The following press release can be seen in HTML format at
http://lifeboat.com/ex/press.releases.bitcoins.hundred.thousand.dollarsWORLD'S FIRST BITCOIN ENDOWMENT FUND NEARS ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS
Abstract
World's first bitcoin endowment fund nears one hundred thousand dollars.
Story
September 24, 2013 -- World's first bitcoin endowment fund nears one hundred thousand dollars.
Thanks to a large pledge of 500 BTC (bitcoins) by Brian Cartmell, Lifeboat Foundation's bitcoin endowment fund at
https://lifeboat.com/ex/bitcoins has soared to nearly $100,000. Brian will match the next 500 BTC donated to Lifeboat Foundation.
While the Lifeboat Foundation was founded in the 21st century, until recently it was mainly funded using 20th century money, basically various types of monies backed by governments. Lifeboat is now working to have the majority of our funding come from 21st century money -- money backed not by governments but by algorithms. The 21st century money Lifeboat is currently focused on is bitcoins.
Crypto-currencies have many advantages over old-fashioned government-backed money. For example they enable transparency, enabling Lifeboat to show that our endowment monies are stored in these wallets:
http://blockchain.info/address/1Lifeboatu7Y9YqKQRcXfjWYJdXog9CS7r,
http://blockchain.info/address/1LifeboatdUHD5eepYdcZZ57VjcwJU6CtB,
http://blockchain.info/address/1Lifeboa1zJ7xJabHzVDmnsgqZ11m6LWL5,
http://blockchain.info/address/1LifeDkGUgNJcneyRb5JUPTBF1pnT13C2U,
http://blockchain.info/address/17aDRzRQK8ccBLVBzsms3ZasVKc9q3o3Qk,
http://blockchain.info/address/1EYHFdzc3bnuzZAJxj2iCx4RdtdrVzkL92, and
http://blockchain.info/address/1MVn2E3hMf9cziRCsZzFnf1oLtSEeMVCSx. They also allow people in less developed countries to have access to the rest of the world. For example, PayPal alone blocks access to over 60 countries, and many credit card companies have similar restrictions. Some are blocked for political reasons, some because of higher fraud rates, and some for other financial reasons. Whatever the reason, we don't think a human being from Haiti, Ethiopia, or Kenya should have diminished access to the world because of payment issues they can't control. Our goal is to enable people, not block them.
We would like to start a trend of nonprofits building endowment funds with bitcoins instead of just spending them all. Nonprofits could be using the deflationary power of bitcoins to build up their resources so they are in a better position to make a difference in the world. Help us launch this trend!
Lifeboat Foundation is now partners of Bitcoin Foundation and Bitcoin Magazine. Lifeboat Foundation bitcoin-related board members include Jeff Bone, Paul Buitink, Vitalik Buterin, Brenton Camac, Philippe Camacho, Brian Cartmell, Stephen DeMeulenaere, Matthew Elias, Mark Friedenbach, Chris Haley, Adam Harding, Zach Harvey, Kris Henriksen, Dan Ilett, Nejc Kodric, Aaron Lasher, Sean Lavine, Adam B. Levine, Colbert Low, Jon Matonis, Trace Mayer, Sam Mindlin, Lasse Birk Olesen, Salvatore W. Delle Palme, Michael Parsons, Elizabeth Ploshay, Alan Reiner, Benson Samuel, Charlie Shrem, Eli Sklar, Adam Stradling, Jorge Timón, Jonathan Waller, Alex Waters, and J.R. Willett.
Also, to give back to the bitcoin community, Lifeboat Foundation has created the first Windows version of oclvanitygen in the world that runs well on high-end AMD cards. (Our version runs nearly four times as fast as the old version!) You can download it for free at
http://lifeboat.com/oclvanitygen and can learn more about what we did on GitHub at
https://github.com/samr7/vanitygen/issues/19. oclvanitygen is used to create vanity bitcoin addresses such as our bitcoin address 1Lifeboatu7Y9YqKQRcXfjWYJdXog9CS7r that begins with 1Lifeboat.
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About Lifeboat Foundation
The Lifeboat Foundation is a nonprofit nongovernmental organization dedicated to encouraging scientific advancements while helping humanity survive existential risks and possible misuse of increasingly powerful technologies, including genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and robotics/AI, as we move towards the Singularity.
Contacts:
Lifeboat Foundation News office
1638 Esmeralda Avenue
Minden, NV 89423, USA
+1 775-853-5212
press@lifeboat.com
