JAPAN TSUNAMI RELIEF, PLEASE READ

[edric]

Hello everyone, now is the time for us to stand up as the good people we all are and help out our fellow man. We need a way to donate our spare BTC to the Japan relief effort. I suppose the simplest way to accomplish that would be for a well established member of our community (as in, someone we trust not to keep it lol) to accept the BTC donations and sell them off and send the proceeds to (I don't know, I'm sure there's something). I just wanted to get the idea out here, since I didn't come across any threads offering to help out. Give a little, give a lot, whatever you could spare. I don't have much but if we're able to establish something, I'd like to do my part. Maybe someone a little more experienced than I am can come up with willing candidates to accept donations and put it to a vote or something? Even if we as a whole cannot do much, at least it is something, and the effort is bound to make a difference, even if it is small.

[S3052]

.

[edric]

Thanks for the prompt reply! I don't have much at all but I'm sending it, as well as what I can muster within the next few days. Thanks so much!

[S3052]

I am donating 30 BTC myself immediately.

[edric]

I am donating 30 BTC myself immediately.

You are a bro. I wish I had that much to give, unfortunately my combined mhash is only about ~150. I'm going to try to push my rigs a bit harder though.

We have quite a unique opportunity here, to actually take our computing power and use it to do something positive for human beings. It's actually a pretty cool feeling.

[bitdragon]

20 BTC sent;
My thoughts and prayers are being sent as well-

[rebuilder]

Do you know yet who and how the funds collected will ultimately go to?

[edric]

Do you know yet who and how the funds collected will ultimately go to?

Any thoughts would be appreciated, I haven't had a chance to look into it, and now am heading for bed. Will check in tomorrow.

[S3052]

Suggest the following approach:

1. Let's collect Bitcoins as first priority.

2. And then tomorrow review the options for donating (to which organization, for what help purpose)

We could do a poll for those who have donated to decide where to doinate the funds.

Current status: 51.82 BTC

[rebuilder]

50 BTC sent.

I previously posted an idea to use this as a way of promoting Bitcoin. On reflection, that seems like a poor idea. If you can find someone able to help in Japan and readily willing to take BTC, great. If not, then perhaps the best thing to do is simply to sell off the collected coins and transfer fiat to the chosen charity. It would be unfortunate to come across as trying to wrangle publicity from a tragedy and to do so by dangling donation money in front of a charity only to try to make them jump through hoops to understand Bitcoin and learn how to sell the coins for fiat.

Does anyone here know a grassroots organisation in Japan that they could personally approach? I don't think we'll be collecting a lot of money here, so a small organisation would probably appreciate our donation more than a large one. Also a more personal approach would, to my mind, seem to fit the general distributed nature of the whole Bitcoin system. Perhaps a shelter in the disaster area could use financial help?

[S3052]

You are right, let's "just" help them to get out of this mess.

Of course we will mention that donations were collected via Bitcoins.

I also like the idea of looking for smaller aid organizations. Let's see what we can find over the next couple of days.

[Drifter]

I'd recommend http://www.directrelief.org/, but as long as the charity donates 100% of money earned, I don't mind who it is.

[fornit]

why donate something after all?

japan is still one of the richer nations. short term direct help by other nations military or civilian catastrophy organizations is necessary of cause, but why money? thats exactly what governments and reinsurance companies are made for. unlike many other countries, japan has both of them.

[comboy]

I may earn some hate because of it, but... I don't think it is rational at all. Unless you are doing this solely for purpose of bitcoin promotion.

verbose mode: If somebody have enough bitcoins to donate, he also have enough cash to do it without intermediary step (or you want people to sell they bitcoins?). I'm glad that hero member offered service, but it is safer if people choose place to donate for themselves. And what is the point at all? How much can you collect? 1000 BTC? Look at these pictures again. Think who you want to help. There are insurance companies, there will be a lot of gov help. Poorest ones will get currently more than on average. If you are all about charity that's like one of the worst moments to donate in my opinion. Whole world is focusing on that one place currently. You could choose some donation to africa instead if you want to help so much, because need for help is continuous, and nobody is looking there at the moment.

Don't get me wrong, I believe it's awful tragedy. But even just working hard at this time of looking for place to donate you may possibly do better. Governments take a lot of your money, and they love showing off helping those, that got on the TV. People die in awful ways every day. I do not think, that those who died with enough many others to get media interested, deserve more help than others.

I hope I didn't offend anybody. I'm just trying to stick to the rationality that I like on this forum (and yes, in case of tragedy, staying rational is especially useful, that's when you get most probabilities even more wrong than usually).

PS. Staying within offtopic, I liked this article: http://atomicinsights.blogspot.com/2011/03/nuclear-plant-issues-in-japan-are-least.html

[mcdett]

10 BTC sent.

[S3052]

Status:

158.82 BTC

[S3052]

I may earn some hate because of it, but... I don't think it is rational at all. Unless you are doing this solely for purpose of bitcoin promotion.

verbose mode: If somebody have enough bitcoins to donate, he also have enough cash to do it without intermediary step (or you want people to sell they bitcoins?). I'm glad that hero member offered service, but it is safer if people choose place to donate for themselves. And what is the point at all? How much can you collect? 1000 BTC? Look at these pictures again. Think who you want to help. There are insurance companies, there will be a lot of gov help. Poorest ones will get currently more than on average. If you are all about charity that's like one of the worst moments to donate in my opinion. Whole world is focusing on that one place currently. You could choose some donation to africa instead if you want to help so much, because need for help is continuous, and nobody is looking there at the moment.

Don't get me wrong, I believe it's awful tragedy. But even just working hard at this time of looking for place to donate you may possibly do better. Governments take a lot of your money, and they love showing off helping those, that got on the TV. People die in awful ways every day. I do not think, that those who died with enough many others to get media interested, deserve more help than others.

I hope I didn't offend anybody. I'm just trying to stick to the rationality that I like on this forum (and yes, in case of tragedy, staying rational is especially useful, that's when you get most probabilities even more wrong than usually).

PS. Staying within offtopic, I liked this article: http://atomicinsights.blogspot.com/2011/03/nuclear-plant-issues-in-japan-are-least.html

Here some ideas which organization to select.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/11/how-to-help-japan-earthquake-relief_n_834484.html

 There is nothing wrong trying to convince one of the smaller ones to open up a bitcoin account and address to accept donations.

But if not, I'd still go ahead donating what we collect here.

[Binford 6100]

why donate something after all?

to practice generosity.

your point with reinsurance companies and govts having enough money to help is nevertheless an excellent one.

[Anonymous]

why donate something after all?

to practice generosity.

your point with reinsurance companies and govts having enough money to help is nevertheless an excellent one.

Generosity? What meaning does generosity have?

If I wanted to truly help Japan, I would find a niche and opportunity within relocation services. Throwing money at things can only do so much.

[Anonymous]

I may earn some hate because of it, but... I don't think it is rational at all. Unless you are doing this solely for purpose of bitcoin promotion.

verbose mode: If somebody have enough bitcoins to donate, he also have enough cash to do it without intermediary step (or you want people to sell they bitcoins?). I'm glad that hero member offered service, but it is safer if people choose place to donate for themselves. And what is the point at all? How much can you collect? 1000 BTC? Look at these pictures again. Think who you want to help. There are insurance companies, there will be a lot of gov help. Poorest ones will get currently more than on average. If you are all about charity that's like one of the worst moments to donate in my opinion. Whole world is focusing on that one place currently. You could choose some donation to africa instead if you want to help so much, because need for help is continuous, and nobody is looking there at the moment.

Don't get me wrong, I believe it's awful tragedy. But even just working hard at this time of looking for place to donate you may possibly do better. Governments take a lot of your money, and they love showing off helping those, that got on the TV. People die in awful ways every day. I do not think, that those who died with enough many others to get media interested, deserve more help than others.

I hope I didn't offend anybody. I'm just trying to stick to the rationality that I like on this forum (and yes, in case of tragedy, staying rational is especially useful, that's when you get most probabilities even more wrong than usually).

PS. Staying within offtopic, I liked this article: http://atomicinsights.blogspot.com/2011/03/nuclear-plant-issues-in-japan-are-least.html

Never feel bad for being rational.

Here's the truth: If you to help people, sell good things affordably. Get out there and actually offer something more intrinsic than money. There's plenty of people to throw the green stuff around. What we need is people to facilitate it.