LETS TALK BITCOIN

Episode 76 Politics and Charity

Participants:

Adam B. Levine (AL) - Host
Stephanie Murphy (SM) Co-host
Steve Stockman (SS) Congressman
Connie Galllippi (CG) Founder and Executive Director of the BitGive Foundation



AL: Today is January 17
th
2014. Welcome to Episode 76 of Lets Talk Bitcoin, a twice weekly
show about the ideas, people and projects building the digital economy and the future of
money. Visit us at www.letstalkbitcoin.com for our daily guest blog, all our past episodes
and, of course, tipping addresses.

My name is Adam B. Levine and today were talking about the possibilities to really shake
things up in the United States. Connie Gallippi is the founder and Executive Director of the
BitGive Foundation. Recently Stephanie caught up with Connie to talk about her origins,
women in Bitcoin, the potential for charity, the types of help they need and, of course, lots
more.

First, Congressman Steve Stockman joined LTBs Jonathan Mohan at the recently opened
New York Bitcoin Center, on New Years Eve for a wide ranging talk on Bitcoins disruptive
potential and the possibility of a Bill that will make everybody leave Bitcoin alone for at least
a year or so. Well get right into it. Enjoy the show! *1:07+


__________________________________________


Jonathan Mohan interview with Congressman Steve Stockman

JM: Im joined right now with Congressman Steve Stockman at the New York Bitcoin Center
on New Years Eve. Thank you so much for coming out. *1:20+

SS: This is like the greatest party, the smartest people, a really vibrant party and Id rather
be here than Times Square, any day. [1:29]

JM: (Laughter) So glad to hear that. Can you tell me a little bit about your background and
what you like about Bitcoin? [1:34]

SS: I was in Congress in the 90s and then, for almost a generation, I was not in Congress. I
took care of my dad who has Alzheimers and he passed away. I got back involved in
Congress and I wanted a seat in Texas called District 36. Texas picked up four seats and one
of those open seats was District 36, which represents Houston and goes all the way over the
Louisiana border and part of ... if anybody knows Charlie Wilson, it was Charlie Wilsons old
seat. We have about 87 refineries and we produce half of all the gasoline in the United
States. [2:07]

JM: What was your process about learning about Bitcoin? [2:12]

SS: Well, Ive always been interested in technology that changes, fundamentally... dynamic
changes. I think things such as the 3D printer, nanotubes and Bitcoin are going to be .... are
called industry disruption, which changes things fundamentally. Its a very exciting time to
live in the world today because of these upcoming technologies. Currently right now, if you
look at Bitcoin and the history of Bitcoin, it wasnt started out as a sea-change but if you
look at the future and the possibilities of Bitcoin, it will be a fundamental change, it could be
a world currency much like the dollar is, only I think it would be more efficient and a greater
capacity than the US dollar. Im not saying its going to replace the dollar, however, I think it
will eliminate a lot of barriers and increase commerce which is always a good thing for the
world and individuals. [3:13]

JM: (Laughter) For someone who is in politics, its kind of refreshing to hear someone be so
free market. What do you see as the place for regulation of Bitcoin in America and how do
you think regulation could affect Americas place in the Bitcoin community? *3:28+

SS: I think there is some concern that if you put Bitcoin on your laptop page, you may have
someone hack your computer and steal it. Theres also the question of taxation which, I
personally think, that if you look at the Internet, there was no taxation of the Internet
because the argument at that time was that it was a small industry; that you needed to let it
grow organically and without interference from the . I would argue that Bitcoin is similar in
that if we interfere in the market in the way it develops, you could interfere with industries
yet known. No one predicted that the Internet would be such a sea-change. I mean, it
changed the way airline tickets are; it changed the way newspapers are; its just changed
the world. That is true of Bitcoin. The potential there is great but if we stomp on it and
eliminate it in its infancy because of threats to people that are in power, we could eliminate
a lot of industries and, quite frankly, a lot of jobs. [4:25]

JM: Whats your take on the alphabet soup of government agencies that are here to
protect us? Like their opinion of Bitcoin... when they say Hey look, you have Silk Road out
there. How is it that youre able to see past that when a lot of your other Congressmen,
kind of, dont? *4:40+

SS: Well, lets think about this. Everybody thats in government thats...particularly thats...
what is called administrative law if their purpose to be administrative law is to create laws
without really the preview of the Congress, if you have someone thats in administrative law
in developing and pushing the agenda, then when you strip them from their power that
eliminates, really, the functionality of the purpose of their job. They feel threatened by
anything that liberates individuals. Im for liberation of individuals. In fact, I have a hard
time, being a democratic Republican, why you vote for someone to say, for instance Im
fat, I want to reduce the number of calories, therefore, Im going to go out and vote for
somebody thats going to pass a law that says I cant eat. Its puzzling to me. Its much
more simpler if you dont want to eat, do that. Dont impose this on other people; give
people free choice. Currently, the way it operates, people vote for people that pass more
laws, more restrictions. Throughout the world, if you do an analysis of the countries which
are the most free, they are the wealthiest. Individuals make better choices for themselves
than having someone up in Washington making choices for you. [5:54]

JM: I know there are a lot of anarchists and hardcore libertarians who say Well, the best
way that Bitcoin can get on White House on Capitol Hill, is just to completely ignore it and
have them deal with it on their own. For the people who want to engage civically, as it
relates to Bitcoin, how could we do that? [6:10]

SS: I would suggest that they do, like many other organizations, whether its a gun rights
group or international group, that you do a survey and send it up to all the Congressmen
and Senators that are running for office Independents, Democrats, Republicans,
Libertarians and ask them where they stand. Its not fair to judge someone without
knowing where they stand. If you know where they stand and theyre against it, then thats
fine to criticize them but you may have many more allies than you realize so the best thing
is, is communicate and do that through a survey. A politician is just a person who decided to
run for Office. They eat, they breathe, they go to bed. Theyre not evil people. There are
some evil people but, by and large, they are just normal people who work really hard and I
would recommend that you ask them. In the beginning, you wont get a lot of answers in
your surveys but publish that Refused to answer. As time goes on, there will be more and
more people starting to answer and your issues and concerns will be brought forward. I
would recommend communicating through surveys and getting their opinions. If you dont
do that, its not really fair to criticize someone if you never asked them. *7:15+

JM: Right. You know, kind of the fear when it comes to the entrepreneurial and the tech
literate community is that Congress has a habit of litigating on a topic when they are not
fully informed. [7:28]

SS: They litigate twenty years after its relevant. (Laughter) Theyre just now learning
about fax machines. (Laughter) [7:34]

JM: There are some laws that affect the Internet that predate the Internet and we kind of
are afraid about what they might do... like even if we were to engage them and they are like
OK, this is something that I need to make a part of my campaign. They are not going to go
the extra step of actually learning about it to make that informed decision. [7:52]

SS: In fairness, tonight I met a lot of people who want government interceding on behalf of
Bitcoin and thats a double-edged sword. If you want government to step in, in addition to
being positive, youre going to have some negatives. If you create a governmental body to
oversee Bitcoin, then that governmental body will be dictated by the people in power. My
concern is, is that if you create a governmental body to intercede on Bitcoin, then you will
upset the whole purpose for which you have in Bitcoin. I think the purpose of Bitcoin, in my
view, is fundamentally the freedom of individuals and to keep them free. Now, if you start
interfering and suggesting that government interferes, much like they do in schools. They
say Hey, we need government to do this. All of a sudden the parents start realizing Hey,
we dont have access to what our kids are studying; we dont have access to the tests
theyre taking but we want government to pay for it. Its a two-edged sword. Id be very
cautious asking government to intercede. I would like to see the Bitcoin community
become a self-regulation and to outline some basic principles to operate by. Tonight I met,
ironically, very many Libertarians wanting government which, to me, is fundamentally
different than what Libertarians stand for. Be very careful when you ask government to
intercede. Its a two-edged sword and you may regret asking the wolf (?? Inaudible) chicken
hatch. [9:22]

JM: Were kind of at the Eye of Sauron here in New York when it comes to financial law.
When it comes to operating a Bitcoin business, it currently... FinCEN states Youre a money
transmitter. In New York states, we are granting no money transmitter licences to Bitcoin
companies. Its sort of this draconian Catch-22. [9:39]

SS: Its a very frightening thing. If youre in the industry... well, think about it. The brick and
mortar industry. At first, ignore it and then they felt threatened. Look at the music
industry. Remember, until Steve Jobs came up with iTunes, they were being decimated in
the industry and its still having changes. [10:00]

JM: Theres actually a recent study that found that the people who pirate music actually do
it on a music that is harder to find and that the people who are more likely to pirate actually
spend more on music than the average consumer. There is actually now evidence to even
show that as it relates to piracy, it actually increases purchasing of music because what
happens is you (?? Inaudible) sample it and then you buy it. [10:22]

SS: Exactly, but remember what happened. The industry felt threatened and they started
suing people. You had similar circumstances here as when you create a currency,
technically, a computer currency, the people who feel threatened are the people that have
influence over the dollar. If you start saying Well, were threatening the dollar, youre
going to have a lot of people in power and very powerful places that feel threatened. It may
not be actually threatening them and I think they can co-exist, but the perception of a threat
will dictate action. We have got to be very careful were not threatening the dollar currency
but it is a competing way to free the markets. [11:02]

JM: When were talking about competition, I love the fact that people never see the dollar
as a monopoly. Bitcoin is giving us this viable competitor to the dollar because you cant
shut it down, like you did with Liberty dollars. [11:14]

SS: (?? Inaudible) but right now youre not printing $85 billion in Bitcoin every month.
[11:20]

JM: Whats your opinion of this hundred year experiment called the Federal Reserve?
[11:24]

SS: Its ironic because we just celebrated the 100
th
year and, as you know, it was Wilson
who also created the Federal Income Tax. He created a dragon with two heads and I would
argue that we probably have lost unknown wealth, this nation. Were going to soon follow
behind China, in terms of wealth creation which is ironic because they are supposedly a
socialist country which I think the reality is its more of a fascist country because theyre in
joint operation with corporations. [11:57]

JM: I love this argument of calling another nation fascist when we pretend that Goldman
Sachs doesnt buy out both parties for residential candidates. *12:04+

SS: Well no. I would argue that we do have some fascism in that, the definition as I
understand fascism, is the cooperation of government and industry. Id have to say GE is
very much in that mode, that they rely heavily on government and government
intervention. Also AIG, (?? Inaudible), or it would be GM we tease, its called government
Motors which, by the way, the mainstream media say we lost no money on. Thats an
absolute lie. We lost billions of dollars and they said Well, it was a great, successful
experiment but on the other hand, we dont know what would have happened if it was
diminished. Would there have been a new industry that was created better than what we
got? [12:41]

JM: This Bill that youre proposing what is it and how do people (?? Inaudible)? [12:46]

SS: Heres exactly what I want to do, then get on our website and give us feedback. [12:51]

JM: And your website is? [12:52]

SS: www.Stockman2014.com. The thing is, you should have seen that, we get it but what I
want to do is I want to include the comments. Now, I know whatever Bill were going to
introduce, people are going to be ticked off, but at least it starts a conversation and it
creates awareness. My main goal of the Bill... [13:10]

JM: To just interject for all those trolls out there, you just heard a Congressman say that
Internet comments will be read. If you go to www.Stockman2014.com, hell actually have...
[13:18]

SS: Well, well get someone to read them, at least. (Laughter) ... but my purpose is to
introduce a Bill to get the conversation going and protect the free market. [13:26]

JM: Whats the Bill about? *13:27+

SS: I think there are 44 States that are controlling Bitcoin right now in various ways, (??
Inaudible) the currency. There are different various government agencies and Id like to
pass a federal law that says Until this Bitcoin is germinating into a full industry, just like the
Internet, allow it to be free and allow it to be developed. [13:48]

JM: The Leave Us Alone, Dont Tread On Me Bitcoin Bill? *13:51+

SS: Well yeah. I mean, thats what we want, right? We want to see this develop into an
industry which creates new jobs, creates new industries. Just imagine if government, in the
beginning, in the Genesis of the Internet, interfered? We wouldnt have any... *14:06+

JM: Or put the Sales Tax on them. [14:08]

SS: Yeah. Thats what they wanted to do in the beginning and, in their wisdom, (believe it
or not) the politicians said No, were not going to do that in the beginning and allowed the
Internet to explode into ways we can never imagine. [14:18]

JM: Do you have a name for this Bill yet? Or would people give you input? [14:21]

SS: Ill name it after you. [14:22]

JM: (Laughter) Oh, great! [14:23]

SS: No, no. I think we should call it Freedom in Currency, or something like that. I havent
named it yet but if you have a suggestion for a name, email us. [14:30]

JM: Certainly, if anyone has some input as they would like to have seen in this Bill. [14:34]

SS: Right and I know theres a problem with taxation; I know theres a problem with
stealing, were just trying to balance the Bill. Its not the perfect Bill but remember this,
dont let the perfect be the enemy of the good. [14:43]

JM: Whats your take on what Bitcoin can facilitate? One of the concerns is Bitcoin as it
relates to capital flight. America, obviously it has its Exit Tax when you want to leave the
country and expatriate, or there are all these other countries like, for instance, Cyprus which
imposed great capital controls. One of the things that make Bitcoin so great is, with just a
couple of letters and numbers; you can walk out of the country with your entire bank
account. As it relates to capital controls, what is your opinion on Bitcoin? [15:12]

SS: Theres always government interference with individual freedoms. Youre asking me is
it a good thing that government interferes with individual freedoms and I have to go back to
saying, no. Youre blocking a system for which this nation and, actually quite frankly, the
world. The United States is unique in that you cant say we got our wealth from natural
resources. We got our individual wealth because individuals participated in the ability to
create geniuses. Steve Jobs did not get a government handout. Steve Jobs didnt have a
government intercede on his behalf. You see the government constantly trying to pick
winners and losers. Look at (??). That was a government picked company that was
supposed to succeed, but failed. We cant have government interceding on behalf of
commerce. Commerce does best when individuals pick the winners and losers, not
government. Some guy, who has a government degree sitting up in Washington DC, is not
the proper person to decide which industry should succeed or fail. The more free markets,
the better it is for individuals. The greater the wealth round the world is indicative of free
nations. Its a direct correlation. I challenge anybody to disprove that. The United States
has more and more restrictions and as we get more and more restrictions, our GDP is down
to 3%. Chinas has been as high as 13/14%. What are we doing differently than China?
Ironically, the socialists have less restrictions on capitals formation. Bitcoins going to create
an economic engine which, unfortunately for the people that are currently in government, is
going to be something they cant control. *16:55+

JM: How best could we maximize the effect that Bitcoin can have on politics in America?
[17:01]

SS: Again, I go back to what Id like to see. Its funny because tonight I think I met fifty
different opinions, much like every Libertarian they have different opinions but they have to
coalesce behind the individual freedom. I would hope that somebody gets together, maybe
fortunately maybe here tonight, and get together and do a survey and actually talk to the
politicians. Dont be afraid. They are humans and say Look; this is our argument for
Bitcoin. Do you support us? Yes or no? If you set up a dynamic which is hostile to the
people in charge, youre going to get hostility back. Im asking the people in Bitcoin to reach
out to your Representative, ask some questions, dont be afraid of them. Most of them
wont understand you; take the time to explain it. Take the time to explain the advantages
of it. This is a fundamental change to the world and Im honored to be part of this tonight in
New York. Im not from New York, Im from Texas and this is one of the most exciting times
of my life to say I was here. This is very much like Steve Jobs being in the garage. Could you
imagine if you had the opportunity, would you want to be in the garage when Steve Jobs
first invented it? I mean, come on. This is huge and to be here... Im going to remember it
fifty years from now, if Im alive (I probably wont be alive) but twenty years from now. Im
going to say Hey, I was here in 2013 on New Years Eve when someone kicked off this
phenomenon. Im just honored I was invited here and honored that you would take time to
want to talk to me. I work for the people. You dont work for me, I work for you and having
people express their opinions here tonight was so valuable. We intend to introduce a Bill,
hopefully, which will cause conversations. Theres going to be a lot of people disagree with
it but its with the ball forward. Dont let the perfect be the enemy of the good. *18:43+

JM: One of the things that has so much of the Libertarians philosophical juice behind
Bitcoin is this notion of amoral money. What I mean by that is its kind of like the difference
between a diamond and a blood diamond where, when you purchase a blood diamond,
youre supporting an entire ecosystem, whereas when you purchase a diamond, its just
that. When you purchase the dollar, when you hold your assets and dollars, youre not just
doing that. It is, in and of itself, a political act because youre supporting the war on drugs
which is the war on young, male minorities. If you look at the war on... [19:15]

SS: When the Internet first opened up, they talked about it being anti-war, right? Lets face
it, it was more... we look back now and its not anti-war, it has fundamentally changed the
way we operate in commerce. I would argue that Bitcoin is... you can use the philosophical
terminology but theres industries yet to be known and commerce yet to be known thats
going to change this world. If thats why youre doing it, thats fine. I dont have a problem
with that but looking out in the future, if you can predict the future, which we cant, I would
say my best guess is this is going to change the way we operate in commercial... This is why I
say this is because, at some point, theres going to be a total vacuum if the dollar becomes
like the Mozambique dollar where youre printing out trillions and trillions and it would cost
you $100 to buy a loaf of bread. People are going to gravitate towards precious metals and
Bitcoin. [20:16]

JM: If someone wanted to know more about you or how to get involved with your political
aspirations moving forward, how would they go about doing that? How would they reach
out to you? How would the community in your district, as it relates to your Bitcoin
constituents, reach out to you? [20:31]

SS: First of all, were going to put a Bitcoin... we already have... I think we already have a
Bitcoin donation page but we also have, Nick our host, also has a Bitcoin QR code. [20:43]

JM: Youre going to be accepting Bitcoin donations? [20:46]

SS: Yes, but in terms of FEC, we may have to make sure we follow the law. [20:51]

JM: Thats the case with almost everything with Bitcoin is, youd love to do it but...
(laughter) [20:55]

SS: Heres the thing is that we can change that through those questionnaires and talking to
your politician. The way it is now is not going to be the way the future is. I mean, if we say
that Well, TV was black and white and it will always be black and white. No, eventually we
got color television. Im suggesting to you that the future is not here but if you invest in the
future, it will come around. [21:18]

JM: For our American listeners, if they could shoot you some Bitcoin that would be
appreciated? [21:21]

SS: Man, it sure would. (Laughter) Plus, if they do Ill give them a tour of the capital and a
private dinner. I cant promise that but... *21:28+

JM: Well well try to get the Bitcoin community out in your district and show up full force.
[21:32]

SS: Im running for US Senate and Im taking a long shot. I had to quit the House which... I
had 80% Republican district and could have stayed there until I was 90 but Im really
concerned about Americas freedom. The reason I ran for Senate is because... Ted Cruz, is
the other US Senator and the current Senator thats in Office right now is not necessarily a
Libertarian free thinker. I have a belief that I think better our nation be free individually
than to vote people in that want to create more people to oversee them. I still cannot get
around my mind saying Hey, I want this person to rule my life. Im the opposite. I want
less people involved in my life, not more. [22:15]

JM: Right. [22:16]

SS: By the way, thank you for having me and you have, by the way... you cant see this
because its by radio or podcast, he has a Bitcoin sweater on thats bright orange and he is
the hit of the party. [22:29]

JM: Oh, its the Bitcoin, not bombs sweatshirt. I suggest you all get it because for every
one you purchase, they give one to a homeless person. Alright, well thank you so much. It
was such a pleasure. [22:37]

SS: Alright, thanks. [22:39]


__________________________________________


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__________________________________________


Stephanie Murphy interview with Connie Gallippi

SM: Today, Im very excited to be talking with Connie Gallippi. She is the founder and the
Executive Director of the BitGive Foundation. Connie, welcome to Lets Talk Bitcoin. [24:20]

CG: Hi. Thank you very much. [24:21]

SM: Yeah, Im so glad to be able to catch up with you now because we keep missing each
other at conferences. I met you over six months ago in San Jose for the first time at a
Bitcoin conference. We kind of kept missing each other like trains passing in the night so...
(laughter) Im glad we have a chance to catch up now. What is the BitGive Foundation, first
of all, for somebody who has never heard of it before? [24:43]

CG: Well, we are new so probably a lot of folks havent heard of us before. Were a non-
profit foundation so very different than, I think, most of the entities in the Bitcoin space
right now. Were doing charitable work. There are some charities, of course, involved in
Bitcoin but weve established ourselves as more of a Foundation than sort of like a meta-
charity, in the sense that we are taking in Bitcoin donations from the community and then
giving to charitable causes on behalf of the community; in vetting those charities and
looking at things on a global scale. The concept is a lot like, say, a Packard Foundation, or
something of that nature, although its not a family foundation by any means - to be giving
back from the community over the long term. [25:30]

SM: Sort of a meta-charity. Did you come up with the idea for it or did someone else? Tell
me about how it was founded? [25:37]

CG: Thats a great question. You made reference to how we had first met in San Jose. We
were at the Bitcoin Foundations conference there. I had, actually, just attended that
conference because my brother is involved in Bitcoin pretty heavily and he lives on the East
Coast and I live in California. It was an opportunity for me to be able to see him and to learn
more about what he was up to and Bitcoin. I really had no intentions of being directly
involved but when I was at that conference, I really was impressed by not only what I saw to
be a very promising future in Bitcoin because I had already seen that and knew that with my
brothers involvement but personally being there with all those folks collected, there were a
lot of brilliant people there, a lot of energy, a lot of entrepreneurial spirit and quite a bunch
of investors wandering around. To me, that was a very, very key indication that this could
be huge and it really became much more clear to me that the potential was at a scale of
dotcom boom, or bigger even. My background is in non-profit work for environmental
groups in California. Ive been doing this for a long time and one of my focuses is helping
them find funding; create funding sources at the State level; find grants, and those sorts of
things. I really saw that if Bitcoin was going to be as big as I thought it could be that there
was a lot of funding that would probably be made by the companies involved and the
investors. If we could just get a slice of it and direct it towards charitable causes that that
could really make a huge difference, I mean, on a global scale. There are so many
challenges that were facing and I really think that the success of Bitcoin can help address
those issues. That was the concept that came out of that... just being in that space and with
all that energy. I started to talk to folks about it and they were really excited and I felt like it
was something I should pursue. I still work full time in my career in the environmental field
but I decided to start the Foundation on the side and have been doing that, as well. [28:08]

SM: Thats a really inspiring story. It sounds like you go into this conference with no
intentions of really making Bitcoin a big part of your life. You just said Hey, Ill say hi to my
brother and see what this is all about and then it spawned this whole thing that turned into
a second job for you, basically. [28:23]

CG: Exactly. (Laughter) [28:24]

SM: Yeah. [28:25]

CG: Thats exactly right. *28:26+

SM: Wow. What stage are you at with the BitGive Foundation? Are you building up
charities that you want to support? Are you building up funds? Where is it at right now?
[28:25]

CG: Well, were doing all of those things. We officially launched the organization at the end
of July and essentially, prior to that were very focused on just getting all the paperwork, and
such, done to enable to launch. We are awaiting our status as an Exempt C3 with the IRS
and thats been a lot of the work weve been doing as well. Now, we are really starting to
ramp up as far as fundraising, marketing, just getting ourselves out there, getting folks to
know who we are and what were doing. Also researching the charitable groups around the
world that wed like to be giving to and establishing criteria but we want to really establish a
process by which we can make those decisions about where the funding may go. A lot of
that work is underway. As I mentioned, I am kind of doing this on the side and Im working,
as well, full time so its a lot of work but were chipping away at it all. [29:34]

SM: Do you need help? Are you looking for people to volunteer and help out? [29:38]

CG: Absolutely. (Laughter) [29:40]

SM: OK, so how could they do that? [29:41]

CG: Well, they could just get a hold of me at info@BitGiveFoundation.org. Also, just check
out our website and the like. Yeah, were looking for volunteers in pretty much every area.
I mean, Im looking for folks who know a lot about internet, social media, and things like
that, marketing, and fundraising. We do have some legal services that are being provided
pro bono, which is really awesome by Perkins Coie but we have additional needs in that area
as well. Im open to anybody who wants to be involved and has a skill set that might match
what our needs are. [30:21]

SM: Im wondering if part of the mission, maybe, is to not just use Bitcoin as a force for
good and to support charitable causes but also, maybe, to show that Bitcoin is used for
charitable purposes. Theres kind of a stereotype out there which, me personally, Ive been
interested in Bitcoin charitable activities for quite a while and I know that there was this
survey that was done by Zero Hedge, more than a year ago at this point, but that survey
showed that the most common use for bitcoins among their respondents was actually as
gifts, donations and for charitable giving. [30:58]

CG: Wow! [30:58]

SM: Bitcoin is not just to buy drugs on the internet, obviously. Thats a very small portion of
Bitcoin users who have ever done that but yet, theres this persistent stereotype that
Bitcoin is all about these bad kind of uses. Is part of BitGive also showing that Bitcoin can be
used for things like charity? [31:19]

CG: Absolutely. Absolutely and promoting that. Its very important, I think, for the Bitcoin
community to be more well-rounded. Its young and theres so much to be done but theres
a lot of focus on the technical and business and investment aspects of it which makes sense
for as young as it is, but there are so many other things that Bitcoin can do. Sometimes,
when I think about it, I really think that we could essentially recreate the whole world that
we live in, via Bitcoin, which is kind of like endless possibilities. Working with charities and
trying to do good with it is just one of many, many things, I think, we all should be thinking
about. To me, its close to me and my heart and my passions. Like I was saying earlier, I just
think the potential is so huge that there really should be a portion of what may come out of
all this should be directed to the problems that were facing. I mean, theres a real
opportunity here to move the needle on major issues that were facing, if we can have a
significant amount of funding thats available on a global scale. *32:35+

SM: Yeah, definitely. One of the things that Ive noticed being in the Bitcoin community is
there is this wonderful culture of generosity because when you can send payments
anywhere in the world with no friction, suddenly I think people become more inclined to do
so. Have you found that thats true too? *32:52+

CG: I do think people find it really intriguing and interesting and exciting. I think with
BitGive, you know, were fairly young and just getting started and very early in our
fundraising days so I havent really experienced a whole lot of that sort of energy specifically
for us but... [33:12]

SM: What about you? I mean, youve worked in the non-profit world as well as now
starting this project in the Bitcoin non-profit world. Do people hesitate to donate to
charities, I guess, is what Im asking because of the friction associated with doing so? Is that
an obstacle to charitable donations in the dollar world? [33:32]

CG: I think it definitely is in some circumstances, for sure. When there are political issues,
or people are in a position of authority, or a figurehead of some sort and they dont want it
to be publicly known that they are giving to a cause of some sort that may mean something
very personal to them. I actually was talking to someone today about this and they said, it
was just an example, but they said If I want to donate to Planned Parenthood, I may not
want my church to know about it. Thats kind of an interesting example. Yeah, I think thats
definitely the case in some situations for sure. [34:13]

SM: There are a lot of questions I have for you but just as a follow up on that, I know that
one of the requirements for the IRS 501 C3 recognition of non-profit status is disclosure of
the names of donors, especially large donors. I think theres probably some threshold for
what they have to report but how would that be managed with Bitcoin? Is it possible to
comply with that? [34:39]

CG: (Laughter) Yeah, well thats a really good question. Im not sure that anyone has the
answers yet which, in a sense, is good because we can turn forward in almost a fashion of
well, well wait and see. Its also very hard to know how were going to be able to operate in
the long term in that large scale donation level. We have attorneys that were working with
but Im not sure that they even know... everyones new to the Bitcoin... how it applies to
existing regulation. We may hear from the IRS. We have our application into them. We
didnt hide the fact that were working in Bitcoin. We may hear from them as far as what
kinds of things theyd like to see. Its a really good question. I dont know. *35:27+

SM: Yeah. I guess those kind of things are going to have to be figured out as we go along
but I have some experience pursuing non-profit status with an organization that I work with,
FreeAid, and that was something that we were really concerned about because, obviously, if
you put a Bitcoin address out there, someone could send you bitcoin and not own up to it,
right? In some cases, why would they want to especially if its, for instance, if they want
their privacy, right? For political reasons, they dont want people to know they support a
certain cause or charity. How would we ever find their information to be able to disclose it
publicly? [36:02]

CG: Right, right. Ive talked a little bit about our attorneys with this, in the sense that, in the
dollar world of charitable donations, and also in kind donations, they can be done
anonymously. Maybe we just apply the existing rules and we look at that threshold of what
the dollar amount is. I think our plan, our mission is to be giving to environmental and
public health causes so I dont know as long as were giving to very stand-up, well-known
organizations around the world who have all of their paperwork in order, that Im not sure
that it will matter, you know. [36:43]

SM: Right. Well, Planned Parenthood is still well-known but some people dont want their
church, as you said, or whatever, to know that they donated to Planned Parenthood.
[36:54]

CG: Right. [36:55]

SM: That issues going to be there. One other thing about charities is that the blockchain is
a public ledger of all the Bitcoin transactions and that presents a tremendous opportunity
for transparency and auditing of charities. Are you planning to leverage the blockchain in
any way, to let your donors and potential donors know Hey look, this is where we stand in
terms of our accounting and so forth? [37:16]

CG: I think we do plan on doing that. Right now, we are set up with BitPay so everything is
going through them because they process everything for free for charities. [37:29]

SM: Oh, so youre not actually holding bitcoins? Its going to be converted to dollars?
[37:33]

CG: Well, no. Not necessarily. It depends. Like when we did a recent charity drive and we
did convert to the currency of their choice to donate to them but we do have holdings in
Bitcoin, as well. Theyre actually with BitPay, as well. They dont typically do that kind of
service but they are working on like a cold storage service that they will probably be rolling
out. They are holding ours in the meantime in a high security for us. As far as the
transparency; we dont have anything to hide. We dont have it all set up quite yet to do
anything of that nature, in the sense that its all kind of going through BitPay. We have one
wallet address and everything is going into that one wallet address. Im sure that can all be
seen on the blockchain. Once we start having multiple projects, and different campaigns,
and a variety of charities that were working with, and the Bitcoin donations are coming in,
itll probably be more complex and I dont see any reason why we wouldnt share that kind
of information. I just dont know, right now, how we will be going about doing that. [38:47]

SM: There is the potential because you can attach tax to Bitcoin transactions so, potentially,
if theres one address thats serving as this main incoming address for donations, when coin
goes out of that address, you could say, attach a little note to it that says This is to fund
Philippines Relief efforts, or whatever. This is going to the Red Cross, or whatever. There is
the potential for that, I suppose. Anyone could look at your Bitcoin address right now that
you have, that youre taking donations to and see OK, well this address has had this many
coins go into it and this is when they came in. Really, that potential for auditing, I guess, is
already there. At least people can have an idea of the sort of the balance thats in that
address. [39:29]

CG: Absolutely. Im still new to all these technical aspects of Bitcoin so I have some things
to learn but we certainly dont have anything to hide. Everything is up on the blockchain for
the wallet we have, where you may see that weve pushed coins out into cash. Those have
gone to either our bank account for bills or to the Save the Children group, which is our first
campaign that weve done. I may be able to retroactively, I dont know, go in and signal
those things on the blockchain. I really dont know. *40:00+

SM: Yeah, Im not sure how to do that. I think you have to do it at the time of the
transaction but it might be something for future reference to look into. [40:07]

CG: Yeah, absolutely. [40:10]


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SM: Volatility is an issue, obviously, if youre talking about a charity that has Bitcoin
holdings, there is the potential for somebody to donate Bitcoin to the charity and then some
time passes and the Bitcoin is worth a different amount, or has a different amount of
purchasing power than it had when it was initially donated. This could work in both ways -
like the assets could grow so theres sort an incentive for the charity, maybe, to save and to
really think about how they spend their Bitcoin, or not. Or Bitcoin could crash and then
those donations could shrink. How do you see BitGive, I guess, dealing with that volatility
factor? It sounds like youre splitting the holdings between Bitcoin and other currency
currently but is that the long term strategy to mitigate the volatility? [42:05]

CG: Thats a really good question. A lot of these things were still trying to find out and
figure out a long term strategy and how we will address these things. In the short term, we
are holding the donations weve received and they have gone up significantly and even with
the latest dip, theyre still seven times over what they were when we received them.
[42:28]

SM: Right, yeah. Thats pretty good. (Laughter) *42:30+

CG: Right, which is great. Until we have a process established for how to decide where
these funds go, we do plan to sit on those until we have a process established or some
project comes along that makes a lot of sense. Its a really good question and I think there
are a lot of things weve been talking about at the board level about Do we set a threshold
below which we dont cash them out? Or, do we do first coins in or first coins out? Its a
very, very good question and I think theres a lot of ways we could handle it and we really
havent identified exactly how we will proceed. Its just very complicated. For one example
though, we did do the Save the Children drive for Bitcoin Black Friday and that was really
straight forward because it was one day and we said, everything we get this day is going to
them and it was for the Philippines Relief effort so the need is immediate, its very acute and
were not waiting. Were going to give them the money right away. That was very straight
forward for us. [43:44]

SM: You took in Bitcoin donations and then converted it to fiat currency and then sent that
to the Philippines, or did you send the bitcoins to someone in the Philippines and they
converted it? How did that work? [43:55]

CG: No, what we did was we converted the funding to our US dollar currency and then
donated to them through their traditional avenues but they were aware that it was coming
from the Bitcoin community and that we were exchanging bitcoins to send them fiat. They
are, actually, very close to probably accepting Bitcoin directly. Save the Children is an
extremely large, international, well-known charity and have a lot of questions. Their legal
folks and their finance folks have a lot of Ts to cross and Is to dot but they are, I think,
going to be directly accepting Bitcoin pretty shortly, so then we could actually be able to
donate to them in Bitcoin, which will be really cool. [44:46]

SM: Is part of the idea to increase acceptance of bitcoins among accepting... on existing
charities? [44:53]

CG: You know, its not a formal part of our mission but it is something that just sort of
naturally comes with the work. I think its fun, actually because its really interesting to get
people more educated and knowledgeable about Bitcoin; helping them accept it in
donations. There is BitPay and I think, Coinbase too and other services that process
donations in Bitcoin for free for charities. Its really easy to promote the use of it, or help
educate charities about using it. It just kind of naturally comes with what we do. [45:30]

SM: I dont see what the problem would be for a large existing charity if they were to use a
payment processor like BitPay, or Coinbase where the Bitcoin could be immediately
converted into fiat, and then they wouldnt even have to have a Bitcoin address really. All
theyd do is just put this little API on their website and then they get dollars but people can
donate them to them using bitcoins. Its really a low barrier to entry for them, I think. It
would just be another way to accept donations. There are some charities out there who
specifically deal in Bitcoin and they dont really use payment processors or anything like
that. Like, for instance, Seans Outpost is a really well-known example and FreeAid (the one
that I work with), they just accept bitcoins directly. There is, sort of, an enthusiasm I think,
among the Bitcoin community for charities that do that because theyre kind of keeping
things in Bitcoin. Theyre only going outside of the Bitcoin economy when they really, really
have to. [46:25]

CG: Yeah. I mean, were very supportive of that and one of the things that Ive been trying
to do is just be a leader in the community to try to just draw more attention to the fact that
charities can accept Bitcoin; can use Bitcoin and the community can be giving and donating
and just kind of getting that message out there more and being a leader in the community in
that sense. Theres a lot of potential so theres a lot more to be done. I know groups like
BitPay, or companies like BitPay are out there trying to bring in charities to work with them
even though they do it for free, they are really proactively trying to bring in more. [47:06]

SM: One thing thats getting easier is if you were to operate a charity in Bitcoin exclusively,
meaning you accepted donations in bitcoins and then the holdings of the charity were in
Bitcoin, its kind of cool because its getting easier and easier to buy things with Bitcoin. For
instance, you could pay for your web hosting; you could pay for all of your website services
with Bitcoin, if youre a charity who holds Bitcoin; you could purchase medical supplies, for
instance; you can now get gift cards on Gyft that you can use to shop at CVS, Target,
Amazon, if youre in the US; you could get first aid supplies; you could get food, potentially;
all kinds of things that charities could do using Bitcoin to purchase items that they need to
operate, basically. Im excited to see that getting more feasible, I guess, for charities to do.
[47:55]

CG: Absolutely. Its really exciting. *47:58+

SM: I guess, with the 501 C3 application, I just wanted to return to that for a minute. Im
really curious what the IRS is going to say. For our listeners who are international, who
arent familiar with this term 501 C3 its a designation that the IRS, the US government
agency that wants to tax everybody here in the US. You can get an exemption if you are a
charitable organization and people can donate to the charity and deduct it from their taxes,
from their taxable income. You have to ask them for it. You have to put together a letter
and an application and its a very long process saying This is why were a charity and heres
dadada to prove it. Then, they will either say yay, or nay and come back to you. They have
all these requirements. They want you to be structured a certain way, in terms of the
organizations corporate structure. One of the things about non-profit recognition by the
government in the US is, I believe, that the process is different for churches and religious
organizations. Ive yet to see someone start the Church of Satoshi, or the Church of Bitcoin
and say Look at us. (Laughter) Were non-profit. We dont have to apply for this. Im sure
thats coming. Im sure somebody will do that at some point. You do have to put together
this whole application which really is not geared for Bitcoin organizations; its geared for
dollars and conventional bank accounts, and things like that. Were you involved, at all, with
putting together the application for this? How was it adapted to reflect that youre a Bitcoin
organization? I guess, is what Im wondering. *49:30+

CG: Thats a good question. You have lots of great questions. (Laughter) [49:33]

SM: Thank you. This is something that Im really interested in so Im glad... and thank you
for sharing all your experience and expertise on this. I really appreciate you talking about it.
[49:42]

CG: I think were all blazing new trails here so, as much as we can share with each other and
learn as we go the better. [49:50]

SM: Yes. [49:51]

CG: We work very closely with a law firm called Perkins Coie and they are providing us their
pro bono services to get this organization established. There is a fair amount of paperwork
that needs to be done there, then with this IRS process. We have a really dynamite attorney
whose entire career has been helping establish foundations and non-profits in the US. She
is very well experienced in that. [50:23]

SM: Does she know about Bitcoin? Is she familiar with Bitcoin? [50:27]

CG: Well, no but we have on our team from them, as well, another attorney who is familiar
with Bitcoin and so, hes providing that sort of aspect of the whole situation. They are
teaming up together and putting their minds together on all of our paperwork. I think, they
could probably answer the questions a lot better than I could but my impression of the
process was that we really applied as much of existing rules and processes there are in place
already for charities and non-profits and try to figure out how and where best to indicate
the Bitcoin aspects of what were doing. Well see what they have to say when they come
back with their response to our application. It also, I think, made it really easy that we were
just brand new and they asked for a lot of financials which we dont really have a whole lot
of financials because were brand new. I think, maybe many groups are functioning for
some time and have budgets, and the like, that they can use when they apply for a C3
status, whereas, were applying for it out of the gate. Its pretty simple right now. We
havent even finished one budget (??) (Laughter) [51:48]

SM: Im really curious to see how that goes and, I guess, just for our listeners who may not
know the story. FreeAid, actually at one point (the charity that I work with) filed for
recognition of 501 C3 status with the IRS and we had some issues with our application and
we decided not to pursue it after a while because it wasnt fitting in. We operate just
basically, in Bitcoin and were a very small charity so, perhaps size is a factor there too. Im
really curious to see what they have to say when an attorney prepares the statement and
stuff. (Laughter) [52:24]

CG: Yeah. Absolutely. We are too and were really curious to see how long it takes them to
respond, as well. (Laughter) [52:31]

SM: Yeah. It can be a long process for sure, in my experience so keep us posted on that.
One last question for your Connie. I hate to do this if youre not comfortable talking about
it, just say so and we dont have to put this in. Im just curious what your experiences are. I
remember meeting you for the first time and we looked at each other from across the room
and we were like Oh my god, its another woman at the Bitcoin conference. (Laughter)
You know, Im sure youve noticed that the Bitcoin community is pretty skewed male, right?
Not that theres anything wrong with that. Thats just where were at right now, as a
community and we love the guys that are involved in Bitcoin but the fact remains that there
just arent as many women. What have your experiences been as a woman who is
interested in Bitcoin? Do you have anything you want to share thats related to that?
[53:24]

CG: Well, sure. Its funny that you mentioned that when we first met because I really was
overwhelmed by the fact that I was at this large conference and it was 98% male. There
were very few women and when I saw you, it was like an oasis. Im like Oh my god,
theres another woman. That was just in May and Ive seen a change, you know, even since
then. Its still maybe now, 96% male so its still quite heavily weighted in that direction. Its
understandable. Its a programing world; its a finance world and traditionally those are
male focused career paths, if you will, but theres a lot of women in those fields. I would
love to see them step up and be more involved in the Bitcoin community. Theres also a lot
of other aspects of Bitcoin that I think, women can come in and provide a more well-
rounded community. People are starting to call the Bitcoin space as now the Bitcoin
ecosystem. I think, thats a much more realistic explanation of how a community really
needs to be working, and it opens up a lot of opportunity for different things to be
happening, like charitable giving and more women in the space. Theres a whole lot of
opportunity. I think, I have met quite a few amazing women who are in the Bitcoin space, or
the Bitcoin ecosystem and theyre really passionate about what theyre doing and they want
to see more women involved, as well. There is actually a group called Women in Bitcoin and
that is new and just getting started but its a girl from Tradehill, as well as BitPay, who co-
founded it. They are on Facebook and Twitter and theyre trying to really pull together a
community. They are not being exclusive to just women, as far as being involved in the
group. [55:27]

SM: Yeah, its not like a secret club. Its just Hey, were here and we are in the Bitcoin
community so come join us. (Laughter) [55:35]

CG: Exactly. Exactly. Just promoting that and getting the word out a little more that...
promoting more women in Bitcoin and we welcome men to be involved in that, as well.
[55:45]

SM: Working in the non-profits space outside of Bitcoin in the conventional economy, what
is the gender balance like there? Im kind of picturing, for some reason, that its more
female dominated but I could be wrong about that. [56:01]

CG: It is actually. Its pretty female dominated in the non-profit world and especially in the
environmental world. Yeah, its almost like I have two completely different but yet, yin and
yang related careers going on here. (Laughter) [56:18]

SM: Right. Yeah, it must be really interesting to see. You cross over from the dollar world
to the Bitcoin world and then suddenly theres a very noticeable gender difference between
those two. (Laughter) [56:30]

CG: Exactly. [56:30]

SM: Two places. [56:31]

CG: Absolutely. [56:32]

SM: Have you, personally, introduced anybody in your life to Bitcoin that maybe, are not
people who are working with you on BitGive but just randomly, people, friends. Yeah, tell
me about that. [56:44]

CG: Absolutely, yes. Well, a lot of people think that... they see it on my Facebook. Im
always posting things on Facebook. Im talking about it and so they have a lot of questions
and those kinds of things. I just talked to someone at a party last night about all this and
people are fascinated. I also helped a girlfriend of mine actually buy some bitcoins and sell
her bitcoins and they went up in value. That was a really fun experience. A lot of this is new
for me too. Im not a Bitcoin expert, by any means. Its been really fun and exciting and
interesting to just keep up with whats going on in the media. Its a lot of what my friends
and family ask about, as well. [57:27]

SM: You know, actually, tell me about whats going to go on for BitGive in the New Year,
maybe. Are you planning any campaigns or are you going to kind of maybe respond to the
need in terms of, if there are any natural disasters that happen? Whats the plan for BitGive
in the next couple of months? [57:44]

CG: Thats a good question. Well, right now, were in a process of evaluating our resources
and were pursuing quite a bit of opportunities. My first focus is going to be on looking at
capacity building funding. As I mentioned earlier, Im just kind of working on this on the side
as a volunteer and our resources are pretty limited. Thats my first priority is to start looking
for funding that can help us really get off the ground and make sure we have the resources
we need to really get going and make things happen. In addition to that, of course, were
always looking for funding for the charitable causes that wed like to give to. Thats really
important, as well. We have a board meeting early in the New Year and one of the things
well be talking about is, what I would like to propose to the board is that we set up a two
pronged process and more structure, if you will, for giving. One is that we have this short
term projects like, if there is a natural disaster relief fund (we hope there isnt) but, of
course, those things do happen, that we can be poised to do things like that as well as doing
quarterly drives for chosen charities. Each quarter we may choose one environmental and
one public health campaign to run and they would just be running all quarter. We would
switch them on a quarterly basis. On the long term side, is really where the big vision and
bold stuff comes in. We want to build a multi-million dollar, almost like an endowment, but
were not officially going to be operating as an endowment because its very limited when
you do that. You have to only give to the charitable causes and operate off of the gains.
The bulk of the funding has to sit and not be touched. We would have to have (I forget now
what the calculations I had), but they were in the $10 to multi-$10s of millions of dollars in
order for us to be able to even donate, if at all. [59:51]

SM: Which might not be impossible with Bitcoin. [59:53]

CG: Right. (Laughter) [59:54]

SM: Just holding on. [59:55]

CG: It would be really cool if we could actually be a real true endowment, in that we were
able to raise the amount of money and the value is going up so much that we can actually
operate in that way. I think, feasibility wise, for now, were just following that as a model, in
the sense of wed like to be bringing in long term donations that we do sit on and that do go
up in value and we also give off of those gains, but not being constrained by the legal
requirements of only being able to operate and provide giving on those gains. Essentially,
we are looking at doing short term projects so that were actively giving and over the long
term collecting funds that would go into this endowment pool, if you will, that we would
also give off from that source, as well, but in a much more long term sustainable fashion.
[1:00:58]

SM: Right. I could almost envision almost a drive where maybe the board selects a couple
of charities that people could support and then they vote with their bitcoins by sending to a
certain address of like Which one do you want the donations to go to and then everybody
wins and its kind of like a fun gamified thing. *1:01:15+

CG: That sounds fun. I like that they vote with bitcoins. Thats awesome! Yeah, thats a
cool idea. Its been fun talking to folks about this because it is a new idea in the ecosystem
and people have all kinds of neat ideas like that. Im just collecting them and seeing what
kinds of things we can do and bringing different opportunities to the board, as well. Its
exciting. [1:01:38]

SM: Yeah, absolutely. OK, so anything else you want to add before we wrap it up?
[1:01:43]

CG: I think that weve covered a lot. I mean I really appreciate the time and just would love
folks to check us out if they have a few moments. We have a website
www.BitGiveFoundation.org and wed love for you to check us out and we update that
pretty regularly, as far as what kinds of things were doing. Were also on Facebook and
Twitter, so you can follow us on a more active basis and see what were doing. Wed love
donations, as well and thats real easy to do on our website. As I mentioned earlier too,
were looking for help, volunteers. If youre interested in being on our board, its a new
organization so theres lots of opportunity. Anybody whos interested, I encourage you to
get a hold of me and we can talk. [1:02:26]

SM: You can reach Connie at info@BitGiveFoundation.org. Is that right? [1:02:31]

CG: Yes. Thats correct. *1:02:32+

SM: Connie Gallippi, thank you so much for chatting with me today. I really appreciate it.
[1:02:36]

CG: Thank you Stephanie. Its been a pleasure. *1:02:39+


__________________________________________



CREDITS:


BitGive was recorded and produced by Stephanie Murphy, edited by Denise Levine
and featured Stephanie Murphy and Connie Gallippi
The Congressman was recorded and produced by Jonathan Mohan, edited by Adam
B. Levine and featured Jonathan Mohan and Congressman Steve Stockman
Music was provided for this episode by Jared Rubens, Calvin Henderson and
Matthew Murkowski

Questions or comments? Email adam@letstalkbitcoin.com

Have a good one! [1:03:05]