A sign of digital currency’s increasingly important role in society can be seen in its use in a number of charitable projects. One of the first examples was the use of digital currency to support Sean’s Outpost, more recently there was a Bitcoin campaign to support Brazilian gymnast Lais Souza. Dogecoin provided support to the Jamaican bobsled team and Josh Wise from NASCAR, received Bitcoin sponsorship for the Axiom eSports team.
Today’s cryptocommunity can support a very important and large scale project. On April 9 Gavin Andersen, chief scientist at the Bitcoin Foundation, encouraged people to support Red Bridge River Park in New Zealand:
“The Red Bridge River Park project will preserve a beautiful part of the world from development”.
A bridge to cross
Red Bridge River Park is a long-term environmental restoration project. One of the aims is to create a community river park with a focus on conservation and educational focus.
The project is being led by Lewis “Finn” Verduyn-Cassels moved to the location and started a native plant restoration project in mid-nineties. The project has involved a lot of hard work removing invasive species and weeds from the land, establishing native New Zealand plants that are found nowhere else in the world via an on-site native nursery.
“I spent some time with Finn last year and he is exactly the kind of get-things-done person that I like to support” said Andersen. “He is also a big fan of Bitcoin, and is (of course!) accepting Bitcoin donations”.
“Realistically, I know that we cannot expect the bitcoin community to fund this entire river park to the tune of about 800,000, but the mere fact that international bitcoiners would even contribute a little, to a river park project in New Zealand, when coins are short, is huge news here in our little country”, commented Verduyn-Cassels. “This is absolutely a wonderful story, that shows bitcoin's power to connect people in meaningful ways. Every contribution is a humbling experience for us. I have dedicated my life to river conservation. Fighting greed and faceless corporations is the most soul destroying work. When someone helps, I am grateful; if they are overseas and unknown to me, I am speechless. Einstein said "The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing." Bitcoiners are doing something, and it's right”.
Donations
However, it seems that crypto-community is ready to support Red Bridge River Park – at the moment of writing more than 25 transactions have come in. The first transaction on 9 April was 1 BTC. But “it's not how much you donate that matters. What matters is that you are bitcoiners, and that you can visualize a better future...”
If you want to support the project too and make your donations follow to river park bitcoin wallet or visit Clutha Mata-Au River Parkway Group.