvement?  

then the people that don't have power wouldn't have to mine it .

[GSnak]

They have that, it's called a central bank.

[digitalindustry]

They have that, it's called a central bank.

heeey , and then they don't even have to mine !

great idea !