A project I really want to do, but too cynical to bother with.

The basic idea is that it would be a worldwide community fund, anyone could put into and (within reason) anyone could take from. For stuff like when you’re hungry but it’s a week until payday, not stuff like American medical bills. I’m sure you’re already seeing the problem with it but because I like writing stuff I’ll go on.

First up, bad actors. You know the type. Any sort of money on the table and they’ll take it. They could be literally and physically sitting on a pile of cash and they’d still request a “free” $50. I don’t know if these types actually exist, but the cynic in me says they’d drain the fund before a single person got to use it legitimately.

Then you’ve got the privacy aspect. You can’t verify someone’s needs without being invasive. I want to help people, not background check them.

Another problem, where do you keep the money? PayPal? Lmao no way. They’ll lock the account immediately. My own bank account? Why would you trust me? Also that would require a lot of manual transactions. A charity of some sort? Possible but lots of red tape for an idea that might flop.

Then you come to funding the thing. There are a lot of great people out there, truly I believe the majority of people in the world are good or at the absolute worst just keeping their head down and staying out of it. Would they be willing to chip in a few quid? I don’t believe anyone would trust a site like this to not be a scam. I wouldn’t.

Finally there’s just too many people that need help and not enough people with the means to help. This should be something the governments of the world deal with. What sort of dent can a jackass with a wonky idea like me do when there’s people going bankrupt over medical bills out there? People who have to graft for 18 hours a day to afford a solid meal. Short of doing the scummy things that give a person two, three commas (soon to be four if you deny your workers proper piss breaks, ’eh Bezos?) in their bank accounts there’s no chance in hell of me being able to even bootstrap this thing.

I’ve been poor, I’ve been relatively well off. I’m good with the middle ground and I’d love to be able to remove the obstacles stopping everyone from reaching money comfortable.

One day. One day I’ll be able to afford the hit of the bad actors and just do it anyway. Until then if anyone has any ideas on making this a reality I am more than happy, excited even, in hearing how you’d solve the roadblocks.

cohan@hey.com // @CohanRobinson