World’s first bitcoin endowment fund passes half a million dollars
AbstractWorld’s first bitcoin endowment fund passes half a million dollars.
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November 22, 2013 — World’s first bitcoin endowment fund passes half a million dollars.
Thanks to a large pledge of 500 BTC (bitcoins) by Brian Cartmell, Lifeboat Foundation’s bitcoin endowment fund has soared to $500,000. Brian will match the next 500 BTC donated to Lifeboat Foundation.
Historically, government backed money has done a poor job in holding its value. For example, the successful U.S. dollar has lost 97% of its value since it was first issued. A less successful currency, the Japanese yen, has lost 99.95% of its value since being issued. Compared to the dramatic losses by fiat currencies, the fluctuations in bitcoin seem like a minor problem.
Crypto-currencies have many advantages over old-fashioned government-backed money. For example, they allow people in less developed countries to have access to the rest of the world. For example, PayPal alone blocks access to over 60 countries, and many credit card companies have similar restrictions. Some are blocked for political reasons, some because of higher fraud rates, and some for other financial reasons. Whatever the reason, we don’t think a human being from Haiti, Ethiopia, or Kenya should have diminished access to the world because of payment issues they can’t control. Our goal is to enable people, not block them.
The Lifeboat Foundation would like to start a trend of nonprofits building endowment funds with bitcoins instead of just spending them all. Nonprofits could be using the deflationary power of bitcoins to build up their resources so they are in a better position to make a difference in the world. Help us launch this trend!
Lifeboat Foundation is now partners of Bitcoin Foundation and Bitcoin Magazine. Lifeboat Foundation bitcoin-related board members include Jeff Bone, Vitalik Buterin, Brenton Camac, Philippe Camacho, Brian Cartmell, Stephen DeMeulenaere, Matthew Elias, Chris Haley, Zach Harvey, Dan Ilett, Aaron Lasher, Bobby Lee, Adam B. Levine, Juan Llanos, Colbert Low, Jon Matonis, Michael Parsons, Elizabeth Ploshay, Benson Samuel, Charlie Shrem, Eli Sklar, Jorge Timón, Jonathan Waller, Alex Waters, J.R. Willett, and Josh Zerlan.
Also, to give back to the bitcoin community, Lifeboat Foundation has created the first Windows version of oclvanitygen in the world that runs well on high-end AMD cards. (Our version runs nearly four times as fast as the old version!) You can download it for free at https://lifeboat.com/oclvanitygen and can learn more about it at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=301054.0. oclvanitygen is used to create vanity bitcoin addresses such as our bitcoin address 1LifeboatVPg24QghZ73Dzrx8AxcJLCnoA that begins with 1Lifeboat.
You can submit your suggestions on how to spend our Bitcoin Endowment Fund at https://lifeboat.com/ex/bitcoin.suggestions.
About Lifeboat Foundation
The Lifeboat Foundation is a nonprofit nongovernmental organization dedicated to encouraging scientific advancements while helping humanity survive existential risks and possible misuse of increasingly powerful technologies, including genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and robotics/AI, as we move towards the Singularity.
Contacts:
Lifeboat Foundation News office
1468 James Rd
Gardnerville, NV 89460, USA
+1 (512) 548-6425
[email protected]
