I'm DRutter with the exciting 80th weekly post for Mission: Agua-Possible, updating our progress toward a goal of 1300 USD (in STEEM and HIVE) for a well pump to bring water to the family farm of @EdgarGonzalez.
Background
Severe economic and political crisis over the past few years in the South American country of Venezuela intensified in 2019, as president Maduro doubled down on his currency manipulation, price-fixing, propaganda, and suppressing resistance. You've heard about the country's recent turmoil, but the world's media isn't showing us even half the reality!
I began to see more and more Steem users from Venezuela, I started to hear their interesting stories - and ask questions. I discovered some dark truths about the economic and political situation there. Most shops are empty, the currency is collapsing, people are hungry - the economy is at a standstill. Theft, corruption, and violence escalate as society breaks down. Those who can are fleeing on foot - 8 million already. The harsh socialist government attempts to control/fix the economy, and blames problems on the people. Most government services (like running water) work only in certain areas - or not at all.
The people are desperate for any change and protests sometimes fill the streets for miles. Maduro announced that Venezuela will no longer accept US Dollars for oil exports, then tried to get his country's gold back from Bank of England, who refused. The Russian military has become involved, supporting Maduro. The Americans back a man called Guaidó, who also has little public support. Electrical and internet blackouts happen regularly. Stability for the people appears out of reach.
Edgar
In mid-2018 I found @edgargonzalez, the blog of Edgar, a Venezuelan man about my age. He's a father of young children, and a professional whose job disappeared because of the crisis. He feeds his family by fishing, harvesting fruits, and growing cassava on his late-father's plantation. He uses the Steem blockchain to share his stories and earn cryptocurrency to buy food. Shortly after I met Edgar, a power outage caused a failure of the pump used to bring water up to the farm. A repairman confirmed the pump is beyond fixing. Edgar had been using his well to water his crops, and to provide drinking water to his children and nearby families. Without a pump to bring water up from the aquifer, his harvests are reduced - and the neighborhood must forage for water elsewhere.
Without government water services, and now without water from his well, Edgar and a few other families are in a tough situation. I wondered what a poor Canadian man could do to help. After using the Steem blockchain to learn about the problems, I realized that it could also be the SOLUTION! That's when I first began Mission Agua-possible! Once we gather 1300 USD worth of Steem, I'll transfer it to Edgar, to be converted to cash to buy the pump.
Water is life! It is vital we get this pump for the farm as soon as possible.
Hive just changed everything
After deciding to close the project after 2 additional weeks, this week was supposed to be the last. @Xpilar and @Sultan-Aceh stepped up with support posts and donations, boosting our STEEM stockpile going into the finish. Even with the price of STEEM down since the last update, our progress remains well over half way, and the sudden splitting of blockchains (producing Hive.blog) has provided us with an unexpected opportunity to complete the project!
See below how we can ALL use the Hive opportunity to turn things around and into a success!
Will you make the water flow, with us?
Much appreciation to those who upvoted last week:
Week 80
week 79 funds: 4543.79 STEEM
new funds:
- week 79 post payout 15.700 STEEM and 15.700 STEEM POWER = 31.4 = STEEM
- 200.0 STEEM direct donation from @Xpilar
- 2.51 STEEM direct donation from @MediKatie
- 100.0 HIVE direct donation from me
- you can send me cryptocurrency directly and your donation will be noted here
Total funds:
4777.7 STEEM x 0.151 USD/STEEM = 721.43 USD
100.000 HIVE x 0.243 USD/HIVE = 24.3 USD
Current progress: 745.73 / 1300 USD (57.4%)
Do you want Edgar to get the pump he needs? Now is your chance to make it happen!
At the moment the Steem blockchain forked (split in 2), our wallets also split, meaning we have an identical amount of HIVE tokens on that blockchain as we had STEEM tokens! The hive wallet was initially not running, but it's now fully operational!
And in the past few days, bridges (services) have been created that allow the transfer of HIVE to STEEM and STEEM to HIVE! Suddenly, we all have access to a large amount of new funds! And what's really incredible is that HIVE is currently worth even more than STEEM (24c and 15c)!
Some people appear to be planning to participate in both chains. Some will close down their STEEM positions in favour of HIVE, and others will do the opposite. Both chains are completely separate, and there is no obligation to log in or use Hive, in order to continue the same Steem experience. They are populated by different users and will continue to develop separate identities, infrastructure, and communities.
Of course, there will be some settling of the prices, and it won't be that we all "doubled our money". But it does appear that we'll come out ahead in some form. When I realized that, I realized the opportunity we were suddenly given.
I can now accept HIVE donations in addition to STEEM! We can ALL contribute a big chunk of our new funds and immediately close the gap to 1300 USD! I just donated 100 HIVE to the project to get things started. We can finish it right now!
The extra time will give @Sultan-Aceh's support post time to pay out, and I'll add the payouts from this post, too. But what will REALLY get us across the finish line is BIG donations of HIVE! You can send HIVE to my wallet there, and STEEM to my wallet here - 100% will end up in the project.
Furthermore, at the end of this week, if we are close to the finish line (1300 USD), I will personally donate whatever it takes to get us to 100%, so that Edgar's family can drink clean running water and his farm can flourish again!
In other words, if you help me (by giving your biggest possible STEEM and HIVE donations) right away, we can turn this near-failure into a brilliant success! Who is with me? I just put in another 100 of my own HIVE, but I know lots of you just got thousands of HIVE in the split, so I hope you're feeling generous because of it! Help me close the gap so that we can buy this pump for Edgar after next Saturday's post!
To access your HIVE wallet, log in with your private active key here. It's the same key you're using now on Steem, and the wallets function the same. Please don't leave this post before making that transfer - this will be your last chance, and no further notice will be given until the final post in exactly 1 week!
(Please reblog this important post, and check out its matching post on the other chain here.)
Upvoting this post is MUCH appreciated! 100% goes to the project.
Mission Agua-Possible will help many people, and inspire other great projects. It's a group success story, playing out on the Steem and Hive blockchains. Together, we're going to dramatically improve the lives of a whole neighborhood that really needs it!
DRutter
Hi @drutter - I am slightly confused...
If you had 4543.79 STEEM previously donated to the project on the Steem blockchain, shouldn't you now have the equivalent 4543.79 HIVE from the fork?
That would seem to suggest you have more than enough from the accumulated HIVE and STEEM to pay for the pump for Edgar?
Or am I missing something?
You might be forgetting that STEEM has gone down in value since the split, as a direct result of the split. And that funds were frozen for days on both chains while things shook out.
You can't cut an apple in half and get 2 apples, unfortunately. There's only so much capital in the Steem-Hive community. How that evolves over time is anyone's guess, but STEEM is already bleeding out, as Hive is "sucking up" a lot of the value.
Like you, I was lucky enough to claim a bunch of HIVE by not voting a certain way here on the Steem blockchain, and by choosing to log in with my private active key to a 3rd party site (a risk). It was a welcome surprise. And if/when Hive splits and forms a new chain, perhaps I'll be lucky/smart enough to get tokens there too. But they do legally belong to the account holder.
Like I said, I've put almost everything I've made in 3 years here into the project, and then some, and I'm willing to give even more of my own funds. This is just an opportunity for anyone who didn't realize they have a pile of HIVE tokens sitting idle. Not everybody on this chain is aware of the politics and economics. Edgar himself, for example, has never logged into Hive. Those tokens could be put into the pump, and there are hundreds of people just like him, some with a lot more Hive.
Instead of shutting down the project as planned BEFORE the Hive split, I see this as an opportunity to end in success rather than defeat.
If you'd like any of your direct donations back, please mention the transaction numbers (or dates) so I can confirm them and give them back.
Doing my best on a shifting chess board here.
I am really sorry, I usually do not get involved in any confrontation on the blockchain, and I know you have a difficult situation. BUT I do not think you are acting correctly here.
You clearly state that 4777.7 STEEM has been donated to the project. That should really have been in a separate earmarked account.
Regardless of the separate account it is that 4777.7 STEEM that gained your account the equivalent amount in HIVE. It therefore is quite obvious that that HIVE should be allocated to the project otherwise you have personally gained from the charitable donations that people have made. The ethics of that are clearly questionable.
Therefore the total funds for the project should be...
4777.7 STEEM x 0.151 USD/STEEM = 721.43 USD
4777.7 HIVE x 0.243 USD/HIVE = 1160.98 USD
TOTAL = 1882.41 USD
That is more than enough for the pump for @edgargonzalez - yet you are asking people to continue donating.
This does not look good in any way.
Imagine if copy-pasting blockchains (and currencies) could double our purchasing power in USD? We could have finished the project on day 1, with just 20 copies. But it's not that easy. Copying currencies doesn't copy purchasing power.
In fact, if what you're suggesting were true, why haven't we (the Steem/Hive community) thought of it before? Why didn't we just fork, and fork those chains, and fork those, and cash out all the tokens for billions in USD? It doesn't work, that's why. Now that the funds are available, and bridges between them in place, we're seeing deflation in STEEM (and a bit in HIVE as well). Clearly, we haven't doubled our money. Your math is ignorant of reality.
This doesn't look good in any way? Perhaps not to somebody who doesn't understand the math. You're being illogical, not to mention insulting.
Rework the maths with the current prices of STEEM and HIVE and you will still get the result that you have sufficient funds...
4777.7 STEEM x 0.143 USD/STEEM = 683.21 USD
4777.7 HIVE x 0.183 USD/HIVE = 874.32 USD
TOTAL = 1557.53 USD
As you have offered, please would you return the donations I sent from the @adollaraday account, and I will liaise with Edgar directly. You have a record of those donations as you have mentioned them in past posts.
Thank you
This is how living in Venezuela is not easy. I am also Venezuelan. At home we always have water and we help those who don't have
Thank you very much for helping those without water!!
I do what I can, and I know that many appreciate it ... the world would be better if we all helped a little
This is a family surely you will hit your goal soon
This family has been waiting almost 2 years already, and it does not appear we will reach the goal this week (so far $0 in new donations), so many of us have wasted 2 years to reach this failure.
I really love this initiative. Though I may not have us to contribute but I have resteemed