{"id":22830,"date":"2017-12-15T18:30:35","date_gmt":"2017-12-15T18:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ci027cfe79300f2697"},"modified":"2017-12-15T18:30:35","modified_gmt":"2017-12-15T18:30:35","slug":"meet-pine-bitcoin-philanthropist-who-set-85-million-pineapple-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/culture\/meet-pine-bitcoin-philanthropist-who-set-85-million-pineapple-fund","title":{"rendered":"Meet “Pine,” the Bitcoin Philanthropist Who Set Up the $85 Million Pineapple Fund"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Yesterday, one post set the Bitcoin subreddit on fire: An anonymous Bitcoiner who goes by the name of \u201cPine\u201d announced<\/a> that they are establishing the Pineapple Fund<\/a> to donate 5,057 BTC, worth about $86 million at today\u2019s exchange rate, to charitable causes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very happy that I have held on to most of my bitcoins until today,\u201d Pine told Bitcoin Magazine<\/em>. \u201cMost early adopters of bitcoin actually don\u2019t have much. They\u2019ve sold to pay bills and expenses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, last week it was revealed that Bitcoin evangelist Andreas Antonopoulos<\/a> was one of those who had not been in a position to hold his early coins long enough to reap the rewards. In a subsequent outpouring of appreciation, Bitcoin enthusiasts sent him donations<\/a> of more than 100 BTC, equivalent to more than $1.7 million. <\/p>\n

In this same spirit of giving back, Pine is sharing their own newfound wealth.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometime around the early days of bitcoin, I saw the promise of decentralized money and decided to mine\/buy\/trade some magical internet tokens,\u201d states the Pineapple Fund website. \u201cThe expectation shattering returns of bitcoin over many years has [led] to an amount far more than I can spend. What do you do when you have more money than you can ever possibly spend? Donating most of it to charity is what I\u2019m doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some charities that are already receiving donations from the Pineapple Fund include Watsi<\/a>, The Water Project<\/a>, EFF<\/a>, MAPS<\/a>, SENS Research Foundation<\/a>, charity: water<\/a> ($1 million each), BitGive<\/a> ($500,000) and OpenBSD<\/a> ($50,000).<\/p>\n

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Have you heard?! Yes, it’s TRUE! We received an extremely generous donation of $500K from the Pineapple Fund!! HUGE THANKS!! Pineapple Fund has announced the most significant #philanthropic<\/a> gesture EVER in #bitcoin<\/a> to donate over 5,000 BTC! pic.twitter.com\/fRL8NL3YzI<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 BitGive\u00ae (@BitGiveOrg) December 14, 2017<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Pine has a long history in the cryptocurrency world and started out mining on an old home PC. \u201cI discovered bitcoin back when it was a small community of people trying to turn a toy project into a new decentralized monetary paradigm,\u201d they told Bitcoin Magazine<\/em>. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s shorter to list the things I haven\u2019t done in the cryptocurrency space. I\u2019ve even created my own cryptocurrency; however, I can\u2019t name it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pineapple Fund is planning to work with a nonprofit to help administer the fund. In spite of recent trends toward various forms of decentralized, crowdsourced decision-making, that\u2019s not in the plans. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not huge fans of the crowdsourcing approach,\u201d explained Pine. \u201cIt does not solve a problem we\u2019re facing now, and there would be many challenges we\u2019d have to solve with crowdsourcing decision making.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pine is convinced that what the world needs is peace, love, unity and respect. They listed medical research, mental health, wildlife and environmental conservation, fighting domestic violence and sexual abuse, sustaining basic necessities, and technology-related causes (advocacy and open-source projects) as main areas of focus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy these? Well, it\u2019s not that I think they are the most important or have the highest impact, because I think everyone has a different set of values,\u201d explained Pine. \u201cThey align with my values, and I think any contribution to those causes will bring some good to this world we all share.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pine said they won\u2019t become actively involved in the charities and projects they support: \u201cAs much as I would like to, I have other ventures that I\u2019m busy with,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Will Pine ever share their real identity? That\u2019s unlikely. \u201cI prefer keeping my identity a mystery. The Pineapple Project isn\u2019t about publicity. In fact, zero people in my life know that I’m behind it. It\u2019s better for people to think you are well off than super rich.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I can share my love for pineapple,\u201d they added. \u201cI once ate so much pineapple that I suffered an allergic reaction and had to go to urgent care! Don\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, one post set the Bitcoin subreddit on fire: An anonymous Bitcoiner who goes by the name of \u201cPine\u201d announced that they are establishing the Pineapple Fund to donate 5,057 BTC, worth about $86 million at today\u2019s exchange rate, to charitable causes. \u201cI\u2019m very happy that I have held on to most of my bitcoins […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3509,"featured_media":22831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[3213,1218,1682,3216],"class_list":{"0":"post-22830","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture","8":"tag-bitgive","9":"tag-community","10":"tag-philanthropy","11":"tag-pineapple-fund"},"author_data":{"id":3509,"name":"Giulio Prisco","nicename":"giulio-prisco","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2d091b908741b627d89036dd43748bb5c5edcfe9f805501703e2c3af34dadfca?s=96&d=robohash&r=g"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/meet-pine.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3509"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}