UPDATE: The team got funded. According to the official Crowdtilt donations page, some $120,000 has been raised.
Dogecoins represent a quarter of that total. The Dogecoin Foundation saw more than 27 million XDG donated, and all the activity actually doubled the value of the currency in about 24 hours. Given Dogecoin's instability these last two days, the foundation actually had to exchange the money into Bitcoin before a donation in USD could be made.
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Here’s how to Internet like a pro: Take a story that elicits images of a beloved movie from childhood (“Cool Runnings”) and somehow find a way to mix that with Reddit’s meme du jour (doge).
The planets aligned this weekend, as the Jamaican bobsled team qualified for the Olympics in Sochi.
Forty-six-year-old (!) Winston Watts, half of the two-man bobsled team, has already made a reference to “Cool Runnings, the Second Generation” in an interview with UK newspaper The Telegraph.
What’s more, Watts mentioned his team needs to raise money for the trip to Russia.
“In truth, we still don’t really know at the moment if we’d even have enough funds or sponsorship to fly to Sochi itself for the Games itself,” he told the newspaper. “It all depends. Our families need to be taken care of first. If there’s no funding, who knows?”
The number to hit is $80 thousand.
And Reddit has already put a dent in that figure with Dogecoin donations alone.
At the time of writing, 4.2 million Dogecoins — or the equivalent of about $2900 — have been raised.
Dogecoin users who want to see Jamaican bobsledders in Sochi can donate to the following address: DCLmwBUiY9EE8ND6FYtDfbFsiQD8LAZvAZ
For other avenues of crowdfunding, keep an eye on Team Jamaica’s Twitter account, at @JamaicaOlympics.