Topic: Request : Bitcoin Vending machine for the poor ;-> (Read 175 times)

I came here to say this.

I think that the idea behind an automated vending machine that live streams is cool and all, but it's all just bells and whistles that is a back-handed slap in the face of the poor. They will feel exploited and that they're for someone's amusement; like they have to dance to earn a treat. "Dance, monkey, dance!"

I'm sorry for taking such a negative tone regarding this idea, but I'm a humanitarian by nature, and feed over a hundred women and children at a food bank soup kitchen twice a week. These people only care about (a) feeding their children and (b) feeding themselves. The idea of having a vending machine where they have to "check in" and get approval somehow won't sit well with them.

If you REALLY want to help, there's no need to waste so much money in trying to adapt this technology and pay for servers and bandwidth to make this work. Just donate the bitcoin to the charity and watch them put your money to work. I, personally, will get a hell of a lot more satisfaction knowing that there won't be a starving child for an evening than having a cool machine that costs a lot to operate.

If you want to feel charitable and support a soup kitchen, then feel free to send me a message. The charity that I'm on the board of is 100% transparent with our finances, and we release quarterly and annual financial statements that detail every single dollar that comes in to and goes out of our bank account. I'll document your donation in its entirety and provide an update as to where every single dollar that you've donated has gone: how many pounds of rice, beans, carrots, potatoes, meat, gallons of water, etc. that has been provided to starving families on your behalf.

This "Bitcoin vending machine" idea is just gimmicky, and doesn't sit well with me.

This is too weird in every way.
Same idea can be done with fiat but no one does, simply because it's not conventional.

A regular vending machine that accepts Bitcoin doesn't even exist, where did you get the idea of a "charity version"?

Want to help the poor using Bitcoin?
Reach out to a charity foundation that does that and send them the funds, it wasn't that hard for anyone to sell Bitcoins for fiat or products.
It comes down to their credibility, if you trust them help them or advertise the foundation.

Or go to the forum's Lending Section and do the charity work. :P

There are currently more than 200 million people that are unemployed in the world. The reality is that there are simply not enough work for everybody. A lot of people are simply too old to work or they have some disability and they need some assistance from other people.

Some of the 200 million people that are unemployed, have kids to support.

I am a strong supporter of "learning a man to fish", but some people are simply too disabled or too old or even too young to work. Let's forget about the excuses and just pay it forward to the people in need.

Vending machines with videostreaming, blockchain or bitcoins won't help the poor. If they're not disabled, they should find a good ol' job. Any type of charity for those who CAN actually make living but DOESN'T WANT TO is a really bad idea.

I think it's a nice idea too, but I don't think it would work in real life - there's too many people out for nothing and the system would get abused. Plus I don't think you'll find many homeless people walking around with identification...

It could be a nice idea or concept for the poor, but it must be organized well, and i think they, must provide an identification card, that they might be able to detect them, if they are citizen/belong on that area.. because any one can really, really abuse that thing.. well that is my suggestion.. however it was a great idea..

Ok, I will answer two of your concerns :

1. Why the camera? : One of the main concerns with people donating money is that the money is not going to the right causes. Most of the money ends up into peoples pockets, who do not need it. This way, someone sitting in another country can access a Soup kitchen where there are people in need and they can interact with them.

2. The machine will be abused. : The machine will be placed in a Soup kitchen or at someone's house in a poor community, where there are constant supervision. Our big Bitcoin companies can even sponsor these machines. Why would it matter if one donator gives 10 energy bars to one individual? It will be his or her choice.

I have seen a system where people deposited bitcoins from the internet and then a garden was watered in another country, based on the donations. So this concept could just be adapted to work on a Vending machine for the poor.

I lack the knowledge to do this, but I think we need to pay it forward. ^smile^

Good idea, but at least to apply this machine needs protection from the local security apparatus and the participation of civilians.
Some areas with a bad population (about morals) will be the main obstacle.

This seems similar to this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caff%C3%A8_sospeso
Basically, other people will pay for other people's needs, but your idea is to put it into vending machine rather than a coffee shop, correct?
Sounds good, but without any monitoring someone will probably abuse the machine.

How will we know that the person really need the item?
let's face it, this machine will be abused by people either by keep pressing the buzzer or destroying it with physical abuse

From the humanity side this is nice idea, but in reality, how would you know the person there is really in need? and most people who are really in need have pride and wouldn't want to have a video of them recorded.
A charity approach would be better I think, those in need would register and get a crypto card they can use to buy from those vending machine, but then there would be no actual need for the crypto at all...

Can someone develop a Bitcoin vending machine for the poor?

It can be a Bitcoin community initiative where someone from the Bitcoin community would be hosting this on their premises or even at a soup kitchen.

You send the machine to this premises, hook up the internet and the person from our community could fill it up with goodies.

You fit a small camera onto the machine and stream the content onto the internet.

When someone is in need of some food or hygiene utensils, they go to these machines and press a buzzer. If there are someone watching the streaming video, they can make a small donation that would cover the cost of that and it would be deposited on the other side.

The donation can cover part of the hosting cost, for example 10% hosting cost & 90% towards the goods that are bought.

The donator will have a interface that would display the goods that are availlable and what percentage of their donations goes towards the hosting fees.

They can even send a little text message to the person on the other side. Obviously this will be pre-configured with nice messages, because some people would just be rude.

What do you think?