How to make sure Bitcoin will never be banned by governments!

[MemoryDealers]

In tonight's Bitcoin Brainstorming session,  we came up with an idea to make sure Bitcoin will never be banned by governments.
Rather than having Bitcoin be known as the currency of online drug pushers and gamblers,  we need to have it be known as the currency of charitable donations.

Lets make sure that the
Red Cross
United Way
The Humane Society
and more

accept bitcoins for donations.

If lots of great charities like these use Bitcoins for fundraising,  no politician would ever dare to ban them!

A great example of a charity that is already accepting bitcoin donations is http://epicchange.org/donate.php

To get this started,  I suggest we contact the the United Way and offer to make a $10,000 USD Donation via bitcoins
as soon as they list on their website their Bitcoin donation address.


Bruce Wagner of onlyonetv.com has agreed to hold the funds in escrow until we reach $10,000 worth of BTC.
MemoryDealers.com will donate $5,000 of the $10,000 so we only need the community to come up with the other half.
Once it is listed on the charity's website, Bruce will send out a press release to all the media contacts he has.
It should make major news headlines as well!

If you think this is a good idea,  please send your Bitcoins to: 1CEmUakCaR71BmELWJPg72QRYzUqEddNm6  (this is stored on MTGOX)



Please let us know if you have any additional ideas on how to make this plan even better.


--------------------August 30th update----------------
Thank you for all the comments and feedback.
If you don't think the United Way is a worthy charity,  please don't donate.
Instead contact your favorite charity and ask them to directly accept Bitcoin donations on their website. 
Mention the success that Epic Change has had with bitcoin donations.  The more charities that accept Bitcoin the better,  but I suspect that if the biggest charity in the USA accepts Bitcoin donations,  the rest of them will quickly follow.

If everyone who has read this thread so far had donated $6 worth of Bitcoins,  we would already have the other $5000 to make this a reality.
Ask yourself,  "Is $6 worth the major national news attention Bitcoin would receive if United Way listed Bitcoin as a donation method on their website?"
"Do I want the world to think of helping orphans, cute puppies,  and those in need when they hear about Bitcoins?"

If your answer is "YES!"  then send your $6 worth of BTC NOW to:  1CEmUakCaR71BmELWJPg72QRYzUqEddNm6

It is easy!  Just do it!

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[Bruce Wagner]

I am Bruce Wagner, and I approve this message.   

[pekv2]

I'd like to see SPCA's accept bitcoin donations.

[Gabi]

That's a nice idea

[bitstarter]

I really like this idea!

[MemoryDealers]

We already have our first donation!
Please send your donations now!

1CEmUakCaR71BmELWJPg72QRYzUqEddNm6


Thanks everyone!

[julz]

Good idea.. but some people (e.g me) are quite particular about which charities they'll support.

I like to make sure they're secular so I know the money's not going to supporting some preacher somewhere for example.

I'm sure for some people it's the reverse

Once it's set up so there is a donation address for specific charities - it should be good..   but..   who does the ultimate donation appear to come from?
I'm not saying anyone here would do this.. but an intermediary could treat the donation as their own for tax reduction purposes.. which would be a bit off!

Is it too early to try to convince individual charities to accept it directly?

[aq]

To get this started,  I suggest we contact the the United Way and offer to make a $10,000 USD Donation via bitcoins
as soon as they list on their website their Bitcoin donation address.


Bruce Wagner of onlyonetv.com has agreed to hold the funds in escrow until we reach $10,000 worth of BTC.
MemoryDealers.com will donate $5,000 of the $10,000 so we only need the community to come up with the other half.
Once it is listed on the charity's website, Bruce will send out a press release to all the media contacts he has.
It should make major news headlines as well!

If you think this is a good idea,  please send your Bitcoins to: 1CEmUakCaR71BmELWJPg72QRYzUqEddNm6

Nice idea, and very generous from you.

Please let us know if you have any additional ideas on how to make this plan even better.

Maybe this would be better if it where $1000 every month, otherwise they could see this as a *onetime* special way to donate and remove it after they received it. And charities also loves getting regular donations. Albeit the number would not be that "press friendly" anymore.

[PiGames]

Interesting Idea, but what about the tax implications?
I donate to charities annually; I like the tax credit.
I dont see anyway of doing this while donating with bitcoins...just a miner (pun) issue =)

[MemoryDealers]

Good idea.. but some people (e.g me) are quite particular about which charities they'll support.
.......
Is it too early to try to convince individual charities to accept it directly?

I agree,  so we tried to chose the least controversial charity possible.
If anyone can suggest a less controversial one, but equally well known,  now is the time.

I think asking EVERY charity and business that you intend to pay to accept bitcoins is a great idea TODAY!

That brings me to my next idea that I will post about tomorrow.

[julz]

Interesting Idea, but what about the tax implications?
I donate to charities annually; I like the tax credit.
I dont see anyway of doing this while donating with bitcoins...just a miner (pun) issue =)

Perhaps a good way for the bitcoin community to 'donate' to these charities - is to donate the time and tech skills to help set them up with a solution which allows them to give a receipt in local currency equivalent ( or optionally just donate anonymously).

[bitrebel]

I wholly support you and your actions and efforts, but I think it's a mistake to think you can do anything to keep government from regulating bitcoins. Governments like the US will be hard pressed to get rid of something like encrypted numbers. To outlaw bitcoin would only mean we have to change the name of bitcoin, really. You cannot outlaw numbers.

[jackjack]

You cannot outlaw numbers.

Welcome to the real world

[BitcoinBug]

Great idea and awesome donation from you!

[bitrebel]

You cannot outlaw numbers.

Welcome to the real world

Information is not illegal.

[tvbcof]

This really is a terrific idea from a bunch of perspectives and is a win/win/win to me.  So I just did a trail donation.

 - supports good efforts

 - supports bitcoin

 - supports people coordinating efforts (*)

* I don't give a damn about tax write-offs personally and am willing to eat tax losses as a cost of doing business in a $$-centric world (but I am deeply sorry about the Pakistani villagers I am murdering by remote control )  If any organization has the get-up-and-go and the general decency to coordinate such an effort, they have my expressed permission to claim any tax write-off they can get after converting the BTC I donated to state-sponsored currencies.

[defxor]

Information is not illegal.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110615/14240014708/us-trying-to-extradite-uk-tvshack-admin-over-questionable-copyright-charges.shtml

On topic: This is a great initiative. I assume it's the world wide and not only the US branch of United Way?

[Otoh]

Once it is listed on the charity's website, Bruce will send out a press release to all the media contacts he has.
It should make major news headlines as well!

If you think this is a good idea,  please send your Bitcoins to: 1CEmUakCaR71BmELWJPg72QRYzUqEddNm6

Please let us know if you have any additional ideas on how to make this plan even better.

um, how about perhaps not to use 'Bruce & all the media contacts he has' - not

from the BitCon pump & dump site:

http://bitcoinme.com/index.php/bitcon-2011/

Wall to Wall Major Global Media

Some of the media outlets who have said they will be here include:

    CNN International
    Al Jazeera English
    Blomberg Television
    Wall Street Journal
    The New York Observer
    BusinessWeek
    Wired Magazine
    SmarterMoney
    NPR
    Forbes
    Fortune
    CNN / Money
    The Atlantic
    Radio Australia
    Freedomain Radio

Was there even a single peep from any of these?

Only hype & BS brought to you by

1 or 2 simply awful 13 year old child posters from Pattaya & their pedo bears

[GoWest]

Donated!

Bruce, don't let the buggers get you down.

[dustintrammell]

Bruce Wagner of onlyonetv.com has agreed to hold the funds in escrow until we reach $10,000 worth of BTC.

I'm sorry, and nothing personal to Bruce, but just because he's one of the most prominent celebrities in the Bitcoin communitiy does not a good escrow make.  Consider the fact that he just lost half of his 25k BTC holdings that he had in MyBitcoin, an online wallet service.  He currently doesn't have the best track record for holding on to large amounts of value and knowing where to securely put it.  You may want to consider an actual escrow service, or a Bitcoin-centric entity with a more solid track record, like perhaps one of the exchanges.

Also, there are two separate Bitcoin charity organizations that I'm aware of thus far, perhaps you could involve one of them:

 http://www.bitcoin-charity.com/

http://bitcoinsforcharity.org/