By now, most people in the Bitcoin and Crypto world have heard the story of Andreas Antonopoulos. Long story short, he was one of the first major proponents of Bitcoin, still is, has been teaching people about it since 2012.
While most would assume that he was currently a Bitcoin Millionaire, turns out, this five year obsession actually cost him most of his savings. When word of this got out, many, MANY Bitcoin investors sent him Bitcoin directly, and did indeed make him a Bitcoin millionaire.
I'm sure others have told the story better and more detailed than I did. And overall, that story has a pretty happy ending, in my book. But the thing that really interested me was Anonymous Peer to Peer Charity.
I admit, for most of my adult life, I haven't given many charitable donations in currency (although I have been a blood donor for about five years or so). Part of the reason I haven't given it that I didn't much care the standard charity model- give to a large organization, and then trust them to give your money to deserving people. Never felt right, and I've read too many stories of "charities" that take the majority (sometimes 90% or higher) for their own overhead, never giving it to people who could really benefit.
This also may be due to the fact that I was broke and in debt early in my adult life. I look at that period now as a real life lesson in economics. Yeah, the price tag on that was pretty high, but in the long run, I'm still thankful for what I've learned from that period. The experience really taught me more respect for money. But I also felt I didn't have much to offer to others, monetarily speaking.
That's something that I would like to change. I guess, part of my continuing education with money. Now that I have some deflationary assets (think cryptos and precious metals), I no longer feel like inflation is slowly eating away at me. On the contrary, some of my investments have actually grown.
Enter Twitter. Yeah, normally I think that service is more like a cancer, but I tried using it as a parody account, and suddenly.... it was actually a joy. I now have a following of people that seem to like my sense of humor, at least sometimes. Never met any of them. One of them happens to retweet a link to a GoFundMe page. For some reason, I check it out.
It's here- https://www.gofundme.com/rg8yf-emergency-moving-expenses
I read the story, cross check the account it's posted from, and I'm convinced, yeah, I think these people really need some help.... and I want to help them. So, I send a $100 donation their way. I feel pretty good. Later, I see this tweet from them-
So yeah, I feel kinda good about that. That's when so much hits me. $100 used to be a massive amount of money to me, not that long ago. Now, it's still significant, but I can easily afford to donate that to someone once in a while. And to that person..... well, it literally could be life changing. I have no idea who that person is. They have no idea who I am. And while GoFundMe isn't 100% peer to peer, it is getting close. It's a weird and really cool feeling.
I guess I'll end with this.... give anonymous peer to peer giving a try. It could be as simple as five or ten dollars. It could be some bitcoin or litecoin. I think it would be really cool if you donated to the same project I did, as I would like to see them closer to their goal (if not reach or exceed it). If the above project isn't right for you, find another one. What do you have to lose, ten dollars or so? As I jokingly told myself, it's only inflationary fiat! (I guess you have to be libertarian or Ancap to get that one.)
Please resteem, and feel free to share on any other blog platform, in whole or in part, but please include the link to the project.