Topic: Making a BTC pitch to a billionaire - page 2. (Read 7179 times)
many thanks for the move & those I know who could potentially help move this forward have been very positive about that so far
"This should be moved to Bitcoin Discussion"
I agree
I agree
No offense, but the speculation forum was the worst place to put this 
Our goal is not to sell billionaires large quantities of bitcoins so that the price can go up... instead, we want these billionaires to support adoption with whatever influence they have. This should be moved to Bitcoin Discussion.
Agreed. Enough with the penny stock nonsense.Our goal is not to sell billionaires large quantities of bitcoins so that the price can go up... instead, we want these billionaires to support adoption with whatever influence they have. This should be moved to Bitcoin Discussion.
The more I read about such stuff the more bearish I become because it’s like we are desperate.
yes. promote the adoption of bitcoin. after all, we don't just use it for speculation, or do we? i at least don't. and i would love to see a bright future for bitcoin guaranteed!
Based on the size of the investment and expected balance of trade, this is going to end up being one guy in Nairobi buying Bitcoins until his $20,000 runs out, isn't it?
I mean, do you have any idea how much was invested in Tradehill? And it failed and could never even afford a MSB license.
I mean, do you have any idea how much was invested in Tradehill? And it failed and could never even afford a MSB license.
I have a feeling licensing would be less of an issue outside the US.
Based on the size of the investment and expected balance of trade, this is going to end up being one guy in Nairobi buying Bitcoins until his $20,000 runs out, isn't it?
I mean, do you have any idea how much was invested in Tradehill? And it failed and could never even afford a MSB license.
I mean, do you have any idea how much was invested in Tradehill? And it failed and could never even afford a MSB license.
http://www.technologyreview.com/business/39829/?p1=BI
I'm still interested in trying to help fund any NPO doing this btw
I'm still interested in trying to help fund any NPO doing this btw
I've checked out & read all the Africa links & topics suggested & something that made mobile to mobile (smart phones being big there) Bitcoin payments & linked to M-Pesa or was an alternative for it would be excellent, as would exchanges in Africa so that peeps could get the local fiat - but if something linked BTC to M-Pesa then that would work & once done money can be easily transferred back home to Africa from abroad in Bitcoins saving the senders being ripped off for up to 20% of their funds by Western Union etc
Obviously the apps for Bitcoin mobile function-ability are in the works & already coming out, so the link to M-Pesa or African exchanges is all that's needed right now - it has to be an initiative from a NPO though to apply for foundation funding
Obviously the apps for Bitcoin mobile function-ability are in the works & already coming out, so the link to M-Pesa or African exchanges is all that's needed right now - it has to be an initiative from a NPO though to apply for foundation funding
Maybe E could fund a "Bitcoin Foundation" which would advertise/advocate Bitcoin and provide legal help for people regarding Bitcoins.
Sort of like the EFF.
Sort of like the EFF.
If I knew a billionaire I'd ask him to fund an independent evaluation of Bitcoin. Hire a prominent IT firm to take it completely apart, evaluate it's properties, it's soundness but avoid any economic evaluation, just the functionality. And then have them give it their stamp of approval.
Bitcoin doesn't need big money investment. It needs small money to feel comfortable using it.
Bitcoin doesn't need big money investment. It needs small money to feel comfortable using it.
That and throw some lawyers at it to see what they might have to say.
all of these suggestions sound good to me, but for later down the road if E was showing an active interest in Bitcoin's development & potential
Gosh!..., I had written a very long post that unfortunately disappeared. Will try to remember and spew parts of it since I'm now very tired.
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I always found the speculation sub to be the best place to find trools, / not surprised.
I would be very careful in spending large amount of money onto bitcoin before it has matured natually.
Core:
First, There are some needed changes and research to be done around the core protocol definition that would benefits from minimal funding, ~250k$
Ecosystem - distribution :
Then supporting development of related software and services...
Finding new ways to distribute bitcoins as evenly as possible via freebies and offers but mostly through empowering people to work and earn them for simple yet engaging tasks.
Mining:
Bitcoins generation (mining) is more and more at risk of being centralized and prohibitive due to private large scale fgpa / ASIC mining operations.
We are struggling to coordinate and fund development of dedicated mining hardware. People in the industry give estimates between 500 000 and 10m$ for a fully custom ASIC (depending on technologies and scale). This would be the holy grail for affordable network security.
There has to be a balanced momentum of people joining in, security going up and affordable mining hardware being deployed.
Increased network security would in turn attract biger player.
--------
I always found the speculation sub to be the best place to find trools, / not surprised.
I would be very careful in spending large amount of money onto bitcoin before it has matured natually.
Core:
First, There are some needed changes and research to be done around the core protocol definition that would benefits from minimal funding, ~250k$
Ecosystem - distribution :
Then supporting development of related software and services...
Finding new ways to distribute bitcoins as evenly as possible via freebies and offers but mostly through empowering people to work and earn them for simple yet engaging tasks.
Mining:
Bitcoins generation (mining) is more and more at risk of being centralized and prohibitive due to private large scale fgpa / ASIC mining operations.
We are struggling to coordinate and fund development of dedicated mining hardware. People in the industry give estimates between 500 000 and 10m$ for a fully custom ASIC (depending on technologies and scale). This would be the holy grail for affordable network security.
There has to be a balanced momentum of people joining in, security going up and affordable mining hardware being deployed.
Increased network security would in turn attract biger player.
Re long posts disappearing before posting, I mostly write ones that I don't wish to risk of that happening on gmail compose which auto saves every couple of minutes or so & you can save at any other time with 1 click (after something that you particularly don't want to lose say) or keep as a draft & add to, tweak, finish later - so at least the bulk of one's text is usually not lost
All your points sound good to me, unless E was one of the few peeps who became an instant Bitcoin fan on coming across it & seeing it's revolutionary potential then I doubt that a 6 figure grant application would be the best way to start, I was thinking more of a small project that could be achieved in under 1 year say & would be relatively peanuts to the foundation, under $100,000 - preferably low 5 figures, my friend's first was for $13,300 & that worked very well. The main point being to get the foundation & E interested in Bitcoins as a concept & maybe they will start coming up with potential applications of how it could benefit their other projects, once 1 Bitcoin related project had been funded then it would be easier pitching the more technical, esoteric, less sexy ones that were more important to Bitcoin development
So maybe a smallish project, maybe something that could have a very obvious benefit to a cause that E likes & already supports (see my OP), maybe something Africa related, I also have a friend who is communications director of a company & dealing with the launch of a product in to a new market, the US & she may be willing to do some freelance media relations on this NPO project, I can already see some fairly snappy headlines for press releases ie, Billionaire Backs Bitcoins - blar, blar, blar or perhaps better more low key
Also if it tickled E's fancy that the application was coming from a neighbor & friend of a couple of E's buddies, then I imagine future & more ambitious Bitcoin related project would be way easier to get funded & there's even a slim chance E may wish to hear more about Bitcoin in person from me - which would be awesome
Suggest that he set up a benevolent mining monopoly which controls the majority of hashing power, but excludes all other miners. Point out the profitability of this venture as the ability to earn 100% of newly generated bitcoin with just 51% of available hashing power.
I doubt this billionaire would want to become a millionaire for the sake of bitcoin. 51% would require the largest datacenter in the world.
10 terahash is 10 million USD or about 1% of the billionare's net worth. He won't actually need 10 Terahash because many miners will exit once one agent fires up so many rigs. Once he has 51% and is able to prohibit competition, all other miners will exit mining because private mining will no longer generate bitcoin. As a result, he will be able to mine all of the world's bitcion using just a few hundred gigahash. The other 9.5 terahash can be kept offline as a threat to any potential competition. Using just a few hundred gigahash worth of electricity expenditure per month, he will take in a revenue of 216,000 bitcoin per month or about 1 million USD per month. In about one year he will have recovered his initial investment. Certainly, if he is aware of safer investments which also have a 100% per annum expected return then he should pursue them. However it is extremely difficult to find opportunities this good.
That's hardware only.... you need a building, huge power lines, a massive cooling system, and 24 hour security to keep people from running off with your expensive hardware. Not to mention, keeping that many rigs running would be a full time job for at least one person.
You obviously have never dealt with large-scale computing.
Anyone with enough money wouldn't use GPUs to mine though, it would be far more cost effective to develop an ASIC that could do a GHash/watt. Actually developing it wouldn't be that hard, you could even use the open source FPGA code, but implement it much more efficiently in hardware, the main barrier is having a run of the chips produced. With ASICs, I could see a single rack containing several THash.
Suggest that he set up a benevolent mining monopoly which controls the majority of hashing power, but excludes all other miners. Point out the profitability of this venture as the ability to earn 100% of newly generated bitcoin with just 51% of available hashing power.
I doubt this billionaire would want to become a millionaire for the sake of bitcoin. 51% would require the largest datacenter in the world.
10 terahash is 10 million USD or about 1% of the billionare's net worth. He won't actually need 10 Terahash because many miners will exit once one agent fires up so many rigs. Once he has 51% and is able to prohibit competition, all other miners will exit mining because private mining will no longer generate bitcoin. As a result, he will be able to mine all of the world's bitcion using just a few hundred gigahash. The other 9.5 terahash can be kept offline as a threat to any potential competition. Using just a few hundred gigahash worth of electricity expenditure per month, he will take in a revenue of 216,000 bitcoin per month or about 1 million USD per month. In about one year he will have recovered his initial investment. Certainly, if he is aware of safer investments which also have a 100% per annum expected return then he should pursue them. However it is extremely difficult to find opportunities this good.
That's hardware only.... you need a building, huge power lines, a massive cooling system, and 24 hour security to keep people from running off with your expensive hardware. Not to mention, keeping that many rigs running would be a full time job for at least one person.
You obviously have never dealt with large-scale computing.
Anyone with enough money wouldn't use GPUs to mine though, it would be far more cost effective to develop an ASIC that could do a GHash/watt. Actually developing it wouldn't be that hard, you could even use the open source FPGA code, but implement it much more efficiently in hardware, the main barrier is having a run of the chips produced. With ASICs, I could see a single rack containing several THash.
Gosh!..., I had written a very long post that unfortunately disappeared. Will try to remember and spew parts of it since I'm now very tired.
--------
I always found the speculation sub to be the best place to find trools, / not surprised.
I would be very careful in spending large amount of money onto bitcoin before it has matured natually.
Core:
First, There are some needed changes and research to be done around the core protocol definition that would benefits from minimal funding, ~250k$
Ecosystem - distribution :
Then supporting development of related software and services...
Finding new ways to distribute bitcoins as evenly as possible via freebies and offers but mostly through empowering people to work and earn them for simple yet engaging tasks.
Mining:
Bitcoins generation (mining) is more and more at risk of being centralized and prohibitive due to private large scale fgpa / ASIC mining operations.
We are struggling to coordinate and fund development of dedicated mining hardware. People in the industry give estimates between 500 000 and 10m$ for a fully custom ASIC (depending on technologies and scale). This would be the holy grail for affordable network security.
There has to be a balanced momentum of people joining in, security going up and affordable mining hardware being deployed.
Increased network security would in turn attract biger player.
--------
I always found the speculation sub to be the best place to find trools, / not surprised.
I would be very careful in spending large amount of money onto bitcoin before it has matured natually.
Core:
First, There are some needed changes and research to be done around the core protocol definition that would benefits from minimal funding, ~250k$
Ecosystem - distribution :
Then supporting development of related software and services...
Finding new ways to distribute bitcoins as evenly as possible via freebies and offers but mostly through empowering people to work and earn them for simple yet engaging tasks.
Mining:
Bitcoins generation (mining) is more and more at risk of being centralized and prohibitive due to private large scale fgpa / ASIC mining operations.
We are struggling to coordinate and fund development of dedicated mining hardware. People in the industry give estimates between 500 000 and 10m$ for a fully custom ASIC (depending on technologies and scale). This would be the holy grail for affordable network security.
There has to be a balanced momentum of people joining in, security going up and affordable mining hardware being deployed.
Increased network security would in turn attract biger player.
many thanks for both suggestions, I will follow the threads up tomorrow
& just as a side note that I mostly put here to remind myself, I intuitively think the Bitcoin concept & it's potential benefits may be especially relevant or applicable/beneficial to the African continent, where E supports a load of charitable initiatives - building hospitals, schools, orphanages, refuges etc - so if anyone had any proposals of how to blend a project that was good for BTC & also something Africa related then I'd be very grateful to hear any input on that or brain storming, it may be a good way to get E's & the foundation's initial interest & funding
There actually has been some discussion on how Bitcoin could be useful for Africa:
Bitcoin – a real chance for Africa?
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/bitcoin-a-real-chance-for-africa-16230
http://78.47.182.40/gromobir/gromobirblog/?p=109
The idea basically is that Bitcoin could be used as a cheap method for African expatriates sending money back home.
Currently used systems like Western Union have very high fees.
the friend I just had dinner with rang now to say he'd had a call from a very close friend of his who's also a very good friend of E with totally unexpected news re something that just happened* that in some way may (just maybe) be the beginning of a rapprochement of the long standing fall out between them, it's a big happening & so totally unexpected that it really reinforces to me that the gods are behind this one or at least find it amusing enough to encourage, it also reminded me that this other guy who I also know well is actually even more buddy's with E than my French friend, so maybe I can drop both of their names with the pitch for the foundation's support, the synchronicity it's timing are quite mind blowing to me atm
* he asked me not to let anyone know about it as though it's no big deal is still confidential atm
* he asked me not to let anyone know about it as though it's no big deal is still confidential atm
this is a great idea and even better linking it to Gavin's proposed foundation
Many thanks to you both, I'm picking up very positive vibes that the universe or whatever wants this to go ahead & enabling Gavin's BTC NPO seems the ideal way to do it, I read Mageant's post with much interest & will later check out the full thread that he referenced
In other news on the way to dinner with my best friend I met up with the friend who knows E longtime, these 2 are actually neighbors & he just happened to be out by the road, so I stopped to chat & for a couple of beers & he's well in to the concept of Bitcoin & it's possibilities, he's French & strongly of the 'Liberté, égalité, fraternité' school of thought, is a life long trade union head, is strongly behind the Arab Spring movement & believes it is the inevitable result of new tech like the Internets & mobile coms, he's perfectly happy that I use his name when applying to E for funding & this will make a big difference I'm sure to how it's received as it's from not just someone local but a friend of someone E really likes, my friend said he'd send me another contact email address for the foundation that's more local to me here, it's centralized elsewhere atm so I'll see, his info may be out of date if there's still an office here, but if so then that would be a much better way to approach it, in any case the application will now for sure stand out from the crowd of worthy causes & definitely be refereed to E rather than been just dealt with by E's NPO's board
& just as a side note that I mostly put here to remind myself, I intuitively think the Bitcoin concept & it's potential benefits may be especially relevant or applicable/beneficial to the African continent, where E supports a load of charitable stuff - building hospitals, schools, orphanages, refuges etc - so if anyone had any proposals of how to blend a project that was good for BTC & also something Africa related then I'd be very grateful to hear any input on that or brain storming, it may be a good way to get E's & the foundation's initial interest & funding
Thanks again & if this seems to be moving forward to something more than just throwing an idea out there in a speculative manner to see what may happen, then I would be more than happy for this thread to be moved to a more appropriate section, Bitcoin forum, maybe development, which ever - I haven't explored so much to know which would be best for this at this stage
I've read mobile payments are big in Africa, but that fees are very high. Perhaps bitcoin could help people keep more of their money while still enabling instant mobile to mobile transfers.
this is a great idea and even better linking it to Gavin's proposed foundation
Many thanks to you both, I'm picking up very positive vibes that the universe or whatever wants this to go ahead & enabling Gavin's BTC NPO seems the ideal way to do it, I read Mageant's post with much interest & will later check out the full thread that he referenced
In other news on the way to dinner with my best friend I met up with the friend who knows E longtime, these 2 are actually neighbors & he just happened to be out by the road, so I stopped to chat & for a couple of beers & he's well in to the concept of Bitcoin & it's possibilities, he's French & strongly of the 'Liberté, égalité, fraternité' school of thought, is a life long trade union head, is strongly behind the Arab Spring movement & believes it is the inevitable result of new tech like the Internets & mobile coms, he's perfectly happy that I use his name when applying to E for funding & this will make a big difference I'm sure to how it's received as it's from not just someone local but a friend of someone E really likes, my friend said he'd send me another contact email address for the foundation that's more local to me here, it's centralized elsewhere atm so I'll see, his info may be out of date if there's still an office here, but if so then that would be a much better way to approach it, in any case the application will now for sure stand out from the crowd of worthy causes & definitely be refereed to E rather than been just dealt with by E's NPO's board
& just as a side note that I mostly put here to remind myself, I intuitively think the Bitcoin concept & it's potential benefits may be especially relevant or applicable/beneficial to the African continent, where E supports a load of charitable initiatives - building hospitals, schools, orphanages, refuges etc - so if anyone had any proposals of how to blend a project that was good for BTC & also something Africa related then I'd be very grateful to hear any input on that or brain storming, it may be a good way to get E's & the foundation's initial interest & funding
Thanks again & if this seems to be moving forward to something more than just throwing an idea out there in a speculative manner to see what may happen, then I would be more than happy for this thread to be moved to a more appropriate section, Bitcoin forum, maybe development, which ever - I haven't explored so much to know which would be best for this at this stage
Suggest that he set up a benevolent mining monopoly which controls the majority of hashing power, but excludes all other miners. Point out the profitability of this venture as the ability to earn 100% of newly generated bitcoin with just 51% of available hashing power.
I doubt this billionaire would want to become a millionaire for the sake of bitcoin. 51% would require the largest datacenter in the world.
10 terahash is 10 million USD or about 1% of the billionare's net worth. He won't actually need 10 Terahash because many miners will exit once one agent fires up so many rigs. Once he has 51% and is able to prohibit competition, all other miners will exit mining because private mining will no longer generate bitcoin. As a result, he will be able to mine all of the world's bitcion using just a few hundred gigahash. The other 9.5 terahash can be kept offline as a threat to any potential competition. Using just a few hundred gigahash worth of electricity expenditure per month, he will take in a revenue of 216,000 bitcoin per month or about 1 million USD per month. In about one year he will have recovered his initial investment. Certainly, if he is aware of safer investments which also have a 100% per annum expected return then he should pursue them. However it is extremely difficult to find opportunities this good.
That's hardware only.... you need a building, huge power lines, a massive cooling system, and 24 hour security to keep people from running off with your expensive hardware. Not to mention, keeping that many rigs running would be a full time job for at least one person.
You obviously have never dealt with large-scale computing.
this is a great idea and even better linking it to Gavin's proposed foundation
Check out this thread:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/bitcoin-foundation-49841
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/bitcoin-foundation-49841
Bitcoin is revolutionary because it is decentralized, with no single point of control or failure.
However, over the last six months or so it has become obvious to me that the rest of the world isn't set up to interact with a radically decentralized system like Bitcoin, and I think forming a not-for-profit organization will be a positive step towards Bitcoin's long-term success.
I'm posting this to see if there is a consensus on what a Bitcoin Foundation should be.
To get the conversation started, here are some functions I think a Bitcoin Foundation could perform:
Other not-for-profit organizations that could be emulated:
Are there others that work well, or are there examples of what NOT to do? Assuming there is rough consensus that a Bitcoin Foundation is a good idea, I would like to get something imperfect up and running quickly, with the expectation that it will evolve over time.
However, over the last six months or so it has become obvious to me that the rest of the world isn't set up to interact with a radically decentralized system like Bitcoin, and I think forming a not-for-profit organization will be a positive step towards Bitcoin's long-term success.
I'm posting this to see if there is a consensus on what a Bitcoin Foundation should be.
To get the conversation started, here are some functions I think a Bitcoin Foundation could perform:
- Interact with the legal system, where a centralized entity is needed: for example, to hold the Bitcoin trademark, own/control the bitcoin.org domain name, etc.
- Act as a central library for accurate information about Bitcoin, so journalists and policymakers have an 'official' place to learn about Bitcoin.
- Collect donations to fund infrastructure necessary for Bitcoin's growth (organize regular developers' conferences or get-togethers maybe? pay for development of cross-implementation testing tools? pay core developers' salaries? create a certification/testing program for Bitcoin implementations? create a central clearinghouse for information about legal issues surrounding Bitcoin across the world?)
Other not-for-profit organizations that could be emulated:
- The Anti-Phishing Working Group (the APWG's chairman, David Jevans http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Jevans, is willing to help make a Bitcoin Foundation happen).
- The Tor Project
- The Apache Software Foundation
Are there others that work well, or are there examples of what NOT to do? Assuming there is rough consensus that a Bitcoin Foundation is a good idea, I would like to get something imperfect up and running quickly, with the expectation that it will evolve over time.
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