10 ms·

Cryptocurrency Is the Next Frontier in the Quest to Abolish Cash Bail

49 points by ritchiea 9y ago

empath75 9y ago
Cryptocurrency doesn’t come out of thin air and it’s not free. It costs money for your electricity and your cpu. It would be much more efficient to just write them a check. I was trying to figure out if you could encode a bail arrangement with ethereum somehow before clicking on it and was disappointed when it was just fund raising.
- davidkuhta 9y ago
  Completely agree and was thinking the same thing about it being some sort of 'bail contract'. I stopped reading after: > If generating money out of thin air by using a computer program seems absurd, that’s because it is If generating money out of thin air by using a computer program seems impossible, that’s because it is. There are no free lunches. If you're looking for a distributed computing initiative to support: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_distributed_computing_projects https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_distributed_computing_...
  - SippinLean 9y ago
    Correct, generating money out of thin air is absurd. Not sure what that straw man has to do with being rewarded for mining cryptocurrencies and exchanging them for fiat though. That is clearly very possible and often profitable.
    - cloakandswagger 9y ago
      Even being generous you'd be lucky to generate a $0.25/day profit mining Monero with a normal desktop. Factor in wide variations in electricity cost, the wear on PC components and fluctuating currency value and this is simply not practical. This idea is predicated on an intellectually dishonest premise that mining crypto is "free". Naive do-gooders will run this app without realizing the hidden costs.
      - SippinLean 9y ago
        It is predicated on the honest premise that mining Monero is likely profitable.
        davidkuhta 9y ago
        Do you feel the article does a suitable job of describing cryptocurrency mining such that a non-technical reader of injusticetoday.com would be adequately informed of the implications of installing the software?
        SippinLean 9y ago
        >Once a user installs the app on their computer, it automatically harnesses a small amount of unused processing power to mine for cryptocurrency
        davidkuhta 9y ago
        It defaults to 25% CPU usage (and appears to be an electron app). Which I would've placed as greater than small. https://github.com/thenewinquiry/bailbloc/blob/401cb4f288d88a96f6116d5ef7e0648a538f641b/desktop/miner.js#L23 https://github.com/thenewinquiry/bailbloc/blob/401cb4f288d88... Concede the point that users would be making an informed (albeit minimally) decision.
        SippinLean 9y ago
        That is false, it defaults to a maximum of 10% CPU usage, which I would've placed as small. https://github.com/thenewinquiry/bailbloc/blob/401cb4f288d88a96f6116d5ef7e0648a538f641b/desktop/main.js#L35 https://github.com/thenewinquiry/bailbloc/blob/401cb4f288d88...
        davidkuhta 9y ago
        Awesome, 10% is small [though that miner is initially instantiated at 25% ;)]. Thanks for engaging in a friendly, respectful dialogue with links to source!
    - davidkuhta 9y ago
      I don't disagree that cryptocurrency is a valid technology, nor its profitability, nor its contribution to society. I do disagree with presenting it to a non-technical audience in such a fashion as to give the appearance of being zero cost.
- SippinLean 9y ago
  Wrong, depending on electricity costs, at current prices it is more efficient to mine Monero than to just write them a check. https://www.cryptocompare.com/mining/calculator/xmr https://www.cryptocompare.com/mining/calculator/xmr
pm90 9y ago
I just skimmed through the article, but the gist seems to be: download this app in large numbers, we will use your phone as bitcoin miners and use the mined coins to pay for bail. This is just so fucking absurd. The problem with bail is not a technological one, its a legislative one. I think Kamala Harris has taken the right steps and publicly stated how absurd it is that we jail so many fellow citizens for being poor (or unable to furnish bail money). Overpromised technology hurts the people who try to use it but also erodes trust in technologists. I can't believe this has survived the smell test. If I missed something, please do let me know.
- maxerickson 9y ago
  It uses Monero: https://bailbloc.thenewinquiry.com/about.html https://bailbloc.thenewinquiry.com/about.html If it used Bitcoin it would clearly be absurd because CPUs are useless for mining. I don't pay enough attention to cybercoins to understand how worthwhile it will be to mine Monero.
  - sosuke 9y ago
    It is still worthwhile to mine Monero and it's little "litecoin" style brother Aeon.
  - thisisit 9y ago
    And this from the whitepaper: > We also compute a new XMR-to-USD price, modeled as a random walk (a monthly change is uniformly random on the interval [-5%, 5%]). For each miner, we also sample the XMR mined (directly as its estimated USD value) uniformly randomly from the interval [$1, $4]. This mined USD is added to the bail fund Makes me wonder if they understand the volatility of cryptocurrency.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
- valsoltow 9y ago
  Speaking of Kamala, I like what one blockchain is doing with in terms of 'creating elections' and voting mentioned here https://medium.com/@gaetanconsulting/3-icos-with-working-products-being-used-by-the-public-72e15198ac16 https://medium.com/@gaetanconsulting/3-icos-with-working-pro...
cloakandswagger 9y ago
This is a bad idea for a couple of reasons: > “If generating money out of thin air by using a computer program seems absurd, that’s because it is,” Grayson Earle, who dreamed up and co-leads the project, told In Justice Today Does this person actually understand how crypto mining works? (Classy of them to take a swipe at the very technology enabling their project, by the way.) Even with a GTX1080 TI, at $0.12/kWH you'd be lucky to make $0.01 of profit per hour mining Monero. Most people will be mining at a loss, meaning a direct donation would be more efficient. Secondly, the whole idea of raising a general fund to pay the bail for accused criminals is absurd. How are the recipients selected? What happens when they actually do abscond and the money from the fund is lost? Bail serves an important purpose in mitigating flight risks. Why don't the authors of this project work on a technology solution that accomplishes that without collateral? Say, a cheap GPS tracking device or smart phone app.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- mvarner 9y ago
  Re: your second and third points, they're donating directly to an already established bail fund that's been around for a few years and have seen 90% of the people they bail out show up to trial. The authors don't choose who the recipients are, but it seems the flight risk of the people selected is pretty low.
- kbenson 9y ago
  > > “If generating money out of thin air by using a computer program seems absurd, that’s because it is,” I'm not really a proponent of cryptocurrency one way or the other, but I'm not sure it's any less absurd than generating money out of paper/textiles and ink. Drawing a picture of a $1 bill on an appropriately sized piece of material doesn't make it money, the supply, demand and efficiency of exchange does (and the demand is often generated by a backing from a government, but doesn't have to be). We had private bank notes long before we had government backed notes.
  - bfuller 9y ago
EGreg 9y ago
What if we take out the bail part and replace it with any charity? Mining Monero for charity. Thoughts?
- corford 9y ago
  Just donate the $ amount you'd have spent on a high end GPU and electricity. Faster, easier, less damage to the environment and doesn't require paying ATI or Nvidia more than you'd likely end up raising for the charity from your paltry mining haul... Or if you really want to use cryptocurrencies, buy some XMR/BTC/whatever off an exchange and donate that.
  - SippinLean 9y ago
    This uses the CPU, not the GPU. At current prices (depending on electricity price) it is more efficient to mine Monero than buy it outright, especially off an exchange (which incurs tx and trading costs).
    - corford 9y ago
      Are you sure? If I'm reading this correctly https://whattomine.com/coins?utf8=%E2%9C%93&adapt_q_280x=0&adapt_q_380=0&adapt_q_fury=0&adapt_q_470=0&adapt_q_480=0&adapt_480=true&adapt_q_570=0&adapt_q_580=0&adapt_q_750Ti=0&adapt_q_1050Ti=0&adapt_q_10606=0&adapt_q_1070=0&adapt_q_1080=0&adapt_q_1080Ti=1&eth=true&factor%5Beth_hr%5D=0.0&factor%5Beth_p%5D=0.0&grof=true&factor%5Bgro_hr%5D=0.0&factor%5Bgro_p%5D=0.0&x11gf=true&factor%5Bx11g_hr%5D=0.0&factor%5Bx11g_p%5D=0.0&cn=true&factor%5Bcn_hr%5D=0.0&factor%5Bcn_p%5D=0.0&eq=true&factor%5Beq_hr%5D=0.0&factor%5Beq_p%5D=0.0&lre=true&factor%5Blrev2_hr%5D=0.0&factor%5Blrev2_p%5D=0.0&ns=true&factor%5Bns_hr%5D=0.0&factor%5Bns_p%5D=0.0&lbry=true&factor%5Blbry_hr%5D=0.0&factor%5Blbry_p%5D=0.0&bk2bf=true&factor%5Bbk2b_hr%5D=0.0&factor%5Bbk2b_p%5D=0.0&bk14=true&factor%5Bbk14_hr%5D=0.0&factor%5Bbk14_p%5D=0.0&pas=true&factor%5Bpas_hr%5D=0.0&factor%5Bpas_p%5D=0.0&skh=true&factor%5Bskh_hr%5D=0.0&factor%5Bskh_p%5D=0.0&factor%5Bl2z_hr%5D=420.0&factor%5Bl2z_p%5D=300.0&factor%5Bcost%5D=0.1&sort=Profitability24&volume=0&revenue=24h&factor%5Bexchanges%5D%5B%5D=&factor%5Bexchanges%5D%5B%5D=abucoins&factor%5Bexchanges%5D%5B%5D=bitfinex&factor%5Bexchanges%5D%5B%5D=bittrex&factor%5Bexchanges%5D%5B%5D=bleutrade&factor%5Bexchanges%5D%5B%5D=c_cex&factor%5Bexchanges%5D%5B%5D=cryptopia&factor%5Bexchanges%5D%5B%5D=hitbtc&factor%5Bexchanges%5D%5B%5D=poloniex&factor%5Bexchanges%5D%5B%5D=yobit&dataset=&commit=Calculate https://whattomine.com/coins?utf8=%E2%9C%93&adapt_q_280x=0&a... A 1080Ti will mine 0.0396XMR every 24hours (yielding $4.71 at current prices). Presumably a CPU will fare significantly worse? Exchange fees and tx costs are negligible (especially compared to the variation in elec prices depending on where you live). Edit: as I understand it there's really no such thing as an ASIC resistant coin. Rather there's just an understanding that if ASICs get produced for XMR/VTC the devs will change the algorithm and fork the coin. If that's the case, surely these PoW coins are still susceptible to needing more and more hash power for a return as difficulty goes up (though perhaps less aggressively/rapidly compared to BTC?)?
pwaai 9y ago
I fail to see how they will be able to make this happen... Overall, I'm skeptical of the narrative that continues to iterate that cryptocurrency projects will usurp our modern legal and financial system which always seems to market the notion that it's here today and with enough of your attention, time (and money) we can somehow overcome the fortress of legal frameworks, policies, international agreements that took at least half a millenia of battle testing and it's still undergoing developments as new edge cases arises forcing revisions, and cesspool of highly paid lawyers who poorly slave away ensuring this system cannot be challenged and that it is the ultimate law. I find it amusing how those pumping coins seem to be completely oblivious to the fact that whatever fantasy world conjured up still lives within the confines of our legislative & financial laws.
pqh 9y ago
How did "Blockchain" and "Cryptocurrency" become mass nouns? It's interesting. http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/parts-of-speech/nouns/Collective-Nouns.html http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/parts-of-speech/nouns/Coll...
dmitrygr 9y ago
Classic silicon valley-like thinking. Try to "disrupt" a system without understanding what it is for and why it was designed the way it was. Bail is designed to prevent flight risk. It is set high enough that you'd have a hard time coming up with that much money without being forced to stay and appear. Having strangers pay your bail means you have no reason to stay. It makes bail jumping more likely. People having a hard time making bail is working-as-intended. It may be hard to swallow, but the system was purposefully designed this way. If you dislike it, write to your senator. Paying others' bail, even as inefficiently as this, will change nothing. Very very inefficiently, actually. Mining on "unused cycles" on most PCs will generate negligibly small amounts of money. Even multiplied by the number of people foolish enough to enrol in this, it will still be a negligible amount of money. So who decides 1/10th of which criminal's bail this will go to?
- tbrownaw 9y ago
  So, how well does that theory match reality? Does it actually in practice prevent flight, or does it just fuck over people who can't pay?
  - dmitrygr 9y ago
    Well, it DOES prevent flight. Does it do it in the best way possible? Probably no. But it does prevent flight. You cannot flee if you're stuck in jail. Like I said. This is a problem that need to be solved legislatively, not by paying others' bail inefficiently.
    - gowld 9y ago
      No one's interested in hearing why their real-world solutions aren't as good as your theoretical non-solution.
- kelnos 9y ago
  The org that is running this has actually been around for a few years already (and is not a SV tech company) and has a 90% non-flight rate. So presumably they don't just randomly select people and actually evaluate who they're going to post bail for. This stunt seems more like a way to market for donations. Agree that it's unlikely to generate much, and the electricity cost means it'd be way more efficient to just donate money directly. Certainly a legislative solution to the injustices around bail is the right way to go, but I'm not holding my breath for something like that any time soon. Hopefully orgs like this are just an interim, stopgap measure, though.

49 points by ritchiea 9y ago

Cryptocurrency doesn’t come out of thin air and it’s not free. It costs money for your electricity and your cpu. It would be much more efficient to just write them a check. I was trying to figure out if you could encode a bail arrangement with ethereum somehow before clicking on it and was disappointed when it was just fund raising.

davidkuhta 9y ago
Completely agree and was thinking the same thing about it being some sort of 'bail contract'. I stopped reading after: > If generating money out of thin air by using a computer program seems absurd, that’s because it is If generating money out of thin air by using a computer program seems impossible, that’s because it is. There are no free lunches. If you're looking for a distributed computing initiative to support: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_distributed_computing_projects https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_distributed_computing_...
- SippinLean 9y ago
  Correct, generating money out of thin air is absurd. Not sure what that straw man has to do with being rewarded for mining cryptocurrencies and exchanging them for fiat though. That is clearly very possible and often profitable.
  - cloakandswagger 9y ago
    Even being generous you'd be lucky to generate a $0.25/day profit mining Monero with a normal desktop. Factor in wide variations in electricity cost, the wear on PC components and fluctuating currency value and this is simply not practical. This idea is predicated on an intellectually dishonest premise that mining crypto is "free". Naive do-gooders will run this app without realizing the hidden costs.
    - SippinLean 9y ago
      It is predicated on the honest premise that mining Monero is likely profitable.
      - davidkuhta 9y ago
        Do you feel the article does a suitable job of describing cryptocurrency mining such that a non-technical reader of injusticetoday.com would be adequately informed of the implications of installing the software?
        SippinLean 9y ago
        >Once a user installs the app on their computer, it automatically harnesses a small amount of unused processing power to mine for cryptocurrency
        davidkuhta 9y ago
        It defaults to 25% CPU usage (and appears to be an electron app). Which I would've placed as greater than small. https://github.com/thenewinquiry/bailbloc/blob/401cb4f288d88a96f6116d5ef7e0648a538f641b/desktop/miner.js#L23 https://github.com/thenewinquiry/bailbloc/blob/401cb4f288d88... Concede the point that users would be making an informed (albeit minimally) decision.
        SippinLean 9y ago
        That is false, it defaults to a maximum of 10% CPU usage, which I would've placed as small. https://github.com/thenewinquiry/bailbloc/blob/401cb4f288d88a96f6116d5ef7e0648a538f641b/desktop/main.js#L35 https://github.com/thenewinquiry/bailbloc/blob/401cb4f288d88...
        davidkuhta 9y ago
        Awesome, 10% is small [though that miner is initially instantiated at 25% ;)]. Thanks for engaging in a friendly, respectful dialogue with links to source!
  - davidkuhta 9y ago
    I don't disagree that cryptocurrency is a valid technology, nor its profitability, nor its contribution to society. I do disagree with presenting it to a non-technical audience in such a fashion as to give the appearance of being zero cost.
SippinLean 9y ago
Wrong, depending on electricity costs, at current prices it is more efficient to mine Monero than to just write them a check. https://www.cryptocompare.com/mining/calculator/xmr https://www.cryptocompare.com/mining/calculator/xmr

pm90 9y ago

I just skimmed through the article, but the gist seems to be: download this app in large numbers, we will use your phone as bitcoin miners and use the mined coins to pay for bail. This is just so fucking absurd. The problem with bail is not a technological one, its a legislative one. I think Kamala Harris has taken the right steps and publicly stated how absurd it is that we jail so many fellow citizens for being poor (or unable to furnish bail money). Overpromised technology hurts the people who try to use it but also erodes trust in technologists. I can't believe this has survived the smell test. If I missed something, please do let me know.

maxerickson 9y ago
It uses Monero: https://bailbloc.thenewinquiry.com/about.html https://bailbloc.thenewinquiry.com/about.html If it used Bitcoin it would clearly be absurd because CPUs are useless for mining. I don't pay enough attention to cybercoins to understand how worthwhile it will be to mine Monero.
- sosuke 9y ago
  It is still worthwhile to mine Monero and it's little "litecoin" style brother Aeon.
- thisisit 9y ago
  And this from the whitepaper: > We also compute a new XMR-to-USD price, modeled as a random walk (a monthly change is uniformly random on the interval [-5%, 5%]). For each miner, we also sample the XMR mined (directly as its estimated USD value) uniformly randomly from the interval [$1, $4]. This mined USD is added to the bail fund Makes me wonder if they understand the volatility of cryptocurrency.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
valsoltow 9y ago
Speaking of Kamala, I like what one blockchain is doing with in terms of 'creating elections' and voting mentioned here https://medium.com/@gaetanconsulting/3-icos-with-working-products-being-used-by-the-public-72e15198ac16 https://medium.com/@gaetanconsulting/3-icos-with-working-pro...

cloakandswagger 9y ago

This is a bad idea for a couple of reasons: > “If generating money out of thin air by using a computer program seems absurd, that’s because it is,” Grayson Earle, who dreamed up and co-leads the project, told In Justice Today Does this person actually understand how crypto mining works? (Classy of them to take a swipe at the very technology enabling their project, by the way.) Even with a GTX1080 TI, at $0.12/kWH you'd be lucky to make $0.01 of profit per hour mining Monero. Most people will be mining at a loss, meaning a direct donation would be more efficient. Secondly, the whole idea of raising a general fund to pay the bail for accused criminals is absurd. How are the recipients selected? What happens when they actually do abscond and the money from the fund is lost? Bail serves an important purpose in mitigating flight risks. Why don't the authors of this project work on a technology solution that accomplishes that without collateral? Say, a cheap GPS tracking device or smart phone app.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
mvarner 9y ago
Re: your second and third points, they're donating directly to an already established bail fund that's been around for a few years and have seen 90% of the people they bail out show up to trial. The authors don't choose who the recipients are, but it seems the flight risk of the people selected is pretty low.
kbenson 9y ago
> > “If generating money out of thin air by using a computer program seems absurd, that’s because it is,” I'm not really a proponent of cryptocurrency one way or the other, but I'm not sure it's any less absurd than generating money out of paper/textiles and ink. Drawing a picture of a $1 bill on an appropriately sized piece of material doesn't make it money, the supply, demand and efficiency of exchange does (and the demand is often generated by a backing from a government, but doesn't have to be). We had private bank notes long before we had government backed notes.
- bfuller 9y ago

EGreg 9y ago

What if we take out the bail part and replace it with any charity? Mining Monero for charity. Thoughts?

corford 9y ago
Just donate the $ amount you'd have spent on a high end GPU and electricity. Faster, easier, less damage to the environment and doesn't require paying ATI or Nvidia more than you'd likely end up raising for the charity from your paltry mining haul... Or if you really want to use cryptocurrencies, buy some XMR/BTC/whatever off an exchange and donate that.
- SippinLean 9y ago
  This uses the CPU, not the GPU. At current prices (depending on electricity price) it is more efficient to mine Monero than buy it outright, especially off an exchange (which incurs tx and trading costs).
  - corford 9y ago
    Are you sure? If I'm reading this correctly https://whattomine.com/coins?utf8=%E2%9C%93&adapt_q_280x=0&adapt_q_380=0&adapt_q_fury=0&adapt_q_470=0&adapt_q_480=0&adapt_480=true&adapt_q_570=0&adapt_q_580=0&adapt_q_750Ti=0&adapt_q_1050Ti=0&adapt_q_10606=0&adapt_q_1070=0&adapt_q_1080=0&adapt_q_1080Ti=1&eth=true&factor%5Beth_hr%5D=0.0&factor%5Beth_p%5D=0.0&grof=true&factor%5Bgro_hr%5D=0.0&factor%5Bgro_p%5D=0.0&x11gf=true&factor%5Bx11g_hr%5D=0.0&factor%5Bx11g_p%5D=0.0&cn=true&factor%5Bcn_hr%5D=0.0&factor%5Bcn_p%5D=0.0&eq=true&factor%5Beq_hr%5D=0.0&factor%5Beq_p%5D=0.0&lre=true&factor%5Blrev2_hr%5D=0.0&factor%5Blrev2_p%5D=0.0&ns=true&factor%5Bns_hr%5D=0.0&factor%5Bns_p%5D=0.0&lbry=true&factor%5Blbry_hr%5D=0.0&factor%5Blbry_p%5D=0.0&bk2bf=true&factor%5Bbk2b_hr%5D=0.0&factor%5Bbk2b_p%5D=0.0&bk14=true&factor%5Bbk14_hr%5D=0.0&factor%5Bbk14_p%5D=0.0&pas=true&factor%5Bpas_hr%5D=0.0&factor%5Bpas_p%5D=0.0&skh=true&factor%5Bskh_hr%5D=0.0&factor%5Bskh_p%5D=0.0&factor%5Bl2z_hr%5D=420.0&factor%5Bl2z_p%5D=300.0&factor%5Bcost%5D=0.1&sort=Profitability24&volume=0&revenue=24h&factor%5Bexchanges%5D%5B%5D=&factor%5Bexchanges%5D%5B%5D=abucoins&factor%5Bexchanges%5D%5B%5D=bitfinex&factor%5Bexchanges%5D%5B%5D=bittrex&factor%5Bexchanges%5D%5B%5D=bleutrade&factor%5Bexchanges%5D%5B%5D=c_cex&factor%5Bexchanges%5D%5B%5D=cryptopia&factor%5Bexchanges%5D%5B%5D=hitbtc&factor%5Bexchanges%5D%5B%5D=poloniex&factor%5Bexchanges%5D%5B%5D=yobit&dataset=&commit=Calculate https://whattomine.com/coins?utf8=%E2%9C%93&adapt_q_280x=0&a... A 1080Ti will mine 0.0396XMR every 24hours (yielding $4.71 at current prices). Presumably a CPU will fare significantly worse? Exchange fees and tx costs are negligible (especially compared to the variation in elec prices depending on where you live). Edit: as I understand it there's really no such thing as an ASIC resistant coin. Rather there's just an understanding that if ASICs get produced for XMR/VTC the devs will change the algorithm and fork the coin. If that's the case, surely these PoW coins are still susceptible to needing more and more hash power for a return as difficulty goes up (though perhaps less aggressively/rapidly compared to BTC?)?

pwaai 9y ago

I fail to see how they will be able to make this happen... Overall, I'm skeptical of the narrative that continues to iterate that cryptocurrency projects will usurp our modern legal and financial system which always seems to market the notion that it's here today and with enough of your attention, time (and money) we can somehow overcome the fortress of legal frameworks, policies, international agreements that took at least half a millenia of battle testing and it's still undergoing developments as new edge cases arises forcing revisions, and cesspool of highly paid lawyers who poorly slave away ensuring this system cannot be challenged and that it is the ultimate law. I find it amusing how those pumping coins seem to be completely oblivious to the fact that whatever fantasy world conjured up still lives within the confines of our legislative & financial laws.

pqh 9y ago

How did "Blockchain" and "Cryptocurrency" become mass nouns? It's interesting. http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/parts-of-speech/nouns/Collective-Nouns.html http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/parts-of-speech/nouns/Coll...

dmitrygr 9y ago

Classic silicon valley-like thinking. Try to "disrupt" a system without understanding what it is for and why it was designed the way it was. Bail is designed to prevent flight risk. It is set high enough that you'd have a hard time coming up with that much money without being forced to stay and appear. Having strangers pay your bail means you have no reason to stay. It makes bail jumping more likely. People having a hard time making bail is working-as-intended. It may be hard to swallow, but the system was purposefully designed this way. If you dislike it, write to your senator. Paying others' bail, even as inefficiently as this, will change nothing. Very very inefficiently, actually. Mining on "unused cycles" on most PCs will generate negligibly small amounts of money. Even multiplied by the number of people foolish enough to enrol in this, it will still be a negligible amount of money. So who decides 1/10th of which criminal's bail this will go to?

tbrownaw 9y ago
So, how well does that theory match reality? Does it actually in practice prevent flight, or does it just fuck over people who can't pay?
- dmitrygr 9y ago
  Well, it DOES prevent flight. Does it do it in the best way possible? Probably no. But it does prevent flight. You cannot flee if you're stuck in jail. Like I said. This is a problem that need to be solved legislatively, not by paying others' bail inefficiently.
  - gowld 9y ago
    No one's interested in hearing why their real-world solutions aren't as good as your theoretical non-solution.
kelnos 9y ago
The org that is running this has actually been around for a few years already (and is not a SV tech company) and has a 90% non-flight rate. So presumably they don't just randomly select people and actually evaluate who they're going to post bail for. This stunt seems more like a way to market for donations. Agree that it's unlikely to generate much, and the electricity cost means it'd be way more efficient to just donate money directly. Certainly a legislative solution to the injustices around bail is the right way to go, but I'm not holding my breath for something like that any time soon. Hopefully orgs like this are just an interim, stopgap measure, though.