Bitcoins and Philanthropy

[melvster]

Here's an idea.

Why dont philantropists donate money to the bitcoin community to support the efforts.

The money is divided equally among outstanding bitcoins, thereby increasing the average value.  (EDIT: In effect, you can just put a high priced bid into the market place, and let it filter through)

Simply the *possibility* of philanthropy would have an immediate market effect?

What about wealthy individuals that wish to bequeath some of their estate to bitcoins?

[Quantumplation]

How would that work?  How do you distribute money over all existing bitcoins? >_>

[melvster]

How would that work?  How do you distribute money over all existing bitcoins? >_>

See my EDIT

Put a high priced bid (eg $100 per coin) into the market place and let it filter through ... first come first served ...

[Quantumplation]

Ah, yea, that'd work. =)

Feel free to donate money   Lemme know, I'll sell you every coin I have.

[Bitcoiner]

How would that work?  How do you distribute money over all existing bitcoins? >_>

See my EDIT

Put a high priced bid (eg $100 per coin) into the market place and let it filter through ... first come first served ...

Haha, please do

Won't this just end up with the philanthropist buying up all the Bitcoins?

[melvster]

Ah, yea, that'd work. =)

Feel free to donate money   Lemme know, I'll sell you every coin I have.

If you're gonna donate after you die, what have you got to lose?

[Bitcoiner]

How would that work?  How do you distribute money over all existing bitcoins? >_>

See my EDIT

Put a high priced bid (eg $100 per coin) into the market place and let it filter through ... first come first served ...

Haha, please do

Won't this just end up with the philanthropist buying up all the Bitcoins?

This is actually an interesting way that the government (or some rich dude, for that matter) could take over Bitcoin:

1) Print up a few million dollars
2) Purchase Bitcoins using grossly exaggerated bids.
3) Destroy said Bitcoins

It's expensive (and stupid), but it would distort the markets for sure.

[Quantumplation]

what? Who said I was donating anything?  I'm so confused XD

Also, there's nothing really from us all agree to start another blockchain if this happens.  It'd have to be a majority thing, and everyone would have to start "recognizing" the old block chain and rejecting it (it'd have to be hard coded), or refuse to communicate with old clients... It'd be difficult, but there's always a reset button if we REALLY need it and can all agree on it.

[NewLibertyStandard]

Although I would love to sell all by bitcoins for $100 each, putting in a very high bid would be an inefficient investment. It would be much more beneficial if they always bid a little high and asked a little low. It would eventually result in a very low spread and high confidence in the value of bitcoins. The price of bitcoins is not what's important, it's the confidence in knowing you'll be able to convert currency in and out of bitcoins with as little loss as possible and at as steady a price as possible.

[melvster]

Although I would love to sell all by bitcoins for $100 each, putting in a very high bid would be an inefficient investment. It would be much more beneficial if they always bid a little high and asked a little low. It would eventually result in a very low spread and high confidence in the value of bitcoins. The price of bitcoins is not what's important, it's the confidence in knowing you'll be able to convert currency in and out of bitcoins with as little loss as possible and at as steady a price as possible.

It's not about buying coins.  You would put the coins back into the system.  It's about altruism and supporting a community.  Think of it as a dividend to the community.

Let's say I am a billionaire and I want to give every bitcoin holder on average $100 ... there should be market mechanisms to do this.   And simply the *idea* someone may do this (I must say it's a tempting idea), will lead to upward price valuations of the coins ...

[NewLibertyStandard]

Although I would love to sell all by bitcoins for $100 each, putting in a very high bid would be an inefficient investment. It would be much more beneficial if they always bid a little high and asked a little low. It would eventually result in a very low spread and high confidence in the value of bitcoins. The price of bitcoins is not what's important, it's the confidence in knowing you'll be able to convert currency in and out of bitcoins with as little loss as possible and at as steady a price as possible.

It's not about buying coins.  You would put the coins back into the system.  It's about altruism and supporting a community.  Think of it as a dividend to the community.

Let's say I am a billionaire and I want to give every bitcoin holder on average $100 ... there should be market mechanisms to do this.   And simply the *idea* someone may do this (I must say it's a tempting idea), will lead to upward price valuations of the coins ...

Yeah, I guess I missed the point. But now that I'm back to the point, I think that while the community is small, an effective way to contribute to the community would be to continuously buy bitcoins and donate them to active members of the community who contribute to the forum and to IRC, provide services and write code.

Donations to the address below are very welcome!

[jgarzik]

I think a more realistic proposal is to get charities to accept bitcoins as donations.

Helps popularize and legitimize the currency.

[NewLibertyStandard]

I think a more realistic proposal is to get charities to accept bitcoins as donations.

Helps popularize and legitimize the currency.

Somebody should create a charity to distribute donated bitcoins to contributing members of the Bitcoin community. I'd volunteer, but I'd really like to receive such donations, so it'd be a conflict of interest.

[Gavin Andresen]

If a philanthropist wants to give away bitcoins to the bitcoin community, I'd be happy to reset the Bitcoin Faucet rules to whatever the philanthropist would like.

Could be:  donate 10,000 Bitcoins and then have the Faucet distribute 10 per IP address (regardless of whether or not they got coins from the Faucet before) until they're gone.

[FreeMoney]

If a philanthropist wants to give away bitcoins to the bitcoin community, I'd be happy to reset the Bitcoin Faucet rules to whatever the philanthropist would like.

Could be:  donate 10,000 Bitcoins and then have the Faucet distribute 10 per IP address (regardless of whether or not they got coins from the Faucet before) until they're gone.

I was thinking it would be neat to give away like .1% of available coins to any new IP address. As it is any donation that puts it over 500 just gets eaten quickly (maybe by people who do IP magic).

[knightmb]

I was thinking it would be neat to give away like .1% of available coins to any new IP address. As it is any donation that puts it over 500 just gets eaten quickly (maybe by people who do IP magic).

Yeah, it's easy to get a thousand IPs even if they are just on loan if you really wanted to sap the donation page dry.

[FreeMoney]

I was thinking it would be neat to give away like .1% of available coins to any new IP address. As it is any donation that puts it over 500 just gets eaten quickly (maybe by people who do IP magic).

Yeah, it's easy to get a thousand IPs even if they are just on loan if you really wanted to sap the donation page dry.

If you only give out .1% of the remaining balance each time they'll need a lot more than 1000 to run it dry ;-)

[melvster]

If a philanthropist wants to give away bitcoins to the bitcoin community, I'd be happy to reset the Bitcoin Faucet rules to whatever the philanthropist would like.

Could be:  donate 10,000 Bitcoins and then have the Faucet distribute 10 per IP address (regardless of whether or not they got coins from the Faucet before) until they're gone.

I was thinking it would be neat to give away like .1% of available coins to any new IP address. As it is any donation that puts it over 500 just gets eaten quickly (maybe by people who do IP magic).

You could make a lottery system.  Dontators donate at random to an address.

[QuantumMechanic]

If someone has lots of cash and wants to help Bitcoin along, I think it'd be good for him to use it to help keep the exchange rate stable, and the spread low.  He should buy into dips and sell into spikes, and maybe act as an exchanger who takes little to no commission while the exchange rate is stable.

Furthermore, he could put up bounties for the development of tools and features that would improve Bitcoin, and he could also pay for advertising.

For example, they could put up a bounty to have this http://bcspec.org/ developed and implemented.