Tipping homeless people with Bitcoin paper wallets

[Pistacia]

ok so if a whale hands out Bitcoin paper wallets to homeless people
would they know how to redeem and use the money or hold the bitcoin?
would they learn it?
maybe some of them would become bitcoiners or even programmers and valuable to the ecosystem

who wants to join me doing this

we need people in the usa, where there are the most homeless people on the planet, who are whales and want to help the cause handing out some paper wallets on a daily basis

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[pearlmen]

ok so if a whale hands out Bitcoin paper wallets to homeless people
would they know how to redeem and use the money or hold the bitcoin?
would they learn it?
maybe some of them would become bitcoiners or even programmers and valuable to the ecosystem

who wants to join me doing this

we need people in the usa, where there are the most homeless people on the planet, who are whales and want to help the cause handing out some paper wallets on a daily basis

Instead of handing over paper wallets to an homeless man who would probably use it to wrap weed to smoke or use it for something less worth the value, why not just convert the bitcoin into cash and donate to his life to make it more meaningful. Even majority of people here if given paper wallet will still have to carry out some readings to know how to go about it not to talk of those individuals who would probably be hearing it for the first time and the stress of redemption might even be too stressful on them.

[Basmic]

I do not believe that among the homeless you will be able to find good programmers. Homeless is not social status is a way of life. The main number of them have chosen this way of life and do not want to change anything.

[darklus123]

Both situation are really possible. There are homeless people which is not that innocent. Most of them are smart tho not so wise in a way however when they are being thought eventually they'll learn

[Red-Apple]

i think this is the strangest comment i have read today.

a homeless person can not do anything with a bitcoin paper wallet. he first needs a computer, then internet access then knowledge of how to use any of these. then knowledge of how to spend bitcoin.

and if that wasn't enough he then needs to either find a place to spend these coins or find an exchange to sell them for fiat and use that fiat. and in an exchange he needs to sign up then verify his identity. so he needs a scanner, a passport, utility bill and a camera to take a selfie whilst holding these!

all that said they may curse you if you give them bitcoin!

edit:


googling "homeless bitcoin" brought up so many fun pictures"!

[bitbunnny]

I do not believe that among the homeless you will be able to find good programmers. Homeless is not social status is a way of life. The main number of them have chosen this way of life and do not want to change anything.

In some cases this is true, although some homless people ended this way because of some tragic circumstances. Anyway, I don't think this is very good idea and I beleive the majority of homless are not able or don't have the possibility to use these paper wallets properly. So, if you want to help them use more traditional methods.

[lionheart78]

Both situation are really possible. There are homeless people which is not that innocent. Most of them are smart tho not so wise in a way however when they are being thought eventually they'll learn

But do you ever imagine how they will convert the paper wallet?  If they are a mixture of ignorant and knowledgeable about bitcoin, then most of this paperwallet will not serve its purpose.  It would be better to do what the early reply stated.  Convert it to cash and give them to the homeless, you can always put an add if you want to advertise about bitcoin.  Things like banner stating about your intent of promoting bitcoins by doing such stuff.

[franky1]

i have done this in the past. (done giveaways).

so ill break it down for you
1. to rebut basmic: stereotyping homeless as a choice is so narrow minded that it seems you have never talked to a homeless person in your life.
2. to rebut red-apple: though the homeless may have been rejected from society they can still go to libraries or other places and borrow their internet services

now what i experienced
1. homeless people under 30 are somewhat computer literate, the problem is more about how to get that btc to legal tender to spend (meaning only really works in area's of a local bitcoin meetup to do cash -in-hand which then also counters the requirement of computer literacy as they can go to local meetups and find someone to help them)
2. only about 20% of the donations of paper wallets got 'claimed'(due to concentrating on area's of good helpful local meetup/exchange area's, otherwise it would have been under 1%)
3. however handing funds to them can never guarantee they will use the funds wisely. i have seen many different outcomes and if i was to narrow it down to lets say 10 'scenarios' of the claimed funds, only 1 out of 10 was a wise utility of the funds.(2% overall positive utility of funds)

also things like in area's of high bitcoin population area's some homeless people having a btc QR code has allowed them to receive funds directly from passers by( as seen where homeless people sitting outside merchants that 'accept btc' see those btc people happily donate to the homeless person sat outside). this is something that would never happen if a homeless guy had a "i accept credit card" due to the fear by passers by of handing over credit card details to a homeless person.
in a utopian future where many people had just some btc, the trust of doing an electronic payment to a homeless person is safe/easy/no risk via btc rather than credit card.

but all in all.
things like seans outpost turned out as a better donation plan than others i have seen/experienced/know of. instead of just handing a homeless person $4 or paying for a mcdonalds/subway to hand out. having someone hand make sandwiches etc allows for the funds to help more people (EG $4 could make 5 meals at best(unsure how many seans outpost make)

id recommend if you live in an area of high bitcoin utility. and a regular place for bitcoin meetups and there is a homeless issue in the area. then there is a good possibility of making a good use of donations by setting up a local exchange and also a foodbank

[KennyR]

i think this is the strangest comment i have read today.

a homeless person can not do anything with a bitcoin paper wallet. he first needs a computer, then internet access then knowledge of how to use any of these. then knowledge of how to spend bitcoin.

and if that wasn't enough he then needs to either find a place to spend these coins or find an exchange to sell them for fiat and use that fiat. and in an exchange he needs to sign up then verify his identity. so he needs a scanner, a passport, utility bill and a camera to take a selfie whilst holding these!

all that said they may curse you if you give them bitcoin!

edit:


googling "homeless bitcoin" brought up so many fun pictures"!

That's awesome man. Just because he lacks knowledge he's sitting homeless. There are several other cases where they are successful even without learning, but here how to provide a paper wallet and ask him to use for building home. If he has got that knowledge he could have earned and made his own home.

[lipcoins]

I feel this thread somehow takes the piss of the one category of people whose life situation is utterly tragic.

Sure there have been more people ending up on the street this past decade due to the economy and world crisis and could therefore be more resourceful and educated than you'd give them credit for if judged solely on their living conditions but at the same time, if they're on the street is how they live, it means they can barely provide for their very basic needs otherwise they would have a place to live and would not be begging for food. Skipping knowledge, there are expensive devices one would need to have to run any Bitcoin investment that it is hardly compatible with their life situation.

Wanna really help someone on the street? Hire them for minor maintenance jobs and pay them regularly, then find friends and family who could need their manpower so they have an incoming stream, however modest and unstable. Eventually invite them in for a warm meal and explain to them how coins work. If they seem keen, educate them and let them take it from there. The truth of the matter is that as long as they have no money (never mind disposable money!) they can get no coins and therefore need no wallet.

Everything else is just cheap speculation if not downright denigration.

[NeuroticFish]

ok so if a whale hands out Bitcoin paper wallets to homeless people
would they know how to redeem and use the money or hold the bitcoin?
would they learn it?

They will have to use a laptop or smartphone for this, they would have to find a service that converts Bitcoin into USD for their urgent needs. Such services are expensive, they may get a couple of USD just as start. Also using them for small amounts is a total waste. The recipients will have to find the best services (cheap and reliable) and even myself have hard times to find some good enough...
Let's also mention the tx fees.

All in all I see it like a huge waste of money (percents wise), money which for them could make a difference.


In the days I've started into Crypto world there was a homeless guy that got donations in Dogecoin on reddit.
He had to go to MacDonald's to use their internet to stay in touch, to transfer, to exchange into USD.
I feel that many homeless can't do that. And not because they'd be stupid or careless.

[OmegaStarScream]

Honestly? I don't think someone who is homeless will have time to learn about bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general, he is probably busy finding a shelter or something to eat for the night, If you really want to help someone, just give him cash. If your goal is to teach him about bitcoin then take him to a Bitcoin ATM, explain to him how things works and give him the cash from the ATM.

[susila_bai]

I do not believe that among the homeless you will be able to find good programmers. Homeless is not social status is a way of life. The main number of them have chosen this way of life and do not want to change anything.

What you said is the main reason of this homeless peoples because they dont want to work and live life happily by begging it and now they are use to it and dont want to work or do any job, when they are getting freely what they want. so nothing can change them.

[krishnapramod]

ok so if a whale hands out Bitcoin paper wallets to homeless people
would they know how to redeem and use the money or hold the bitcoin?
would they learn it?
maybe some of them would become bitcoiners or even programmers and valuable to the ecosystem

who wants to join me doing this

we need people in the usa, where there are the most homeless people on the planet, who are whales and want to help the cause handing out some paper wallets on a daily basis

Bitcoin Homeless Man Makes $800 In 4 Days.

Bitcoin homeless man started to accept bitcoin donations on May 21st, at least with this wallet address. He received a total amount of 0.35842588 BTC, so roughly $800 USD

http://bitcoinchaser.com/bitcoin-homeless-man

Around 3.5 million Americans experience homelessness every year, "homeless people" are like us, the stereotypical notion of homeless people especially in America is a misconception. Either they have a job, but not enough earnings to rent an apartment, some of them are well educated, and most importantly people who are homeless know that smartphones are their lifeline because from local homelessness resources to Social Security benefits to finding a job, all these types of services are mostly available online only. Some of them had smartphones before they became homeless and smartphones are cheaper now.

This is an article from 2013,
Unemployed, homeless, and surviving on bitcoin, https://www.wired.com/2013/09/bitcoin-homeless/

He likes this park because his friends hang out there too, and it's a good place to pick up some spending money. But he doesn't panhandle. He uses the internet. The park offers free wireless access, and with his laptop, Angle watches YouTube videos in exchange for bitcoins. He doesn't have to worry as much about getting robbed.

I guess homeless people in America do know about bitcoins and if so tipping them with bitcoins would definitely be a good deed and this way they also would be less worried about getting mugged, but like everywhere there would be con artists, just putting a board with a bitcoin address, looking to get away with free bitcoins.

If you cannot directly help them then you can indirectly donate bitcoins to homeless people through HandUp.

https://handup.org

[Gotottack]

Seriously, what's the point? They are homeless and they don't even have access to a computer let alone a decent smart phone that they can use to transact using those bitcoins anybody will tip. It's impractical, they'll likely throw that back to your face. They for sure don't even know what the hell you are talking about and what that piece of paper is.

[Barbut]

ok so if a whale hands out Bitcoin paper wallets to homeless people
would they know how to redeem and use the money or hold the bitcoin?
would they learn it?
maybe some of them would become bitcoiners or even programmers and valuable to the ecosystem

who wants to join me doing this

we need people in the usa, where there are the most homeless people on the planet, who are whales and want to help the cause handing out some paper wallets on a daily basis

Instead of handing over paper wallets to an homeless man who would probably use it to wrap weed to smoke or use it for something less worth the value, why not just convert the bitcoin into cash and donate to his life to make it more meaningful. Even majority of people here if given paper wallet will still have to carry out some readings to know how to go about it not to talk of those individuals who would probably be hearing it for the first time and the stress of redemption might even be too stressful on them.

You don't know nothing, as a passionate smoker I would never roll a cigar in some crap paper, and I'm little disturbed by your statement, a lot actually! Before you take weed in your words next time try to learn more about it, you are acting like some smart ass and its very annoying.
This topic is not a discussion about bitcoins at all, op is talking about giving money that he probably doesn't have, like this guy here that talks about smoking weed but he never saw weed in his life.
This topic is a pure miss and deserves to be placed in of topic.

[Iranus]

If a homeless person wants to accept Bitcoin, they can put up a QR code for a Bitcoin address and accept payments from passers-by.  Creating paper wallets for giving to people who don't even ask for coins would be extremely inefficient and it would require a lot of explanation.  To be worth the effort, it would have to be quite a lot of money that you put in those wallets and you'd have to think about if you're really willing to donate that much.

I think that all these claims that homeless people can't use computers are bullshit, but there's no point giving paper wallets specifically just because you can.

[Kprawn]

Instead of giving away money to homeless people, why not educate them to fish for themselves. Many homeless people might be educated, but

might not be able to find a job. Get donations to fund a computer centre at a soup kitchen and get these people online. Create micro jobs for

them and pay them in bitcoins. One of my friends lost his job recently and I showed him this forum... he joined a signature campaign and he

gets some income from this.. until he finds a new job. This forum is putting food in his families stomach at the moment.  

[cellard]

ok so if a whale hands out Bitcoin paper wallets to homeless people
would they know how to redeem and use the money or hold the bitcoin?
would they learn it?
maybe some of them would become bitcoiners or even programmers and valuable to the ecosystem

who wants to join me doing this

we need people in the usa, where there are the most homeless people on the planet, who are whales and want to help the cause handing out some paper wallets on a daily basis

Chances are they will not understand anything and lose the paper, get robbed and so on. If you give them cash or gold, im sure they would keep it, but the average person is still oblivious to the value of bitcoin. I would guess a homeless is totally out of touch with any developments that have to do with technology because they have to think about where to sleep that night more than anything else, unfortunately.

You would need to give them a tutorial along with the bitcoins or else its useless. We also need lightning network so tipping small amounts and moving said amounts is actually possible, otherwise the fees will be higher than the tips.

[ivanst776]

Not a bad idea but there are also other better ways to tip because this is not familiar and not user friendly to spend or use the bitcoins.

It would be better something more portable like a phone with a wallet that you can use it through NFC and make purchases physically on the stores offline.