
Ask HN: How to give cryptocurrency to people in need? - joewaltman
My name is Joe Waltman and I a recently started working with GiveCrypto.org (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.givecrypto.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.givecrypto.org&#x2F;</a>), a non-profit that was started by Brian Armstrong. I somewhat stumbled into this job after my previous company (VetPronto) went out of business. I am far from an expert on cryptocurrency and have zero experience working with non-profits.<p>GiveCrypto.org aims to help by making direct transfers of cryptocurrency. There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that the best way to help poor people is to give them cash, rather than traditional support like food, medicine or training.<p>One of the big challenges for GiveCrypto.org is finding people that are both in need and can use cryptocurrency. I&#x27;ve done some experimentation (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medium.com&#x2F;givecrypto&#x2F;givecrypto-work-trial-a-new-financial-system-a-new-opportunity-7f564b65aff5" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medium.com&#x2F;givecrypto&#x2F;givecrypto-work-trial-a-new-fi...</a>) and it is a quite a brain teaser. There is a sad irony wrapped around this problem; the poorer you are, the more &#x27;expensive&#x27; it is for you to make use of cryptocurrency. I&#x27;d love to tap into the HN network to help brainstorm clever ways to get cryptocurrency into the hands of people that need it.<p>Thanks in advance.
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publicfig
I can't think of a situation where a donating cryptocurrency would be better
than a donation of fiat cash to the same groups. Honestly, I can only see
negatives from going down that route (lack of accountability for fund usage is
a major one) and very few, if any, positives. If the concern is volatility of
the local fiat currency, make the donation in another more stable currency.
Cryptocurrency will only add to that instability.

>There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that the best way to help poor
people is to give them cash, rather than traditional support like food,
medicine or training.

I've not seen this (but have seen the inverse often); do you have any
references or examples?

~~~
drivingmenuts
> lack of accountability for fund usage is a major one

So you give them money and then tell them how they can use it? I thought the
whole point of giving them cash was to allow the recipient to determine how
best to use it, given their circumstances at the time.

~~~
publicfig
Likely with most organizations built around donating funds to pre-existing
efforts, the lack of accountability would come from the NGO/Government
Organization itself, who (for better or worse in terms of enforcement) often
have regulations in regards of spending donated funds in terms of
documentation and accounting.

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Finnucane
>There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that the best way to help poor
people is to give them cash

Then why not just do that, then?

~~~
joewaltman
I agree that fiat currency would be more useful if the recipient lives in a
place with a functional financial system and/or a competent government.
However, in places where money is broken (i.e. venezuela) or government is
broken (i.e. refugee camps), it is possible that a crypto-currency might be
more useful than fiat.

~~~
masukomi
It's common knowledge that refugees streaming across border regularly bring
computers, cell phones, solar panels, and large batteries to keep all those
things going. Plus unlike most people in first world countries, most refugees
are well versed in cryptocurrency wallets, trading, and the relative value of
those coins to the daily needs of life like bread, and vegetables.

.... end sarcasm.

~~~
X6S1x6Okd1st
I can't seem to find too many sources that speak to the raw percentage, but it
appears that many to most refugees from syria (to take one example) have a
cellphone and take great lengths to keep it safe & charged.

------
gfarah
One group of people desperately in need is Venezuelans. You could circumvent
the government restrictions and install a form of Exchange in neighboring
towns of Colombia e.g Cúcuta. This would be more helpful than cash because 1.
They can’t receive/withdraw money in Venezuela at this point reliably 2. They
will know they have money saved for their journey out of Venezuela in Colombia
and will take the decision to leave the country now.

Source: I live in Colombia and talk with Venezuelans all the time about their
situation.

~~~
piano
This is the n-th time I'm reading a suggestion to help Venezuela using
Bitcoin/cryptocurrencies. I wonder whoever came up with this and whether
there's any save reasoning behind it or if it's just a cryptonerd fantasy.
Venezuela has a very low average internet connection speed, reportedly one of
the lowest in the world. Sources I've found say it's no better than 2 Mbit/s.
On that speed, downloading the current Bitcoin blockchain would take about
__18 days __.

With such an internet infrastracture, is the country even capable of
maintaining an up-to-date connection to the bitcoin network?

~~~
andirk
The full bitcoin blockchain from Satoshi's first transaction is huge, but
that's for a "full node". A "lightweight node" needs much less
[https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Lightweight_node](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Lightweight_node)
. The amount of internet connection needed is fairly minimal.

Ecuador moved to the US dollar in 2000 because their handling of their own
currency wasn't working (and maybe because oil is often traded in USD?).
Whether Venezuela uses BTC or some other currency sounds like a good idea at
this point. The corrupt actors in their monetary system probably want people
to keep using their bolivar though, because that's what the corrupt people
stole, are holding, and printing.

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sanityvampire
No offense, but "let's give the poor people cryptocurrency" reads a lot like
the start of a satire piece, a lampoon of out-of-touch Bay Area tech culture
denizens.

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Jeremy1026
Step 1: Convert to fiat currency.

Step 2: Give them cash.

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nofunphil
1\. Target specific towns and villages in need; perhaps anywhere M-Pesa is
used is a good place to start??

2\. Hire mobile money agents in those places to facilitate crypto to fiat
exchange (when necessary)

3\. Monitor progress extensively.

4\. Incentivize merchants in the selected towns and villages to accept crypto
for payment (granted, easier said then done, but I have some ideas there as
well)

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X6S1x6Okd1st
Focus on places that already have good cell network/free wifi penetration and
smartphones.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_smartphon...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_smartphone_penetration)

People aren't going to care much unless they can spend it though. Maybe find
places that have a higher concentration of places that accept cryptocurrency
and focus on those? Maybe Ghana, China or Nigeria?

[https://coin.dance/volume/localbitcoins](https://coin.dance/volume/localbitcoins)

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Senderman
Hi Joe.

This answer is a bit rambly, but I think my subconscious has a point to make,
and I'm trying to tease it out.

This may come across the wrong way, but: which poor people? Your town, your
country, or your whole planet?

I'm not an expert, but my hunch is if you start with a very local project
(depending on where you live, it shouldn't be hard to find your local
poverty), you'll get the answers you need - and I think if you're going to
make a big impact, it will grow from that.

When I lived in L.A., young-me sat down with someone I thought was homeless -
a panhandling gent sitting on some steps in Hollywood - we talked, about a
bunch of things, he told me about his routine. Said he made about 30 bucks at
night at that spot - also turned out he had a home, so I'd made an incorrect
assumption.

A lot of my friends thought it was pretty weird that I would engage with the
guy. Guess they had bad experiences with similar situations? I don't know. I
doubt it; I suspect people were afraid. But what do you have to lose?

Talk to some of the people you're looking to help. A few small things will
stand out in your mind - scale those.

I'm jumping the gun here, but if your mind's reaction is that that's not
'global' enough - I don't think anything grows to be a global force without a
solid kernel, and that should be able to succeed at a small scale.

For what it's worth, that's my take.

Best of luck.

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zcopley
The Steemit community seems to be giving crypto (steem)directly to Venezuelans
in need. [https://steemit.com/venezuela/@drutter/mission-agua-
possible...](https://steemit.com/venezuela/@drutter/mission-agua-possible-
week-2-update-the-pump-is-2-paid-for)

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X6S1x6Okd1st
Are y'all going to do work in the US? Maybe not long term, but potentially as
a test case? Are you looking for part time or volunteer staff in those areas?

