In {response|reaction|feedback} to the city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire passing {an ordinance|a regulation|a statute} {effectively|efficiently|successfully|properly} {restricting|limiting} ridesharing {services|solutions} from {operating|running} in the city, Uber {driver|motorist|vehicle driver} {and|as well as|and also} Bitcoin {entrepreneur|business owner} Christopher David {started|began} the Free Uber {campaign|project}.

1. teamsteverhyner.com http://www.teamsteverhyner.com/swarm-activism-powered-by-bitcoin-free-uber/
Steven L.
Rhyner
Swarm Activism Powered by Bitcoin: Free Uber
In response to the city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire passing an ordinance effectively restricting ridesharing services
from operating in the city, Uber driver and Bitcoin entrepreneur Christopher David started the Free Uber campaign.
He has since led an activism effort to legalize ridesharing inspired by the swarm organizational model outlined in
Swarmwise by Rick Falkvinge, founder of the first Pirate Party in Sweden.
We reached out to Christopher David
to talk about his Free Uber activism
campaign:
CoinTelegraph: Ok, so for the
uninformed, what is Free Uber?
Christopher David: Free Uber is a grassroots campaign to defend ride-sharing against bureaucrats and red tape.
We’ve been focused primarily on Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where a new transportation ordinance has created a
turf war between taxi drivers and Uber drivers who are now operating illegally because of the ordinance. Free Uber is
an effort to organize drivers and supporters to overturn the law and safeguard consumer choice. We believe adults
should be able to make their own transportation decisions without outside interference.

2. CT: How have you gone about spreading this message?
CD: Mainly through a combination of distributing flyers around downtown Portsmouth and building up our Facebook
page, with a little bit of paid advertising. Our flyer campaigns definitely had the biggest impact. On the day after one of
our 10-person flyer distribution events, we’d hear reports of conversations about Uber breaking out in coffee shops
and sidewalks all over the city. We thoroughly saturated the town and got everyone talking, to the point that city
officials would complain about our flyers during their council meetings and in the newspaper. We definitely got our
message out.
CT: How is this whole operation funded?
CD: As an independent entity with no legal structure or bank account, crowdfunding in bitcoinCT r: 11 was the logical
choice. Early on we put up a bitcoin address for a prize pool to incentivize activism, and a separate address for
promotional expenses like flyer materials and staple guns. In total we raised about 6 BTC, mostly when the price was
around $250. A lot of the activism payouts were sent when the price was up over $400, so we got extra bang for the
bitcoin.
CT: So this was entirely crowdfunded by Bitcoin?
CD: Yes.
CT: What drew you do using Bitcoin?
CD: I got turned onto bitcoin back in 2012, interested mainly because I’d been following Ron Paul’s critiques of the
Federal Reserve and I saw bitcoin as potentially part of a new monetary system that would come to replace the
current one. Using bitcoin for this project was a no-brainer because it let us pay activists quickly with no transaction
fees, with all donations and disbursements listed transparently on the public ledger of the blockchain.

3. CT: How are activists paid? Are they official employees with salaries?
CD: No employees or salaries. I’m skeptical of the salary model and I envision in the future more industries will
embrace ‘gig economy’ models like Uber. Nonprofits and activism certainly should, and bitcoin makes perfect sense
for the payment model. For Free Uber, activist compensation was calculated primarily using a point system tied to
specific tasks like commenting on relevant articles online or giving an illegal Uber ride. We had a website where
activists would report tasks and see everyone’s point totals on a public leaderboard. People could request a payout at
any time. For some special events we would announce a guaranteed prize pool of say 1 BTC that would be divvied up
to attendees. No one got ever more than a couple hundred dollars worth of bitcoin in total, but we think the minimal
prizes we were able to offer people definitely made it easier for people to get involved and stay involved.
CT: Were all donations anonymous?
CD: About half the donations were anonymous, though some people let us know when they donated so we knew who
they were and could thank them.
CT: How do you view this method of activism funding measures up next to a traditional nonprofit model?
CD: Point-based gamification incentivized with bitcoin micropayments could revolutionize nonprofits in the exact same
way that gig economy models like Amazon’s Mechanical Turk are slashing costs for companies needing repetitive
data tasks. So far no one has cracked the nut on how to apply a similar gig economy model to nonprofits and cause
organizations in a scalable fashion. But I think we have.
CT: Are there any challenges presented by a non-traditional model that doesn’t have the same yearly budget
and operating expenses to go by?

4. CD: The greatest challenges come from operating in a legal gray area, or sometimes directly against the law.
Technology is evolving faster than government regulation can keep up. That’s a good thing for human progress, but
can be uncomfortable for the entrepreneurs on the bleeding edge who can face penalties or jail time. And the number
of investors or users willing to join you on that bleeding edge can be severely limited compared to those operating in
the false securityof government control. The challenge is to capture enough margin on that bleeding edge to build a
bridge back to the ordinary world, as Uber is doing to great success. They risk a lot, yet stand to gain a lot.
CT: Has this funding model proved effective in getting activists to take action?
CD: Yes, our approach was successful enough that we had to stop promoting the incentive system to new people
because we had so thoroughly saturated Portsmouth with our message. On the days that we assigned a point value
to each flyer posted, we had some activists drive from an hour away to come help. We also had online activists
seemingly crawling out of woodwork to pitch in, most of whom reported their tasks anonymously. We don’t know who
all those people are; in fact some of them could even have been from other countries. I do know we wouldn’t have
gotten near as much activism done without the gamified incentives tied to our bitcoin prize pool. Plenty of people love
to volunteer for free and that’s great, but it’s nice to be able to offer folks a little something for their time. It makes
activism more sustainable and can help prevent people from ‘burning out’, a problem we see a lot in activist
communities. Our next step is to streamline and systematize these processes, then scale out to other geographic
areas across New Hampshire and beyond. We’re focused now on the ride-sharing fight as a test case. Bitcoin plays a
useful role in our approach to that fight. But moving forward we’re even more excited to build gamified activism
support systems using smart contracts on blockchain 2.0s like Ethereum. The idea is to build on that bleeding edge a
decentralized army of decentralizers: activists empowered with blockchain technology to flow like water around any
obstacles to innovation. We are closer to that future than you might think.
Donor experience
CoinTelegraph also spoke to two of Free Uber’s donors about their experience using Bitcoin to fund activism through
this non-traditional model. Tom Hudson considers himself a Bitcoin beginner, while Kyle Mohney considers himself to
be experienced.
Ease of use
Mohney particularly liked how the donation process was more streamlined.
“Of course there is a setup process for both BTC and traditional accounts. But once you’ve established
an account, BTC is far easier to use.”
Greater privacy
Hudson also preferred the privacy that comes with using Bitcoin as opposed to traditional methods.
“Purely from a standpoint speed and ease, it’s more efficient. You either scan the QR code or copy the
address and send the money. No need to enter name, address, credit card, etc., etc.”
Transparency and accountability to donors
Finally, the public reward-based incentive system’s transparency impressed Hudson.

5. “Outside of this realm, what is nice is the ability, if one wished, is the ability to see where the money
gets spent by the charity. You have access to their ledger. While it’s not 100% transparent, it does put
the ability to hold the charity to standards of accountability that otherwise are not existent.”
Re-posted from www.cointelegraph.com December 24, 2015 by Joel Valenzuela
After any person or organization goes through the challenges of setting up your accounts then moving,
buying, selling or using Bitcoin for fund-raising for any cause or enterprise becomes very easy. There are
many Bitcoin exchanges and wallets but I have found using Coinbase seems to be the easiest. If you’re not a
resident of the United States, try Bitx. You can create a free account here then prepare your needed
documents. You’ll need this type of site if you become involved in a Bitcoin business as well. For more
information about profiting from Bitcoin, click here. Or send me an email: steve@prplus.us.
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