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Notre Dame Fire Donations – A Terrible Reason to Burn Your Bitcoin

Last Updated March 4, 2021 2:44 PM
P. H. Madore
Last Updated March 4, 2021 2:44 PM

Over a billion dollars have been raised for the reconstruction of Notre Dame.

People with deep pockets have seized the opportunity to throw their money around, and Binance refuses to miss a marketing opportunity. The exchange has an ongoing campaign to raise donations from the crypto public and its users – either anonymously or not. Unfortunately, the anonymous option doesn’t come with the ability to send privacy coins. Only Bitcoin, Binance Coin, and Ethereum are accepted for donations.

French government may accept bitcoin donations. CZ is on it

The French government is looking into accepting crypto, Bloomberg reports , but the roughly $17,000 raised by press  time is probably not that attractive yet. Presumably, the exchange will convert the donations to fiat before sending them on to one of the four organizations who are licensed to collect donations, assuming they don’t allow for crypto donations by then.

But is this a good use of our crypto? Do we all agree with CZ’s assessment that “bring[ing] crypto to religion” is a priority?

Cui bono? It seems an obvious question here. Binance wants to look like a humanitarian effort. They should probably pledge some of their massive proceeds. If they’re going to make a splash with crypto, they should find a way to donate more than the $1 billion raised by the rest of the parties.

But why should everyday crypto people donate to something like this? Cui bono?

Adoption in Venezuela would be a more wholesome case for crypto donations

If we’re going to use crypto for charity, why not continue efforts to help people in countries under siege by the kind of economic terrorism crypto is best suited to deal with? Efforts in Venezuela and Africa seem more our speed. Places where people can skip the banking phase altogether and move directly into a crypto economy.

On one side of this argument is the Catholic Church, one of the oldest organizations in the world, which most certainly has the resources to repair Notre Dame. Then there is the whole of France, who benefit from Notre Dame being a huge tourist attraction. It would seem that the latter should be the most motivated to pay for the reconstruction effort, as many within the Church might like to see that kind of money put to better use.

As CCN.com previously reported, a Bitcoin fundraiser run by French journalist Grégory Raymond has mostly gone ignored. Binance’s effort has raised more by far, but still nothing impressive. Neither effort is officially recognized by the French government, meaning that they will have to turn their funds over to one of the four entities that are allowed to receive the donations.

In the end, it’s your crypto, and you can do with it what you want. Rebuilding one ancient church at a cost that will likely run into the billions seems wasteful, however. The same money could build many churches, or do good for people in other ways.

Disclaimer: the views expressed in this article belong solely to the author and should not be attributed to CCN.com.