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digitalmars.D.announce - New Initiative for Donations

reply Mike Parker <aldacron gmail.com> writes:
I have put out a few times that we want to start launching 
targeted fundraising campaigns. Head over to the donate page and 
you'll notice a new option.

https://dlang.org/foundation/donate.html

Flipcause provide a service aimed at assisting non-profits with 
fundraising. That's their core service anyway. There are other 
features built around it.

Part of that service includes targeted campaigns of the nature we 
want to start pushing, as well as the resources to create 
accompanying banners and other images. They also support 
peer-to-peer fundraising (which I hope to make use of in the 
future), ticket sales for events like DConf, online stores, and 
more.

The tile you see on the donate page is itself a campaign, a 
general fund campaign that I will keep open permanently. I'll 
soon be launching targeted campaigns that you can choose to 
support.

It's not a free service, obviously. We're currently on a free 
trial, but the Foundation will ultimately be paying $150/month. 
That's a significant investment and one that turned me off from 
evaluating the service when they first contacted the Foundation 
earlier this year. However, after evaluating their total package 
and some of the services they have in planning, it seems likely 
that the Foundation can stretch donated dollars farther in the 
long run than is possible now across the services currently in 
use. For example, with Open Collective we're paying 10% plus a 
2-3% transaction fee per donation). Flipcause of course has 
credit card transaction fees, but they allow donors the option of 
covering it and further provide a guaranteed minimum for us such 
that if not enough donors cover the fees to meet the minimum 
total from all donations in a given period, they'll refund us the 
difference.

In order to see that benefit, we'll need for a majority of our 
donations to come in through Flipcause. The other options aren't 
going away, but if you are considering a new donation to the D 
Language Foundation, choosing to send it through Flipcause will 
be a bigger help right now.

So I encourage all potential donors to please consider the 
Flipcause option, even if you've donated through one of the other 
options in the past. And yes, if you donate through Flipcause you 
can still get the benefits listed in the descriptions of the 
donor levels on our Open Collective page:

https://opencollective.com/dlang

And the direct link to the general fund campaign:

https://www.flipcause.com/secure/cause_pdetails/NDMzMzE=
Oct 24 2018
next sibling parent reply rikki cattermole <rikki cattermole.co.nz> writes:
I can't do more (until shared library targeted anyway) but $5, done.
Oct 24 2018
parent Mike Parker <aldacron gmail.com> writes:
On Wednesday, 24 October 2018 at 09:24:25 UTC, rikki cattermole 
wrote:

 I can't do more (until shared library targeted anyway) but $5, 
 done.


Thanks!
Oct 24 2018
prev sibling next sibling parent reply Joakim <dlang joakim.fea.st> writes:
On Wednesday, 24 October 2018 at 09:18:58 UTC, Mike Parker wrote:

 I have put out a few times that we want to start launching 
 targeted fundraising campaigns. Head over to the donate page 
 and you'll notice a new option.

 [...]


Looking forward to the targeted campaigns, hopefully they will 
replace and do better than bountysource.

Any effort underway to take Bitcoin Cash, Ether, or Ripple as 
donations? The current payment options seem fairly antiquated: 
credit cards, wire transfers, and the like.
Oct 24 2018
parent reply Mike Parker <aldacron gmail.com> writes:
On Wednesday, 24 October 2018 at 10:12:50 UTC, Joakim wrote:


 Any effort underway to take Bitcoin Cash, Ether, or Ripple as 
 donations? The current payment options seem fairly antiquated: 
 credit cards, wire transfers, and the like.


Not that I'm aware of. I'd hardly call credit cards antiquated, 
though :-)
Oct 24 2018
parent reply Joakim <dlang joakim.fea.st> writes:
On Wednesday, 24 October 2018 at 10:18:51 UTC, Mike Parker wrote:

 On Wednesday, 24 October 2018 at 10:12:50 UTC, Joakim wrote:


 Any effort underway to take Bitcoin Cash, Ether, or Ripple as 
 donations? The current payment options seem fairly antiquated: 
 credit cards, wire transfers, and the like.


 Not that I'm aware of. I'd hardly call credit cards antiquated, 
 though :-)


60-year old tech seems pretty old to me:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card#BankAmericard_and_Master_Charge

I'm a long-term skeptic on cryptocurrencies, but they do make for 
easy and cheap payments, particularly for a tech audience. You 
should put one of the interns on integrating it.
Oct 24 2018
parent reply Nick Sabalausky <a a.a> writes:
On Wednesday, 24 October 2018 at 10:25:17 UTC, Joakim wrote:

 On Wednesday, 24 October 2018 at 10:18:51 UTC, Mike Parker 
 wrote:

 On Wednesday, 24 October 2018 at 10:12:50 UTC, Joakim wrote:


 Any effort underway to take Bitcoin Cash, Ether, or Ripple as 
 donations? The current payment options seem fairly 
 antiquated: credit cards, wire transfers, and the like.


 Not that I'm aware of. I'd hardly call credit cards 
 antiquated, though :-)


 60-year old tech seems pretty old to me:

 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card#BankAmericard_and_Master_Charge


And yet it's still by far the most common payment method. So what 
if it isn't trendy. Deal with it.
Oct 25 2018
next sibling parent "H. S. Teoh" <hsteoh quickfur.ath.cx> writes:
On Thu, Oct 25, 2018 at 10:35:40PM +0000, Nick Sabalausky via
Digitalmars-d-announce wrote:

 On Wednesday, 24 October 2018 at 10:25:17 UTC, Joakim wrote:

 On Wednesday, 24 October 2018 at 10:18:51 UTC, Mike Parker wrote:

 On Wednesday, 24 October 2018 at 10:12:50 UTC, Joakim wrote:






[...]

 Any effort underway to take Bitcoin Cash, Ether, or Ripple as
 donations? The current payment options seem fairly antiquated:
 credit cards, wire transfers, and the like.


 
 Not that I'm aware of. I'd hardly call credit cards antiquated,
 though :-)


 
 60-year old tech seems pretty old to me:
 
 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card#BankAmericard_and_Master_Charge
 


 
 And yet it's still by far the most common payment method. So what if
 it isn't trendy. Deal with it.


Common fallacy:	new == better.


T

-- 
He who laughs last thinks slowest.
Oct 25 2018
prev sibling parent reply Joakim <dlang joakim.fea.st> writes:
On Thursday, 25 October 2018 at 22:35:40 UTC, Nick Sabalausky 
wrote:

 On Wednesday, 24 October 2018 at 10:25:17 UTC, Joakim wrote:

 On Wednesday, 24 October 2018 at 10:18:51 UTC, Mike Parker 
 wrote:

 On Wednesday, 24 October 2018 at 10:12:50 UTC, Joakim wrote:


 Any effort underway to take Bitcoin Cash, Ether, or Ripple 
 as donations? The current payment options seem fairly 
 antiquated: credit cards, wire transfers, and the like.


 Not that I'm aware of. I'd hardly call credit cards 
 antiquated, though :-)


 60-year old tech seems pretty old to me:

 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card#BankAmericard_and_Master_Charge


 And yet it's still by far the most common payment method. So 
 what if it isn't trendy. Deal with it.


In the US maybe, not in most of the world, where they're still 
using cash. ;) I almost never use my cards, and like that 
crypto-currencies have more in similar to cash.

On Thursday, 25 October 2018 at 23:10:50 UTC, H. S. Teoh wrote:

 On Thu, Oct 25, 2018 at 10:35:40PM +0000, Nick Sabalausky via 
 Digitalmars-d-announce wrote:

 On Wednesday, 24 October 2018 at 10:25:17 UTC, Joakim wrote:

 On Wednesday, 24 October 2018 at 10:18:51 UTC, Mike Parker 
 wrote:

 On Wednesday, 24 October 2018 at 10:12:50 UTC, Joakim 
 wrote:






 [...]

 [...]


 
 Not that I'm aware of. I'd hardly call credit cards 
 antiquated, though :-)


 
 60-year old tech seems pretty old to me:
 
 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card#BankAmericard_and_Master_Charge
 


 
 And yet it's still by far the most common payment method. So 
 what if it isn't trendy. Deal with it.


 Common fallacy:	new == better.


As with D, sometimes the new _is_ better, so perhaps you 
shouldn't assume old is better either.
Oct 25 2018
next sibling parent reply Neia Neutuladh <neia ikeran.org> writes:
On Fri, 26 Oct 2018 02:38:08 +0000, Joakim wrote:

 As with D, sometimes the new _is_ better, so perhaps you shouldn't
 assume old is better either.


There's no assuming going on. Cryptocurrencies are worse than credit cards 
for everything that normal people care about, and they're better than 
credit cards for illegal transactions. This might eventually change, and 
we can re-evaluate then.

If for some reason cryptocurrencies become popular and sufficiently stable 
to be used as currency, I have no doubt that existing credit card 
companies will start offering automatic currency exchange, so you can have 
an account in USD and pay a vendor who accepts only Ethereum, or vice 
versa. As such, accepting credit card payments is good enough.
Oct 25 2018
parent reply Joakim <dlang joakim.fea.st> writes:
On Friday, 26 October 2018 at 05:47:05 UTC, Neia Neutuladh wrote:

 On Fri, 26 Oct 2018 02:38:08 +0000, Joakim wrote:

 As with D, sometimes the new _is_ better, so perhaps you 
 shouldn't assume old is better either.


 There's no assuming going on. Cryptocurrencies are worse than 
 credit cards for everything that normal people care about,


Such as? I already noted that they're easier and cheaper, you 
simply flatly state that "normal people" find them worse.


 and they're better than credit cards for illegal transactions.


Yes, just like cash, and have other benefits that come with cash 
too.


 This might eventually change, and we can re-evaluate then.

 If for some reason cryptocurrencies become popular and 
 sufficiently stable to be used as currency, I have no doubt 
 that existing credit card companies will start offering 
 automatic currency exchange, so you can have an account in USD 
 and pay a vendor who accepts only Ethereum, or vice versa. As 
 such, accepting credit card payments is good enough.


I don't know what we'd be waiting for, the tokens I mentioned are 
all worth billions and widely used, particularly by techies:

https://coinmarketcap.com

Why would I wait for antiquated credit-card companies to accept 
these tokens? The whole point of these new tokens is to obsolete 
the credit card companies.
Oct 25 2018
next sibling parent reply Neia Neutuladh <neia ikeran.org> writes:
On Fri, 26 Oct 2018 06:19:29 +0000, Joakim wrote:


 On Friday, 26 October 2018 at 05:47:05 UTC, Neia Neutuladh wrote:

 On Fri, 26 Oct 2018 02:38:08 +0000, Joakim wrote:

 As with D, sometimes the new _is_ better, so perhaps you shouldn't
 assume old is better either.


 There's no assuming going on. Cryptocurrencies are worse than credit
 cards for everything that normal people care about,


 
 Such as? I already noted that they're easier and cheaper, you simply
 flatly state that "normal people" find them worse.


In most countries where people are going to donate to D, the vast majority 
of people have access to a credit card.


 If for some reason cryptocurrencies become popular and sufficiently
 stable to be used as currency, I have no doubt that existing credit
 card companies will start offering automatic currency exchange, so you
 can have an account in USD and pay a vendor who accepts only Ethereum,
 or vice versa. As such, accepting credit card payments is good enough.


 
 I don't know what we'd be waiting for, the tokens I mentioned are all
 worth billions and widely used, particularly by techies:


Very few merchants accept any sort of cryptocurrency. I think I've found 
three. One was through a cryptocurrency forum, and one was Valve 
announcing that they would stop accepting it.


 Why would I wait for antiquated credit-card companies to accept these
 tokens? The whole point of these new tokens is to obsolete the credit
 card companies.


You wouldn't wait. You haven't waited. For you, the benefits are large 
enough and the downsides small enough that it doesn't make sense to wait. 
But I'm not you.

I would wait because I've lost access to important credentials before and 
had to send a copy of my government-issued ID to a company to get them to 
deactivate two-factor authentication. I've had to use password reset 
mechanisms frequently. I don't trust myself not to lose access to a 
cryptocurrency private key. And that would destroy currency and lose me my 
life savings.

I would wait because I want a mechanism to dispute transactions. Maybe I 
authorized that transaction, but the merchant didn't deliver.

I would wait because I want an environmentally-friendly system instead of 
one that uses as much electricity as Afghanistan to process fifteen 
transactions per second.

I would wait because cryptocurrencies have extremely volatile exchange 
rates, which makes it difficult to set prices or store value in them.

I would wait because I can't use cryptocurrency to do anything useful, so 
I would incur a fee to transfer money into it and another to transfer 
money out of it.

I would wait because I don't trust any cryptocurrency exchanges to stick 
around like I expect Visa or even a community bank to remain in business, 
or even not to commit fraud against me. While I might not trust my local 
bank much, I do trust my government to regulate them and to bail me out 
should the worst happen.

I think my concerns are rather normal. Judging by adoption, there's some 
set of concerns that's normal.
Oct 26 2018
parent reply Joakim <dlang joakim.fea.st> writes:
On Friday, 26 October 2018 at 17:20:08 UTC, Neia Neutuladh wrote:

 On Fri, 26 Oct 2018 06:19:29 +0000, Joakim wrote:


 On Friday, 26 October 2018 at 05:47:05 UTC, Neia Neutuladh 
 wrote:

 On Fri, 26 Oct 2018 02:38:08 +0000, Joakim wrote:

 As with D, sometimes the new _is_ better, so perhaps you 
 shouldn't assume old is better either.


 There's no assuming going on. Cryptocurrencies are worse than 
 credit cards for everything that normal people care about,


 
 Such as? I already noted that they're easier and cheaper, you 
 simply flatly state that "normal people" find them worse.


 In most countries where people are going to donate to D, the 
 vast majority of people have access to a credit card.


That's not really true, and that's not actually something "worse" 
about cryptocurrencies. If you really mean have some lying 
around, it is true that more are using credit cards. If you 
actually mean access, crypto-currencies are pretty easy to buy 
these days.


 If for some reason cryptocurrencies become popular and 
 sufficiently stable to be used as currency, I have no doubt 
 that existing credit card companies will start offering 
 automatic currency exchange, so you can have an account in 
 USD and pay a vendor who accepts only Ethereum, or vice 
 versa. As such, accepting credit card payments is good enough.


 
 I don't know what we'd be waiting for, the tokens I mentioned 
 are all worth billions and widely used, particularly by 
 techies:


 Very few merchants accept any sort of cryptocurrency. I think 
 I've found three. One was through a cryptocurrency forum, and 
 one was Valve announcing that they would stop accepting it.


You must not have looked very hard, there are online retailers 
accepting crypto-tokens and websites that will make payments for 
you on Amazon or other sites through Bitcoin:

https://www.overstock.com/blockchain
https://purse.io/shop


 Why would I wait for antiquated credit-card companies to 
 accept these tokens? The whole point of these new tokens is to 
 obsolete the credit card companies.


 You wouldn't wait. You haven't waited. For you, the benefits 
 are large enough and the downsides small enough that it doesn't 
 make sense to wait. But I'm not you.


No, I'm not much of a cryptocurrency user or online shopper even. 
I mostly buy locally with cash.


 I would wait because I've lost access to important credentials 
 before and had to send a copy of my government-issued ID to a 
 company to get them to deactivate two-factor authentication. 
 I've had to use password reset mechanisms frequently. I don't 
 trust myself not to lose access to a cryptocurrency private 
 key. And that would destroy currency and lose me my life 
 savings.


I don't blame you for being careful if you've had these problems, 
most of which I've never had, but you wildly exaggerate with your 
last sentence. Crypto-tokens are a replacement for cash and 
credit cards, which you should never be carrying around more than 
a couple hundred or thousand dollars worth of. If you're carrying 
around your life savings in cash or credit cards and are worried 
about moving them to bitcoin, you have much bigger problems. ;)


 I would wait because I want a mechanism to dispute 
 transactions. Maybe I authorized that transaction, but the 
 merchant didn't deliver.


I don't think the payment provider is the right mechanism for 
that. The seller wants to protect their reputation and your 
payment is publicly verifiable through the blockchain. There are 
much better ways to build trust through those building blocks 
than the currently broken credit card chargeback process:

https://www.shopify.com/retail/what-is-a-chargeback


 I would wait because I want an environmentally-friendly system 
 instead of one that uses as much electricity as Afghanistan to 
 process fifteen transactions per second.


Yes, I noted the Bitcoin "Proof of work" problem in this forum 
almost five years ago, so I'm well aware:

https://forum.dlang.org/post/xzuzvykrqouqlsjmkvug forum.dlang.org

There are "Proof of stake" crypto-tokens out there that purport 
to avoid that issue:

https://blockgeeks.com/guides/proof-of-work-vs-proof-of-stake/

Ether, one of the tokens I mentioned originally, is moving to 
this scheme.


 I would wait because cryptocurrencies have extremely volatile 
 exchange rates, which makes it difficult to set prices or store 
 value in them.


If you're buying online, which is what we're talking about, it's 
trivially simple to track the exchange rates and instantaneously 
set store prices accordingly. It may be a bit different for 
consumers, but by the time they're all using some payments tech 
like this, the exchange rates will likely have settled down.


 I would wait because I can't use cryptocurrency to do anything 
 useful, so I would incur a fee to transfer money into it and 
 another to transfer money out of it.


Not necessarily- it depends on who you're buying your tokens 
from- and crypto-tokens usually work out cheaper once you include 
other transaction costs.


 I would wait because I don't trust any cryptocurrency exchanges 
 to stick around like I expect Visa or even a community bank to 
 remain in business, or even not to commit fraud against me.


You trust credit card companies and banks not to commit fraud 
against you, how quaint. ;)


 While I might not trust my local bank much, I do trust my 
 government to regulate them and to bail me out should the worst 
 happen.


I see, so you want other taxpayers to bail you out for your 
mistakes, interesting.


 I think my concerns are rather normal. Judging by adoption, 
 there's some set of concerns that's normal.


Some of them are popularly held, but most are fairly irrational.

In any case, whether crypto-currencies ever go mainstream is 
irrelevant to this thread. They're already fairly popular among 
techies, from whom the D foundation is soliciting donations. As 
such, providing a way to accept such donations is literally a 
no-brainer: the work put into taking them will likely pay for 
itself many times over.

I've made two Bitcoin donations in the last year, and zero 
through cash or credit cards, and I hardly use crypto-tokens. 
That is the tech audience in question here, not your random 
peregrinations about irrelevant issues, such as mainstream 
adoption.

On Saturday, 27 October 2018 at 00:10:37 UTC, Nick Sabalausky 
wrote:

 On Friday, 26 October 2018 at 02:38:08 UTC, Joakim wrote:

 On Thursday, 25 October 2018 at 22:35:40 UTC, Nick Sabalausky 
 wrote:

 And yet it's still by far the most common payment method. So 
 what if it isn't trendy. Deal with it.


 In the US maybe, not in most of the world, where they're still 
 using cash. ;) I almost never use my cards, and like that 
 crypto-currencies have more in similar to cash.


 I was referring to internet payments, as that was the 
 conversation's context.

 And you're right that cash is extremely common outside the net. 
 Note that cash is considerably older than even credit/debit 
 cards.


Which is why cash is being replaced by crypto-tokens that 
maintain its benefits while being online. :)


 On Thursday, 25 October 2018 at 23:10:50 UTC, H. S. Teoh wrote:

 Common fallacy:	new == better.


 As with D, sometimes the new _is_ better, so perhaps you 
 shouldn't assume old is better either.


 Nobody claimed otherwise.


Nor did anyone claim what Teoh wrote, so I was just showing I can 
put words in his mouth too. ;)
Oct 27 2018
parent reply Neia Neutuladh <neia ikeran.org> writes:
On Sat, 27 Oct 2018 10:54:30 +0000, Joakim wrote:

 I see, so you want other taxpayers to bail you out for your mistakes,
 interesting.


One of the major points of having a government is to create these 
regulations that make it less likely for individuals to suffer from the 
actions of other people and organizations.

Another major point is to help people in need using the collective efforts 
of society.

Programs like FDIC in the United States exist to serve both of these: it's 
an extra set of regulations for banks, and compliant banks will be bailed 
out if circumstances require. If I choose an FDIC bank and the owners run 
off with my money, I didn't make an avoidable mistake, any more than being 
mugged in the street is me making a mistake.

If you oppose that, you're gunning for an eventual repeat of the Great 
Depression.


 I think my concerns are rather normal. Judging by adoption, there's
 some set of concerns that's normal.


 
 Some of them are popularly held, but most are fairly irrational.
 
 In any case, whether crypto-currencies ever go mainstream is irrelevant
 to this thread. They're already fairly popular among techies, from whom
 the D foundation is soliciting donations. As such, providing a way to
 accept such donations is literally a no-brainer: the work put into
 taking them will likely pay for itself many times over.


I suspect more techies use zloty than ethereum.
Oct 27 2018
parent reply Laeeth Isharc <Laeeth laeeth.com> writes:
On Saturday, 27 October 2018 at 14:33:43 UTC, Neia Neutuladh 
wrote:

 On Sat, 27 Oct 2018 10:54:30 +0000, Joakim wrote:

 I see, so you want other taxpayers to bail you out for your 
 mistakes, interesting.


 One of the major points of having a government is to create 
 these regulations that make it less likely for individuals to 
 suffer from the actions of other people and organizations.

 Another major point is to help people in need using the 
 collective efforts of society.

 Programs like FDIC in the United States exist to serve both of 
 these: it's an extra set of regulations for banks, and 
 compliant banks will be bailed out if circumstances require. If 
 I choose an FDIC bank and the owners run off with my money, I 
 didn't make an avoidable mistake, any more than being mugged in 
 the street is me making a mistake.

 If you oppose that, you're gunning for an eventual repeat of 
 the Great Depression.


Banks are special because of the payments system and because of 
lending.  In October 2008 Gordon Brown was within two hours of 
shutting down the banking system and declaring a state of 
emergency.  If that had happened nobody would have been able to 
make payments and new lending would have come to a halt.

In 2038 you won't need banks to make payments because 
cryptocurrencies will be a viable alternative.  And lending is 
already being provided by asset managers.  So the justification 
for the combination of leverage and the mismatch in liquidity and 
risk of banks deposit liabilities and their assets will 
disappear.  The component of TARP that constituted aid to the 
financial system made a profit, but nonetheless there will be 
very little public appetite for a repeat the next time around.

At the request of the UK debt management office, I met the 
representative of the IMF financial stability review in early 
2005.  He had a bee in his bonnet about the dollar yen carry 
trade and hedge funds: generals always fighting the last war.  I 
told him to worry about the banks and what they were buying.  He 
didn't listen.  So regulators have little skill when it comes to 
understanding systemic risk posed by the asset and liability 
decisions of banks and so it will be good to make that function 
redundant.

So cryptocurrencies matter.  They are far from mature right now 
though and it's not the most important thing if you have limited 
resources to accept them.  The best way to get the Foundation to 
accept them might be to do the work to help...
Oct 28 2018
parent Paolo Invernizzi <paolo.invernizzi gmail.com> writes:
On Sunday, 28 October 2018 at 13:06:53 UTC, Laeeth Isharc wrote:


 Banks are special because of the payments system and because of 
 lending.  In October 2008 Gordon Brown was within two hours of 
 shutting down the banking system and declaring a state of 
 emergency.  If that had happened nobody would have been able to 
 make payments and new lending would have come to a halt.

 In 2038 you won't need banks to make payments because 
 cryptocurrencies will be a viable alternative.  And lending is 
 already being provided by asset managers.  So the justification 
 for the combination of leverage and the mismatch in liquidity 
 and risk of banks deposit liabilities and their assets will 
 disappear.


Only one word: Huerta de Soto.

- Paolo
Oct 28 2018
prev sibling parent Laeeth Isharc <Laeeth laeeth.com> writes:
On Friday, 26 October 2018 at 06:19:29 UTC, Joakim wrote:

 On Friday, 26 October 2018 at 05:47:05 UTC, Neia Neutuladh 
 wrote:

 On Fri, 26 Oct 2018 02:38:08 +0000, Joakim wrote:

 As with D, sometimes the new _is_ better, so perhaps you 
 shouldn't assume old is better either.


 There's no assuming going on. Cryptocurrencies are worse than 
 credit cards for everything that normal people care about,


 Such as? I already noted that they're easier and cheaper, you 
 simply flatly state that "normal people" find them worse.


 and they're better than credit cards for illegal transactions.


 Yes, just like cash, and have other benefits that come with 
 cash too.


 This might eventually change, and we can re-evaluate then.

 If for some reason cryptocurrencies become popular and 
 sufficiently stable to be used as currency, I have no doubt 
 that existing credit card companies will start offering 
 automatic currency exchange, so you can have an account in USD 
 and pay a vendor who accepts only Ethereum, or vice versa. As 
 such, accepting credit card payments is good enough.


 I don't know what we'd be waiting for, the tokens I mentioned 
 are all worth billions and widely used, particularly by techies:

 https://coinmarketcap.com

 Why would I wait for antiquated credit-card companies to accept 
 these tokens? The whole point of these new tokens is to 
 obsolete the credit card companies.


Cryptocurrencies are worse is better for some people in some 
contexts.  HSBC started the process of shutting down my company 
bank account because payments to programmers in Russia triggered 
some alerts and you get caught up in this Kafkaesque maze where 
there is nobody reasonable to talk to.  I wrote to the Chairman 
in Hong Kong and only then could I get them to see reason and 
apologize.  So for making payments to Russia, yes if the other 
side accepts them, worse is better in this case.  For Venezuela 
or some African countries worse is obviously better quite a lot 
of the time. For making smaller payments overseas 
cryptocurrencies with low fees like BCH can be more efficient 
than a bank wire, even in the West.

As regards particular currencies, deadalnix, member of the D 
community and creator of SDC compiler project is the man behind 
Bitcoin ABC, the largest Bitcoin Cash client, and one of the key 
people technically for Bitcoin Cash overall.
Oct 28 2018
prev sibling next sibling parent Kagamin <spam here.lot> writes:
On Friday, 26 October 2018 at 02:38:08 UTC, Joakim wrote:

 In the US maybe


Well yeah, online commerce is USA-centric because anything else 
doesn't generate revenue.
Oct 26 2018
prev sibling next sibling parent "H. S. Teoh" <hsteoh quickfur.ath.cx> writes:
On Fri, Oct 26, 2018 at 02:38:08AM +0000, Joakim via Digitalmars-d-announce
wrote:
[...]

 On Thursday, 25 October 2018 at 23:10:50 UTC, H. S. Teoh wrote:


[...]

 Common fallacy:	new == better.


 
 As with D, sometimes the new _is_ better, so perhaps you shouldn't
 assume old is better either.


Another common fallacy: negation of "new == better" implies "old ==
better".

:-D


T

-- 
No! I'm not in denial!
Oct 26 2018
prev sibling parent Nick Sabalausky <a a.a> writes:
On Friday, 26 October 2018 at 02:38:08 UTC, Joakim wrote:

 On Thursday, 25 October 2018 at 22:35:40 UTC, Nick Sabalausky 
 wrote:

 And yet it's still by far the most common payment method. So 
 what if it isn't trendy. Deal with it.


 In the US maybe, not in most of the world, where they're still 
 using cash. ;) I almost never use my cards, and like that 
 crypto-currencies have more in similar to cash.


I was referring to internet payments, as that was the 
conversation's context.

And you're right that cash is extremely common outside the net. 
Note that cash is considerably older than even credit/debit cards.


 On Thursday, 25 October 2018 at 23:10:50 UTC, H. S. Teoh wrote:

 Common fallacy:	new == better.


 As with D, sometimes the new _is_ better, so perhaps you 
 shouldn't assume old is better either.


Nobody claimed otherwise.
Oct 26 2018
prev sibling next sibling parent reply Andre Pany <andre s-e-a-p.de> writes:
On Wednesday, 24 October 2018 at 09:18:58 UTC, Mike Parker wrote:

 I have put out a few times that we want to start launching 
 targeted fundraising campaigns. Head over to the donate page 
 and you'll notice a new option.

 ...

 And the direct link to the general fund campaign:

 https://www.flipcause.com/secure/cause_pdetails/NDMzMzE=


Hi Mike,

thanks a lot for adding this donation option. Campaigns will
help a lot.

Do you plan to add a Dub campaign?
Here we currently miss helping hands to get some pull requests 
(60)
done and solve some of the open issues (400).

Kind regards
André
Oct 24 2018
parent Mike Parker <aldacron gmail.com> writes:
On Wednesday, 24 October 2018 at 10:16:50 UTC, Andre Pany wrote:


 Do you plan to add a Dub campaign?
 Here we currently miss helping hands to get some pull requests 
 (60)
 done and solve some of the open issues (400).


In all likelihood, yes, at some point. At this moment I'm not 
sure which campaign(s) we'll launch first or exactly what they'll 
look like. I'm working out some details and will hopefully get my 
list of potential targets prioritized and sorted before too much 
longer.
Oct 24 2018
prev sibling parent reply bachmeier <no spam.net> writes:
On Wednesday, 24 October 2018 at 09:18:58 UTC, Mike Parker wrote:

 I'll soon be launching targeted campaigns that you can choose 
 to support.


I look forward to donating at that time. Hopefully there will be 
a good selection of projects to choose from. There probably won't 
be much substitution of donations among projects, because we tend 
to donate to things we feel are valuable, and not so much if we 
don't see the impact being important.

I am curious about the $5/hour thing. How is it possible to get 
good quality development for $5/hour?
Oct 24 2018
parent Mike Parker <aldacron gmail.com> writes:
On Wednesday, 24 October 2018 at 13:19:27 UTC, bachmeier wrote:


 I am curious about the $5/hour thing. How is it possible to get 
 good quality development for $5/hour?


That comes from the bottom of the donation page:

https://dlang.org/foundation/donate.html

I assume it has to do with the total value of a scholarship in 
relation to how much time they put into their projects.
Oct 24 2018