Today I’m going to write about a mysterious stranger, who embarked on a path less traveled for crypto investors that turned billionaires. After amassing a bitcoin fortune, our guy chose a different route — one that revolves around giving back.
Philanthropy, people. As the guy himself put:
“My aims, goals, and motivations in life have nothing to do with being mega rich. So I’m doing something else: donating the majority of my bitcoins to charitable causes.”
I’ve never seen this person, of course, but I bet that they rock a sweet cape while sitting on their BTC stacks. Let’s see what happened to a crypto whale that doesn’t know the word ‘greed’ and did some gigantic donation all while keeping his name and identity secret.
A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats?
I’m sure you have heard this phrase before.
Our mysterious millionaire did too, and boy did he take it seriously and put his own twist on it. But before we get to that part, let’s find out how it all started, how the good whale got so big in the first place. From his own mouth, the story goes a little like this:
“I remember staring at bitcoin a few years ago. When bitcoin broke single digits for the first time, I thought that was a triumphant moment for bitcoin. I watched and admired the price jump to $15.. $20.. $30.. Wow!”
Wow indeed. When someone is so fascinated about BTC hitting 30 bucks, you know they jumped on the train early. Heck, they were the driving force behind the machine in the first place! Those believers chucked coal in the furnace so we could all choo-choo to the financial revolution. You could take your hat off there, but it gets better…
“Today, I see $17,539 per BTC. I still don’t believe reality sometimes. Bitcoin has changed my life, and I have far more money than I can ever spend. My aims, goals, and motivations in life have nothing to do with having XX million or being the mega rich. So I’m doing something else: donating the majority of my bitcoins to charitable causes. I’m calling it The Pineapple Fund.”
Go on, scream in your monitor something along the lines of ‘17K?!? WE GOT TO 69!’
We sure did, but as the hero of this story told us, what difference does it really make to him? It was time to cash them stacks out and spread the goods to charitable causes.
Pineapple Fund: 5104 BTC Donated To 60 Charities
Since this fella called his fund after a pineapple, people endearingly called him ‘Pine’.
So what were his first donations? Judging from that old post, The Pineapple Fund has donated:
- $1 million to Watsi, an innovative charity building technology to finance universal healthcare
- $1 million to The Water Project, a charity providing sustainable water projects to suffering communities in Africa
- $1 million to the EFF, defending rights and privacy of internet users, fighting for net neutrality
- $500k to BitGive Foundation, a charity building projects that leverage bitcoin and blockchain technology for global philanthropy.
Pine has encouraged Reddit users to suggest some nonprofit charities in the comments of that Reddit thread, so they could apply on the fund’s website.
Ask, and they shall be there… more than 10,000 applications were received. Funny enough, Pine had to edit his message to say that Pineapple Fund does not donate to individuals.
Although each successful organization used slightly different strategies when applying for funding, they all shared one common element: they clearly articulated their mission and vision for how a donation to their organization could make a transformative impact in critical areas such as healthcare, environmental protection, human rights, animal welfare, technology, and women’s health and well-being.
After five months, a total of 5,104 bitcoins had been donated and liquidated for a value of $55 million after exchange rate volatility. And yet, Pine kept his identity private…
Crypto Sceptics Said It Was ‘Too Good To Be True’
As you can imagine, there were a lot of cynics around, even in the ranks of companies that received these gargantuan donations.
For many of these organizations, cryptocurrency both at the individual and organizational level, was a ‘novel terrain’ they had never navigated before. These donations brought to the surface a plethora of head scratchies…
When one of the companies received a $100,000 BTC donation, they initially hesitated to accept the donation. They viewed Bitcoin with skepticism, perceiving it as potential “blackmail money”, something that can only be dangled in the phishing letter. But when the due diligence was carried out, the skeptics rapidly educated themselves about cryptocurrency and the intricacies of Bitcoin donations.
They also embarked on a mission to convince their older decision-makers and boards of the legitimacy of these contributions. Imagine explaining to some boomer that there’s this crazy rich guy from Reddit who made fortunes on ‘imaginary money’ and then decided to give it away.
Yeah, that’s a task in itself. Donations came with no strings attached and were not elaborate schemes that could tarnish the reputation of their nonprofits, but it all still felt a bit surreal.
“We’ve learned that as the millennial workforce continues to demonstrate their expertise in technology along with a sincere passion for giving back, we’re able to identify volunteers with unique skill sets, like expertise in crypto, and leverage their commitment to our organization in a pro-bono manner.”
One would hope that all the charities acted quickly and cashed their golden ticket before BTC hit 3K. Welp, about that…
Put Crypto-Structure And Policies In Place Early!
While tech savvy orgs recouped almost the full sum of donations, there were a few that slightly fumbled the bag.
Some companies took a while to set up their accounts to receive their donation, faced daily donation or withdrawal limits due to having a personal account, or struggled to “find a buyer” for their very large cryptocurrency donation.
See, some people are just not ready for the metric fuckton of heavenly manna to fall in their lap.
So if you’re a nonprofit organization, wake up, get the infrastructure in place. You never know when a kind Redditor decides to spread his blockchain wealth with those less fortunate.
Those that made it simple and easy for others to donate on their website (don’t hide a QR code on page 3 of your privacy policy), who published a press release about their interaction with donors and engaged with the media, those who engaged with the crypto community online received significant follow up donations. So there’s no reason to be modest in this space…
The rise of crypto has created a new generation of wealth, and it’s wonderful to see it used philanthropically to create change. I felt fuzzy inside when reading about it, and can say one thing for sure – this space has some ‘good eggs’.
While ‘The Pineapple Fund’ website is no longer active, its contribution to society will live forever.
This story didn’t get enough coverage from the mainstream media since it doesn’t fit their ‘crypto=scam’ narrative. Well, here at Blockleaders, we’re built differently…Thanks for reading.