A GoFoundMe fundraiser that was collecting funds for Canadian truckers protesting against covid-19 restrictions has been suspended by the platform. Over $10 million in funds had been donated to the campaign before it was suspended. The platform attached an “Under Review” disclaimer stating: “This fundraiser is currently paused and under review to ensure it complies with our terms of service and applicable laws and regulations.”

In response to the suspension, a group of Canadians has taken it upon themselves to raise money for the truckers via alternative methods. The group has chosen to use bitcoin. The Bitcoin network is decentralized meaning that no central entity has control over it. The network’s native asset bitcoin can be sent peer-to-peer between any sender and receiver with a bitcoin address. 

The group is spearheaded by Canadian entrepreneurs and bitcoin advocates Jeff Booth, Greg Foss, Benjamin Perrin as well as Twitter user NobodyCaribou. All the bitcoin being raised will be custodied in a wallet with multiple signatures required to spend the bitcoin. This eliminates a single point of failure and ensures that the group has to coordinate how the funds are used because no single person can move the bitcoin. The fundraiser had reached almost 1 BTC (approximately $41,500) at the time of this article, just a few days following its launch.

The fundraising is being conducted using Tallycoin which allows the group to receive all bitcoin directly into wallets to which they control the keys. This means that unlike GoFundMe, Tallycoin does not have the ability to withhold funds raised. Tallycoin allows for bitcoin to be donated both on-chain and via the lightning network.

The group is in discussions about how to best distribute the funds to the truckers. Canada has a wide range of bitcoin services businesses that allow users to purchase everyday goods and services with bitcoin. Initially, it appears that the focus will be on using the bitcoin to help truckers purchase diesel and food as they brave the cold Canadian winter in their plight for an end to covid-19 related restrictions. 

Update: Following the publication of this article, GoFundMe announced that they will not be distributing the remaining $9 million to the Freedom Convoy 2022 campaign.

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