Topic: Should Bitcoin be used to help countries hit by disaster? - page 2. (Read 202 times)

I dont really undestand by what you mean in this topic.
But since the help that we can provide are supplies for the victim, i guess you can sell your bitcoin to local currency, and then buy them the supplies.
you may find it hard to get the supplies with bitcoin, since a lot of business still reject the bitcoin usage.
But sure, you can help by converting it first to local ccy i guess.

i gotta laugh..
when someone wants to introduce something. they try to make it sound official. problem is that the link in the OP is not a real BBC new article thats been vetted and reported by BBC reporters. instead its part of BBC's stories blog area. that anyone can post in.

i really hate it when people try to make it look like thier story/project/ idea has been reported by news/media where the reality is that its just a blog post.

this makes me (a known donator for years) not want to donate to such a cause because the way to introduce their idea has alot of trickery behind it.

the reality is this though.
imagine it cost a country $50k to rebuild a house. a country does deals with developers.. these developers gets government grants of say $20k and also $30k from insurance companies.

these government grants are normally in the form of not charging housing developers corporation tax or its employees income tax. (which makes up the 40% of cost($20k/house)
and the insurance company saves 40% compared to having to pay out the full $50k themselves.
you will even find that telephone companies, sewerage/water companies/electric companies can drop the $50k cost down further because they put in the utility lines for free and then the resident pays for the phone lin rental/water/sewearage charges over years as part of their monthly bill when they move back in.

you will find that donating does not end up putting funds into residents hands but instead the money goes to cut how much insurance companies have to pay out. meaning the same house is built but now the insurance company can tell its board member they have more profit.because they only had to pay out say $25k of a $50k house

this is the other reason i wont be donating for such a scheme. my donations are usually to frontline services and given for water/food/clothing for the victims to survive on while the mega corps do what they should be doing as their legal duty to their customers.

but i only donate to causes where i can see that the funds are going to the victims and not the penpusher office workers waiting for a bonus/salary increase.

until there is a really good and transparent understanding of the end-to-end (donation->victim) path that cannot be siphoned off.. i would not donate to some random american red cross appeal that has a CEO earning $1m a year, even if that cough "charity" cough is well known and established

knowing that there are people who help disaster victims and they give cash or bitcoin for those who are being hit by a disaster so it is a great help to those who are poor to help them to keep up with their downfall

there are already charities that are working with bitcoin to help in cases like this. it is up to people to donate if they like and these organizations to focus their help to specific disasters.
one that comes to mind is https://www.bitgivefoundation.org/ which i believe was using bitcoin and the blockchain of it to reach transparency in the transactions and how and where are the funds being spent.

Bitcoin could be used in a positive manner in those places. People would have to get Bitcoin for free if they were to receive any benefits from it.

Don't forget the transparency also important in term of cryptocurrency donation because there is no legal control over how the money distributed and who controls it. The one/group who started donation need to have a high trust before they can make a successful cryptocurrency donation.

Since cryptocurrency has a value of course it can help the devastated are of Puerto Rico. But even though there are many who want to donate cryptocurrency to that area but the problem lies with their government. So the only way is to create a group that will accept cryptocurrency donation and will convert it to fiat currency so that there will be no problem in terms of distribution and purchasing of goods.

Puerto Rico was devastated by last year’s Hurricane Maria and, with inadequate aid from the US, it desperately needs investment to rebuild the island’s infrastructure. Puerto Rico was already facing severe financial difficulty before the calamity. It goes some way to explaining why local authorities are cautiously welcoming the arrival of cryptocurrency entrepreneurs on the island. But at what cost?

Bitcoin entrepreneurs want to rebuild Puerto Rico as cryptocurrency-fuelled economy. Would that help or hurt the devastated country?

Source: http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20180305-should-bitcoin-be-used-to-help-countries-hit-by-disaster