The way we use the internet and the way we use technology has changed everything we experience. One of the most ignored changes these things have had on our lives is how it has changed donation and fundraising. A up and coming way of fundraising is found in Live Streaming of video games and other events.
When a person streams using the Twitch.tv platform there’s a built-in system to handle donation but using this is not the best way for most streamers, Twitch is a business and in such it takes a cut of everything that goes through its system. This is offset by using a format called Bits, Bits are a cyber currency that is used strictly for donations.
When someone donates Bits to a stream they are rewarded with their name and a message coming up on the stream and usually a personal response from the person they happen to be watching. Here is a few clips of how that looks.
Fundraising with Twitch.tv from CMRU.ca Broadcasting on Vimeo.
When a streamer receives bits, they are processed and added to a physical banking account after a few weeks or days depending how closely the streamer is affiliated with the company, more popular streamers will receive bit donations faster than those who are unpopular. In mirror to this, many streamers have adopted the use of PayPal donations as they are immediate, and the company will take less of a cut from the streamer than Twitch would.
These technologies have both introduced and allowed us to fund and give gifts to people who entertain and inform us. A perfect example of this can be found in the Speed run streamer P4ntz. For the last few weeks P4ntz has been putting on “sellout Streams” to raise money for himself and his stream to improve the product he creates.
This personality based streaming culture has formed in the cracks of the internet and slowly grown to massive appeal. Over time many donation and fundraising events have been created to fill this demand in the space, these include events such as Extra Life as well as a speed running focused event named Games Done Quick or GDQ.
Over many years the event has sponsored many charities and organizations to bring about positive change in the world and raising in the process millions of dollars for charity using incentive-based donation systems such as goals that when a certain amount of money is reached, they will add a game speed run to the schedule, thus making the event longer and bigger.
As these events get larger and larger they are able to help more and more people. So next time you have a few hours to spare pop into https://www.twitch.tv/p4ntz and see what P4ntz is raising money for next!