Hello everyone, my name’s
Gregory and I am from Russia. Once I’ve been sitting in a vodka bar and playing
with my bear… Oh that Russian stuff again, sorry.
Well yes, I am from Russia and
I have quit my job a couple months ago. I actually got tired and bored of
selling CDs in the world of wild Russian Internet where nobody wants to pay for
media content and the most powerful social network — Vkontakte — is the first
one to support media pirates. Thanks for reading that, just couldn’t keep it
in.
Sitting in a bar I was
thinking about what’s wrong with Russia (just like every unemployed in former
USSR does). Then my genius friend named Ruben Babaev came up. That was the day
I got involved in the most exciting and interesting work in my life.
What Ruben told me first was
another terrifying truth about my country: Russians hate helping each other.
Today Russia rates 138 of 153 on the World Giving Index, which is between
Montenegro and Bulgaria. What’s in it for me, I asked. And then Ruben helped me
like so few people in Russia do. =) Ruben is genius. He created the SocialCoins project I currently participate in.
The easiest way to explain what is Social Coins is to show you how it works. Meet Artem (English subtitles available):
Artem wants to buy a puppy for
his sister, he filmed this video and posted it at Social Coins. Users like
this kinda stories and readily help Artem scratch up the pledged amount of
money (set at solid $250).
And here’s the point — it
costs $0 for users to help Artem. Absolutely free. It is nothing like GoFundMe
and Kickstarter. Because Russians mostly don’t help each other that way. People
don’t have to give their money away at Social Coins to help Artem. They only
have to choose a small Ad from the list and post it on their Twitter account.
Oh they don’t even have to post it or something — they only drag a coin from
the list to Artem’s video, Ads get posted on Twitter, Artem gets small amount
of money. Ain’t it cool?
This is probably the most
impressive idea I’ve ever heard. Everyday I watch Ads on my FB wall. Do they
give me any value? Do I receive something from advertisers? Nope, in 99% it’s
just a useless and irritating spam from me and millions of other Internet
users.
Next point: “charity” (in wide
understanding of this word) — for many times I was asked to help someone, but
making donations is inconvenient and unsafe (login to your bank account,
searching for credit card numbers etc.), and after all many people don’t want
to pay with their own money — because they are stingy. OK — this is problem we
know how to solve. I let advertisers to show their ads on my wall, but in
return part of payments goes to people in need whatever they need =)
Whatever people need or dream
of they can get what they want at Social Coins (well if it’s something one can
do for money).Traditional charity, opensource software, donations to musicians
and bloggers — whatever works. We also would like websites to add our special
Donate for free buttons for even easier way to collect donations via Social
Coins.
Check us out! You know, by
working together, we can build pyramids and fly to the moon. Every user’s
contribution helps us to fund any good stuff on Social Coins. The social
component of our site is also a very important thing about it: we are friends,
we are partners, but first of all – we are not alone in this aspiration to make
the world a bit kinder.
Love, Gregory from the bar.