Using Cryptocurrency Mining to Save Syrian Kids

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Most people mine cryptocurrency for fun and profit, but international charity organization UNICEF France is giving people another reason to mine: philanthropy. Its new project “Game Chaingers” asks gamers – many of whom have powerful, mining-friendly GPUs in their PCs – to contribute some of their GPU power towards mining Ethereum for UNICEF, which the organization will then use to help the nine million children trapped in horrible conditions by the ongoing conflict in Syria.

The project’s website allows users to directly download mining software for Windows and Linux machines, and supports both Nvidia and AMD GPUs. Once the software is downloaded and installed, users need only enter UNICEF’s Ethereum address. Then they can choose to run the miner whenever they’d like, and the resulting returns will be deposited in UNICEF’s account.

The idea, according to UNICEF, is that crypto-mining is a great way for high-end GPU owners to make a positive philanthropic impact with very little effort required. By simply turning on the miner while they’re asleep or away from their PC for a few hours, they can generate real money that UNICEF can put to good use, and it has almost no impact on their own lives aside from a likely minuscule increase in their monthly electricity bill.

Of course, you don’t have to mine to contribute. UNICEF is also accepting direct donations in Ethereum, as well as via more traditional payment platforms like PayPal. But the project, which just started and will run through March, has already attracted more than 300 miners and generated more than $1,000 in ETH. To help gamify the process, the project website also contains game-like features like a leaderboard that shows which miners are clocking the best returns in real-time.

Crypto Charity

“Game Chaingers” is one of the first charity projects to make use of crypto-mining, but it’s far from the first foray into the cryptocurrency charity space. One of the most recent examples is the Pineapple Fund, a charitable organization started by an anonymous reddit user to give away more than 5,000 Bitcoins.

Another is Bitgive, a charitable organization that helps other charities raise money and streamline their processes using blockchain technology. It was the first Bitcoin-focused certified 501(c)(3) charity in the United States.

There’s also Giftcoin, a dedicated charitable cryptocurrency. The idea behind it is that you link it to your online purchases, and it pays with a round dollar figure (for example, $15.00 for an item that costs $14.50), converts the leftover “change” into Giftcoin, and then uses the blockchain to allow you to donate that Giftcoin in a way that’s transparent and easily trackable.

Giftcoin is still a work in progress (with an ICO coming up next month), and cryptocurrency charity in general is probably still in its infancy. But it’s something that crypto holders, miners, and companies are thinking about with increasing frequency. Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong, for example, just recently laid out a plan for a crypto-based non-profit fund that could help people and solve problems in developing regions while also driving worldwide adoption of cryptocurrencies.

It’s worth remembering that in addition to generating investment profits and driving forward the tech industry’s bleeding edge, blockchain and cryptocurrency can also be powerful tools for doing real good in the world.