Occupy Wall St. Debating whether convert funds over to Bitcoin

[klaus]

thx to bbit

"now confronting its own wrenching financial conflict: how to divvy up the nearly $500,000 the group has raised via donations"

"The fights over financing are as varied as the protesters' reasons for protesting. Should the library buy the cheapest tables available or more sturdy, durable ones? Should the funds be spent on infrastructure in Manhattan or to help Occupy movements across the U.S.? Should all the money be converted to an alternative currency like Bitcoin?"


Source:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/24/occupy-wall-street-money-donated-tension_n_1029377.html


https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=50276.0

[johnj]

From the article, seems as if the money decisions are decided by a vote of everyone - but very few people actually 'understand money', and many of the protesters just let the 'money guys' of the protest handle it.

Obviously they're discussing that by spending the fiat directly, they're just enabling 'the system'.  Even putting it somewhere runs the risk of having the account frozen for arbitrary reasons.  While they still need to by supplies and such, I guess they're looking at Bitcoin quite seriously.

[FreeMoney]

From the article, seems as if the money decisions are decided by a vote of everyone - but very few people actually 'understand money', and many of the protesters just let the 'money guys' of the protest handle it.

This is rather ironic.

[Minsc]

If they buy bitcoins, they'll lose 1/4th of their money, sadly.  If they bought a little in bitcoins, it might be 1/2 or 1/3, but they'll probably buy large amounts of coins at once.

[cbeast]

Why not just buy-as-they-go and use bitcoin via bit-pay or mtgox? They can organically show businesses one-by-one how to accept bitcoin for payment and either keep them and/or convert instantly to local currency.

[rebuilder]

Why not just buy-as-they-go and use bitcoin via bit-pay or mtgox?

The main pragmatic point to their using Bitcoin would be to secure themselves against seizure of funds. Buy-as-they-go isn't an option if that's the goal. Of course, they could just dump their USD into one or more Mt. Gox accounts, but then they'd have to trust Gox. Try selling the idea of giving all your money to some guy on the Internet to a very diverse crowd of people...

[cbeast]

Why not just buy-as-they-go and use bitcoin via bit-pay or mtgox?

The main pragmatic point to their using Bitcoin would be to secure themselves against seizure of funds. Buy-as-they-go isn't an option if that's the goal. Of course, they could just dump their USD into one or more Mt. Gox accounts, but then they'd have to trust Gox. Try selling the idea of giving all your money to some guy on the Internet to a very diverse crowd of people...

Indeed. This is the decision we must all make.

[Joseph sterns]

I hope they do, it would be fantastic publicity for bitcoin and is pretty much what occupy is for, a decentralized currency. run the idea by those that understand it and I gaurantee that they will be for the idea, although the uneducated definitely outnumber the smarter individuals in the protest,

Hopefully some of the crowd will be drawn to btc I'd like nothing more than to see bitcoin succeed all bitcoin needs is more ways to use them other than day trading

[barbarousrelic]

What do they have? USD. What do they need? Sleeping bags, blankets, gloves, food, etc. How much of this can they purchase with Bitcoin (aside from services that sell gift cards for Bitcoin and immediately sell the Bitcoin for USD) ? Not a whole lot.

[Tulkas]

I hope they do, it would be fantastic publicity for bitcoin and is pretty much what occupy is for, a decentralized currency. run the idea by those that understand it and I gaurantee that they will be for the idea, although the uneducated definitely outnumber the smarter individuals in the protest,

Hopefully some of the crowd will be drawn to btc I'd like nothing more than to see bitcoin succeed all bitcoin needs is more ways to use them other than day trading

+1

[notme]

What do they have? USD. What do they need? Sleeping bags, blankets, gloves, food, etc. How much of this can they purchase with Bitcoin (aside from services that sell gift cards for Bitcoin and immediately sell the Bitcoin for USD) ? Not a whole lot.

Local businesses would adapt if they boycotted the USD.  Food is already available for BTC, and compared to debit/credit card fees, bitcoins are cheap to transact in.

[old_engineer]

If they buy bitcoins, they'll lose 1/4th of their money, sadly.  If they bought a little in bitcoins, it might be 1/2 or 1/3, but they'll probably buy large amounts of coins at once.

Nah, they're not stupid.  Most likely someone that's familiar with bitcoins would help them buy and use additional coins efficiently.

The coins that have been donated to them appear to be circulating, not just accumulating at the main donation address, so someone knows what they're doing:
https://blockexplorer.com/address/1Q7DQVTubbUqr5by2YoZJRKCEzj9D3LQ9w

[LightRider]

I would propose that they start converting a fixed percentage of all newly donated funds into bitcoin going forward. Start building a local non-bank controlled economy with those local businesses around them, and start giving the world an example of what can be done without the "1%" getting involved.

It is unfortunate though that the easiest way to convert dollars into bitcoin is through Chase. I doubt that they would like that.

Edit: Unless the manipulator is there, and can sell his massive stockpile for cash directly...

[Minsc]

There's some bitcoin <--> cash services not using banks.

[Dan The Man]

I would propose that they start converting a fixed percentage of all newly donated funds into bitcoin going forward. Start building a local non-bank controlled economy with those local businesses around them, and start giving the world an example of what can be done without the "1%" getting involved.

It is unfortunate though that the easiest way to convert dollars into bitcoin is through Chase. I doubt that they would like that.

Edit: Unless the manipulator is there, and can sell his massive stockpile for cash directly...

By definition there will always be a richest 1% and except for the single unlikely case of an isotropic wealth distribution, they will always control more than 1% of the wealth.

The same kind of rule applies to almost every distribution of anything. Take the Occupy movement and rank all of those involved by their media impact. How much press coverage do they have. I bet the top %1 control much more than %50 of the press coverage. There is tyranny everywhere if you look hard enough.

[Rassah]

I think for people who are protesting money, and don't even understand what money is to begin with, the question of whether or not to convert it to Bitcoin may be the least of their problems

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2011/10/24/occupy-wall-street-money-donated-tension_n_1029377.html

[johnj]

I think for people who are protesting money, and don't even understand what money is to begin with, the question of whether or not to convert it to Bitcoin may be the least of their problems

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2011/10/24/occupy-wall-street-money-donated-tension_n_1029377.html

1) They're not protesting 'money', they're protesting the influence corporations have over government, due to the density of the wealth distribution

2) Your link is the same as the link in the OP

3) This coming from a guy who wanted to raise 500k to buy a restaurant operated by robots.

[Vanderbleek]

That article is fantastically ironic. Hopefully the inability to get their act together will teach them a little something about how things like the gov't work.

[BadBear]

3) This coming from a guy who wanted to raise 500k to buy a restaurant operated by robots.

Look who didn't get the joke.  Did you hear the actual whooshing sound?

[johnj]

3) This coming from a guy who wanted to raise 500k to buy a restaurant operated by robots.

Look who didn't get the joke.  Did you hear the actual whooshing sound?

Sorry, I've yet to be able to successfully determine between posts which are a waste of time and whole accounts which are a waste of time.