Finally: A Useful Crypto Project mine cryptocurrency to pay for people’s bail
Finally: A Useful Crypto Project mine cryptocurrency to pay for people’s bail
Convention dictates that every Silicon Valley startup punctuate their their elevator pitch a line about how they’ll make the world A Better Place. This mandate holds doubly true for cryptocurrencies and blockchain projects, which must aim not just for mere improvement, but the wholesale transformation of modern life. It’s a tall order.
With bitcoin surging past $8,000 Friday, the cryptocurrency gold rush is on. But one charity is trying to use interest in cryptocurrencies for a higher calling: pay bail for people who can’t afford it.
Bail Bloc is a project that aims to utilize spare computing capacity to mine the cryptocurrency monero, which will, over time, generate tens of thousands of dollars. This money will then be used to pay for bail for those who can’t afford it.
The project is the brainchild of the online publication The New Inquiry and the non-profit Bronx Freedom Fund, which raises money for bail for poor defendants. The fund will initially focus on New York City, but they want to expand it in 2018 and help as many as 160,000 people across more than three dozen cities in the next five years.
This kind of hands-off, feel-good, change-the-world-from-the-comfort-of-your-own-home slack tivism has been derided for years – and rightfully so. But cash bail is one of those issues where it really is just cash that makes a difference.
