Science fiction films like the 2017 remake of Blade Runner 2049 and Justin Timberlake’s 2011 film In Time inspired the Pennsylvania-based pharmacist to use cryptocurrency to feed the homeless.
Kenneth Kim, a pharmacist from Pennsylvania, has “wanted to do something with crypto” that could “make the world a better place”.
In 2019, he launched Crypto for the Homeless (CFTHL), a non–profit organisation based in New Jersey that has fed over 5,000 homeless individuals throughout the world via the use of digital currencies.
“I always had the desire to get involved with some kind of project in crypto… if it made the world better that would be the best possible scenario,”
Kim told Cointelegraph.
Between 2018 to 2021, Kim was a pharmacy student at Temple University in Philadelphia, where he walked through dozens of homeless people only on his way to and from college.
Around the same time, the new Blade Runner 2049 film was released, showing a dismal future in which people are enhanced by technology, but the wealth divide remains as large as ever.
Rather than begging for cash, the homeless were pleading for digital credits.
“I guess the movie is trying to convey that we’re so far in the future that even the homeless people have completely adopted this new way of using currency.”
What role does crypto play in the picture?
Kim came up with the notion of using cryptocurrency to gather and distribute donations to aid individuals in need at that time.
“Basically, after that, I was thinking what if I can utilize that to more efficiently collect funds for the homeless people, and maybe I can go out and give them food?”
On April 28, 2019, Kim delivered his first four meals to the Philadephia homeless. Three years later, this organization has celebrated its third anniversary, feeding thousands globally through the help of crypto donations and a tireless volunteer network.
One of the key reasons Kim picked crypto was due of its decentralised nature, according to him. Authorities are unable to freeze or seize funds.
“The main reason I actually began the project with crypto is that I had really bad experiences with PayPal.”
PayPal has shut down or frozen accounts on several occasions, according to the pharmacist, for various reasons.
“I didn’t like the idea that there’s a central power that at any moment can do that […] So I was thinking, if I use crypto, it’s literally impossible for that to happen. I have ultimate control of it.”
The secondary reason, according to Kim, is that it considerably reduces the barriers to reimbursing his volunteers worldwide.
CFTHL’s concept compensates volunteers who purchase hot meals and deliver them to homeless persons in their communities. Volunteers would give receipts for the food they had purchased, as well as photographs of the homeless people who had received it. Kim’s group will reimburse the volunteers with the cryptocurrency of their choosing if the act was verified to be genuine.
“We’ve had a pretty significant amount of people volunteer for us overseas, and because we use crypto, I was able to just not really worry about any kind of wiring fee or anything like that.”
The human factor
Kim noted in a statement commemorating CFTHL’s three-year anniversary that his organisation “never set out to cure homelessness,” but rather to “re-introduce the human side of philanthropy – something that had been lost in recent years.” “sorely missing from most other projects.”
In order to get reimbursed, CFTHL volunteers must seek out homeless persons and physically bring meals to them.
“[It’s about] physically [being] there handing the food out, like no matter where they are, especially if it’s the middle of the highway, or like under a bridge in their tent.”
Many charities, Kim believed, “lacked the human aspect,” which was something that had always worried him.
“It felt like a lot of them were really cold, you know, they lacked the human aspect to it. If I donate to a soup kitchen or Red Cross, I wouldn’t really see the effects of it. I don’t think they post on social media or post pictures or anything like that, so I’m not even sure what’s happening with the money.”
CFTHL keeps track of every donation it receives since its inception and publishes a public ledger so that everyone may see how the money is used.
With only two full-time employees and roughly 10-20 volunteers on a regular basis, Crypto for the Homeless is still a modest company. Since its inception, his organisation has received about $75,000 in donations.
Kim manages the group while working full-time at a CVS Pharmacy in Pennsylvania. Over the following three years, the founder hopes to recruit an additional 3-5 volunteers and expand his activities to new countries.
His group has fed homeless individuals in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Thailand, India, and other countries.
Source: Cointelegraph