520 sats \ 0 replies \ @0x41 17 May \ on: orange-pilling the homeless? bitcoin
I think there is just one thing (except offering free knowledge and guidance) we can do to really orange-pill homeless people.
Give him/her or even them a possibility to exchange Bitcoin for cash for market rates without fees.
This way, homeless people can accept Bitcoin donations and actually use them to make purchases. We must consider that more than 95% of the expenses for homeless individuals are for things that, unfortunately, cannot yet be paid for with Bitcoin without going through third-party providers and incurring fees. However, this is absolutely not an option in the specific situation of almost all homeless people. Additionally, if we assume inexperienced users, they are very likely to fall victim to some kind of scam along the way.
Therefore, in my opinion, the only viable solution is to offer an exchange at market price without fees or KYC. I have already done this several times and now have three homeless individuals who regularly come to me to exchange small amounts of sats. I even round it up to a neat sum. However, I notice that the amounts they receive are slowly increasing over time. But unfortunately still far away from decent.