Causes.cash: Now YOU get a Flipstarter! and YOU get a Flipstarter!

42 980
Avatar for nyusternie
4 years ago

A brief foreword:

Being the new guy is tough. You try your best to make friends while not overstepping your boundaries. The last 4 months in BCH have been truly amazing, and it's hard to express in words how fulfilling its been to get back into Bitcoin.

I bought my first bitcoins a few days after the 1st halvening (late Nov '12), sending a $1,000 from a MoneyGram in Atlanta to Mt. Gox way out in Tokyo. How times have changed. Today, bitcoins can be bought via credit cards, same-day bank transfers, physical ATMs, merchant tellers and of course (and as always) peer-to-peer.

I never saw the 2nd halving (July '16); by then, the Blockstream hijackers had already crippled the whole Bitcoin Legacy network and left me with the funkiest taste in my mouth (something like black licorice). But with the 2020 halvening behind us; I gotta tell you, it's feeling like 2012 all over again.

This fuckin' lockdown has at least one positive outcome; it gave me the time I've long wanted to take a deep dive into the Bitcoin sources; and boy did I swim through code, there was lots of it! Heartfelt thank you to ALL the amazing hardworking developers throughout the community (special thanks to Chris Troutner for having the MOST educational YouTube channel).

Bitcoin Feels FRESH Again!
Bolder Than EVER!
and.. Has Plenty Of TRACTION!
I'm Ready To BU!LD BCH!

So.. after 4 months of exploring the Bitcoin Cash community (IFP aside), it's been a truly remarkable experience and I can comfortably say that I feel like I'm finally back home. I have a bunch of projects that I've been exploring (researching, coding, discussing), especially in the areas of "mobile-first" and "privacy"; but more on that later. Right now, I'd like to call out to all the BUIDLers out there that have projects of their own, are looking for sustainable support, and wish to see their hopes and dreams materialize.

Platform Preview — https://causes.cash
Documentation — https://docs.causes.cash
Open Source — https://gitlab.com/bchplease/causes.cash

Causes Cash is one of the first ideas I started prototyping back in January. I spoke to @emergent_reasons about it after Flipstarter was announced, but I never advanced it, as that team was handling the work remarkably well. However, it's become quite clear to me now that Flipstarter's primary goal was to defeat the IFP by getting multiple node development teams sustainably funded .. and well, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!

With no immediate plans for a dedicated funding platform, I'd like to propose a solution for all the other BUIDLers in the community that are looking for discovery and contributions (financial, labor, etc) for their own projects. In short, this would be a discovery platform for more Flipstarters, but I'd like to briefly explain why we NEED more options than all-or-nothing.

If you're familiar with Open Collective, then this is the vision that I have for Causes Cash. Most creators today are using Patreon, which is a wonderful way to attract sustainable revenue. However, it lacks one key feature found on OC, and that's FISCAL ACCOUNTABILITY.

In my opinion, that makes ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD.

I'll keep this article short, as it's not an announcement of any kind, but a call for discussion; however, I do want to highlight what I consider to be the 5 KEY BENEFITS of the platform:

1. Fiscal transparency of how money comes in and how it goes back out.

2. 100% open source, with 100% decentralized technologies.

3. YOUR data is managed by YOU (eg. memo protocol), while PLATFORM data is transparently stored in IPFS' OrbitDB.

4. Optimized for on-going project / campaign management, with supporting tools and services.

5. Pay It Forward, a community funding pool, to regularly upvote and sponsor new and noteworthy projects.

and 1 BONUS: NO FEES! FOREVER! GoFundMe-style ;-)


Nito Cash: A Case Study for Causes Cash
https://causes.cash/@BCHPlease/nito-cash-07dd70f04162

I'll wrap-up with my own nascent project, Nito Cash, which is nearing its first Developer Preview (ugh, maybe end-of-month??). It was originally designed to be a web-based burner wallet, with a primary purpose of being the simplest way for on-boarding first-time Bitcoin Cash users. However, after months of trial-and-error, it now has the distinction of being the first "mobile" wallet to natively support CashShuffle.

But why stop there? The NitoJS library and SDK allows any JavaScript-based app/dapp to natively support Bitcoin Cash privacy protocols with a simple plugin. But that was the easy part (mostly done already), the hard part was, the best part is .. wait for it .. last week, I finally got NitoJS to start working with CashFusion. Not a perfect solution yet -- still a WIP which requires the help of a desktop (or browser) gateway (for the TOR stuff). You will soon be able to TRUSTLESSLY use CashFusion while on-the-go from your Android or iOS device(s), and at home using a Chrome or Brave web browser.

Well that's all for now..
Cheers!


and let's chat!

Please leave your comment(s) below.

Causes Cash has a brand new Slack workspace, for those that wish to discuss in real-time about their projects and ideas. I'm also in the BCHN Slack, but NOT on Telegram (so please don't ask).

Photos courtesy of Unsplash

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$ 27.04
$ 20.00 from @huckfinne
$ 2.00 from @Read.Cash
$ 2.00 from @tula_s
+ 12
Avatar for nyusternie
4 years ago

Comments

@huckfinne appreciate ur support brother 🥳 has been very encouraging to see the community's response to this initiative .. as the Chinese would say 加油! i'm about to get back work!!

$ 0.00
4 years ago

I will always appreciate your upvoting. It is an encouragement to me. Thank you a lot!

$ 0.00
4 years ago

I'd like to call out to all the BUIDLers out there

I'd like to propose a solution for all the other BUIDLers in the community that are looking for discovery and contributions (financial, labor, etc)

I have a project. I'm looking mainly for labour contributions, as I'm not been able to find and attract it. Is the plan for the platform Causes to also help with that?

$ 0.10
4 years ago

I'm looking mainly for labour contributions

@ancient.stone thanks for reaching out .. yes! the platform will support project "communities" where individuals can come together and work on a collective goal for shared rewards

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Holy cow! If you've got a JavaScript library that can do CashShuffle and/or CashFusion, that is huge news! Great work!

$ 0.10
4 years ago

If you've got a JavaScript library that can do CashShuffle and/or CashFusion, that is huge news!

yeah, it's pretty awesome, but I can't take the credit .. https://github.com/alwaysAn0n/cashshufflejs-web is the foundation of my CashShuffle library and I'm still translating the key bits of Electron Cash into JS for the CashFusion library .. I have a working PoC, but there's still much to be done..

Caveat: For CF to work there's a catch, because of the TOR requirement, so I've created a gateway that can be run on any desktop (currently in written in Electron, but Rust is in the works) in order to handle the onion routing for the "covert" CF functions, and that way it still works from ANY mobile browser (NOTE: decentralized comms are handled using IPFS pub-sub and OrbitDB)

@trout I also have to pay credit where credit is due, as these 4 vids inspired much of the work I've done in the past few months regarding Bitcoin Cash privacy and anonymity:

  1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqqRR4Kfr-M
  2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQs1RasahRI
  3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv0WMb24e0M
  4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmIcL_xtjW4
$ 0.05
4 years ago

Nice article 🙂 It's great to know that u made a good use of the times during lockdown. We encourage you to keep up and all the best wishes for u.♥️

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Nice article friend

$ 0.00
4 years ago

I am very inspired to read your writings, thank you sir

$ 0.00
4 years ago

plz subscribe me

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Thanks

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Kudos to you for the future Bitcoin cash projects and nice article

$ 0.10
4 years ago

Lots of great development here and good to see it's open source. Looking forward for these projects to launch. Awesome work!

$ 0.10
4 years ago

good to see it's open source

yes, absolutely! spent a lot of time doing trial-and-error on several technologies before I found the right mix. definitely inspired by sites like memo.cash and member.cash..

i'd love to include one or more of your projects for the initial launch (6/1). it's currently ALL static content, but you'll have full-control by the launch

$ 0.01
4 years ago

Love to be part of it. You can DM me in Twitter to let me know what you need from me.

$ 0.25
4 years ago

really appreciate your work in the community .. I'll definitely be reaching out over the weekend

$ 0.10
4 years ago

Thanks! Awesome.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

There's a lot to process here but from outside is looking good. We encourage you to keep up and don't let the project stall. Pump it!

$ 0.25
4 years ago

There's a lot to process here but from outside is looking good.

thanks for the support ! 😉

We encourage you to keep up and don't let the project stall.

absolutely won't stall; and the beauty is that it can be entirely hosted via IPFS (I'm currently using the cloudflare-ipfs.com gateway), so there's currently no overhead cost.

https://ipfs.causes.cash is served by https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/Qmd4tk1a5KQtuondmdF1VD6CTEdWXNDJaHwiygwr4W6SzQ/

I have several projects of my own that I'm going to be managing via the platform; so as long as those project are alive, I'll be supporting and promoting Causes Cash.

in the event that I have a baby or something (read. immaculate conception), the code is open source: https://gitlab.com/bchplease/causes.cash

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Thanks for feedback. Hope you don't get biblical too soon 😉 Regards

$ 0.10
4 years ago

Hope you don't get biblical too soon

actively working on turning water into wine, but otherwise I'm good! 👍

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Thank you for sharing this information. It is a good development to BCH ecosystem. Kudos to you for the project!

$ 0.10
4 years ago

thanks for the support!

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Thank you for up voting my comment with some BCH. It is an encouragement for me. Thank you a lot.

$ 0.25
4 years ago

Awesome work 🎉🎉 Congratulations and good luck :))

$ 0.10
4 years ago

thanks brother!

I should have reached out to you privately, but I included a few "potential" projects on the main page, as filler / placeholders; you will see Bitcoin Cash Teens PH under the "Youth" tab.

If you're interested in creating an actual campaign for Bitcoin Cash Teens PH, which was the main purpose of this article, just let me know and I can setup a page for you. Right now everything is static, but it will obviously become more self-service over time.

$ 0.30
4 years ago

Thanks brother ❤️ we really feel happy that you have included us there. Tbh, I see no reason atm that we need funding. We are just a group of Filipino Teenagers who are interested in Bitcoin Cash and that includes making it the best p2p electronic cash. There are more projects that needs funding and I think they are more important than us. Don't worry, we can still manage here and we're doing something to raise money (for ourselves) atm, that is by selling our old photos. I really appreciate your efforts ❤️ 😍

$ 1.00
4 years ago

Tbh, I see no reason atm that we need funding.

the reason I included BCH Teens PH is because you are a "Youth" group .. growing up in the States, there was a saying I heard often, "The children are our future." I've seen no one here doing more for the advancement of the Bitcoin Cash Youth Movement than YOU!!

My hope is that you will be able to expand your work with young people beyond the Philippines, with the "right" support .. I hope you will reconsider; but just let me know and I'll immediately remove the content that I posted to the site. And no worries, I'll happily keep supporting your efforts as best I can 👍

$ 0.00
4 years ago

I'll take that under consideration. We still have unspent funds here that I have collected from the communitys' donations. I'll hit you up when I have made my decision already. And thank you again for your unswerving support.

$ 0.25
4 years ago

Good project! Will be following this with interest.

$ 0.10
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4 years ago

thanks.!

really want to get the conversation going about funding for "projects" and NOT just "infrastructure" .. that's the only way we provide practical value for "everyday" users of the currency, whom really don't give a damn about the infrastructure

$ 0.00
4 years ago

I’m just amazed at how many apps are coming out of the BCH ecosystem! Is causes only for tech/crypto projects or for other humanitarian causes as well?

$ 0.10
4 years ago

Is causes only for tech/crypto projects or for other humanitarian causes as well?

not just tech/crypto .. but as I've learned with read.cash, it's probably best to focus on crypto (specifically BCH) causes in the beginning, but the platform is for ALL "good" causes.

If you check out the welcome page, there is a category called "Health", which features EatBCH; and under "World View" it features Coins 4 Clothes .. so I guess my recommendation would be to feature BCH in whatever your cause might be

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Cool. Thank you!

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Thank you a lot for the upvoting. It is an encouragement to me. I have subscribed to read more articles from you.

$ 0.10
4 years ago

Wishing you all the luck in the world with this! Keep us updated!

$ 0.00
4 years ago

thanks for the support!

I'm looking for a dozen or more "official" projects (causes) for the 6/1 launch .. i've put a few placeholders on the welcome page, including Read.cash under "Publishing" .. I know your team mentioned doing a Flipstarter (up to $250,000) for the site's fund..

fyi, the platform will support 3 funding options: (1) direct, (2) assurance (aka Flipstarter) and (3) allowances (aka Mecenas) .. and you can technically do one or more, for various purposes (causes)..

let me know if you're interested 😉

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Good article it was nice to read. Great you used the lockdown time well.

How to buy, sell etc cryptocurrencies all depends on where you live and the site, platform etc you are able to use. I noticed it's not as easy as they say it is. My experiences are that frequently if the cryptocurrencies is at it's top suddenly it is under maintenance etc and I can not do anything. I noticed verification by ID and photo works bad, you are not recognized, etc etc.

Who knows one day it will be easier for all of us. This will make mass adoption easier. No ATW or way to pay with cryptocurrencies where I live by the way. The only thing I can buy is weed.

Happy day. 💕

$ 0.10
4 years ago

Agreed. On/off-ramping is one of the biggest challenges.

$ 0.10
4 years ago

I noticed it's not as easy as they say it is.

I haven't used it myself, but I've heard that https://local.bitcoin.com/ works very well.

$ 0.00
4 years ago

Thank you for your answer..who knows I might try it out once. Happy day 💕

$ 0.00
4 years ago