Tipping homeless people with Bitcoin paper wallets

[Tazmo]

but the homeless dont use bitcoin dummy

[tiggytomb]

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

I like the sentiment behind this idea but I feel awareness of bitcoin is not at the level that would make this a practical idea. 

Many homeless people might not have a phone or a bank account to cash out, maybe in the future when it is recognised and accepted more it would work.

[1Referee]

They will lose most of the tips in transaction fees so instead of filing the pockets of miners you can just give them cash 

If you fill a paper wallet with like 0.01BTC, you'll end up paying (assuming the transaction has an average byte size) around 75K satoshi in fees. If you're a penny pincher and don't mind having to wait a while, you could even do it with 40-50K in fees. Give them food, or at least pay for a place where they can sleep for a few bucks - handing out money just like that isn't the right option.

[unusualfacts30]

Homeless man won't have any way to cash it out or even use it. If you choose to donate bitcoin to a homeless person, you should also give them a cellphone too. It's not very realistic at this time. However, it can stop lot of crime against homeless.

[boyptc]

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

This question shouldn't be asked anyway. What do you think a homeless man can do? Let's say he has a knowledge before about computers but not all of them are updated with crypto currencies and with bitcoin. It's better if a whale hand will give him directly a place to stay or cash in hand.

[aTriz]

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

It's a good idea. Instead of giving awaiy just food or money, give them something that will help them understand what is worng with the country's economy and why they should switch to this alternative.

Paper wallets are a good means of handing bitcoins out, i guess. Because if you give them a private key on a usb stick they're probably going to be clueless about how to redeem the coins and use them. Paper wallets with written instructions on them are the best way to do this.

The trouble that you'll find with your plan is
1. Lack of whales willing to give away btc
2. Lack of people willing to go up to people randomly and give them free btc.
3. Lack of homeless people have computer access

Still, it's a good idea. After all, a lot of wrong about how many homeless people there are in US.

[L00n3y]

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

Well I think if they don't have some proper knowledge or even education, the paper wallet will be just a waste and Bitcoin will be lost. What I'm trying to say is this people ( especially who grew up homeless, don't even go to school or don't even have an experience using the internet so I guess it's better to hand out some real money to them or ask them if they are good at programming or motivate them and show them how a paper wallet can turn into cash and tell him that if you learn programming you might be able to earn something like this, I bet that some of them is willing to learn if they really want to have a shelter.

[buwaytress]

I don't always have a stomach for first-world responses like these... my guess is if you wanted to help homeless people, you'd give them assistance in addressing their main problem: not having a home. Maybe once that's out of the way you can start with the crypto tipping. Or have I just gotten too old to understand hipster altruism?

[pinkflower]

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

Giving homeless people BTC would be the dumbest thing any Bitcoin holder can do. If I saw a homeless person and want to help him or her, I would prefer to give them food and some used clothes, or maybe even a tent.

[hisuka2987]

This is a nice idea for charity and maybe one or two media coverage stories, but IMO it doesn't change much. it would be a nice stunt but it would unlikely result in plenty of more users since people would just cashout the BTC.
Not that I'm against a bitcoin charity organization, people here might be even more willing to give BTC than USD in real life.

[Russlenat]

For me it is good for tipping the homeless people but please give them a real paper money or fiat and not bitcoin paper wallet because they can't used it or they just trow it away  .

[rickbig092]

I see that a very good nature deed and will help these people for the worth of the paper wallet bitcoin and can encourage someone to consider bitcoin again, it can help them to start a new life and a new vision of how it works.

[DoublerHunter]

I think this is a good way to make other people know bitcoin because even the homeless doesn't know about bitcoin then they can still learn it because they will might get curious if we will give them tips from paper wallets of bitcoin because they will ask us if what is the thing that we gave and how they can get the money then we should just teach them or just tell them to keep it for more years and it might give them huge amount of money in the future.

[Xester]

Okay I see the point that you want to help but how will you do it?  Considering that these people are homeless meaning they might have no access with the computers and do not know maybe to use one.  Or in case, they have no idea what bitcoins is.  Probably you could just give a donation in terms of paper money and give it to them or make a charity.  Build an organization and get some donations. 

[OROBTC]

...

The homeless in the USA and the beggars here in Italy (on vacation here in Italy) would not know what to do with paper BTC wallets.  They don't have computers, nor likely know what to do with a paper wallet.  

Most educated people (with computers) I know personally do not know what to do with a paper wallet either!

Stick to giving them a euro or a buck.  That's what they want and can easily use.

[jorneyflair]

They will lose most of the tips in transaction fees so instead of filing the pockets of miners you can just give them cash 

True true true

I guess the general idea here is to get someone into using bitcoin, and make sure that they understand how bitcoin work. I mean give a man a fish... yeah you get the point there. Giving cash will only increase people's dependency on it, whilst telling them about something else that will be cash v2.0 is much more beneficial to them than just getting them something to eat for a day.

I wouldn't say that the best way to do it is to use paper wallets though. Most of these people don't even have electronic devices to import the private keys. Nor can they safely store that paper wallet somewhere. If you're a bitcoin philantropist, making a mini phone that is only able to conduct btc transactions that sells for like $20 each and giving some away makes a lot of sense.

[machinek20]

I think I dont like this idea, there is a chance that homeless dont know bitcoin and it will be difficult for the homeless to cash it out, as not all shop is accepting bitcoin and I doubt the homeless got phone with wifi, I think cash is more reasonable for the homeless

[Maccus]

With paper wallets you can not buy beer or cigarettes, so they have no interest receiving it ! That may sound harsh, but this is the cold hard truth !

[KuromaYoichi]

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

It is stupid idea, in order for homeless to use bitcoin they need a smartphone and internet connection. Even if there's so many free internet connection, they still need a smartphone, bank account (to exchange it to fiat). Too much work to do (assuming they know bitcoin). Better give them the cash or food if you want to give them something.

[magneto]

Hahaha, that made my day sir

I really don't believe that giving someone bitcoins in the form of paper wallet is going to change their life for the better. The worst that can happen is that the guy thinks you're mocking him and giving him magic internet monies, and throws it away in disgust. The best that can happen is that he redeems the bitcoin, and sells it for cash(idk how he/she has an internet connection and a working pc when they are homeless on the streets, though )

Rather, if you really care about homeless people, approach them with what they need. Get them some food, which is probably their most immediate need, and IF they have the interest, then talk to them about bitcoin. Or better yet, offer them work opportunities which pays in bitcoin. Obviously, it'll be hard to achieve, but if some big bitcoin personality can help make this happen, it's going to boost the public imageg of btc drastically.