Bitcoin to fund your favorite artist

Alternate title: How to create a rainy day fund for your artist.

During the Covid-19 lockdown, our artists have now lost a year's worth of income that would have come from public performances. Please support your artist by buying their music, joining their Patreon and tipping on their vlog live-casts. What the pandemic has exposed is that most successful indie artists have a core following of a couple of hundred engaged fans, the other 150,000 fans are apathetic and uninvolved. To make matters worse, music streaming has killed CD sales and music downloads -- indies just don't have the volume to make it on hundredths of a cent per stream. RIAA Data

The following is for those super-fans who want to do a little more for their artist in the form of a rainy day account giving.

Concept -- personal experience

On May 7, 2015, I sent $3.07 worth of BitCoin (BTC) to a tipping platform called ChangeTip to give to my favorite artist, she never claimed the BTC and the company returned it to me when they went out of business. As of this morning (March 19, 2021) that 0.0131046 BTC ($3.07) is now worth $763.91. (I certainly hope she does not ask me for it now because I don't have it anymore!!!)

Rainy day funding and risk warning

Before we go any further, this concept involves Bitcoin (BTC) and putting some portion of one-hundred dollars of your money at risk, most of us keep more than that in a bank account that gains zero interest. If you can't afford to lose some or all of your seed money -- do not participate.

Step 1. Have your artist create an account at coinbase.com to receive BitCoin. In the left menu, the artist selects "Earn rewards" > "Invite friends" > "Copy link". This is an affiliate link, where the artist will receive $10.00 (in Bitcoin) if you join Coinbase and purchase $100.00 worth of Bitcoin, the current processing fee you pay should be $2.99.

Step 2. This is a rainy day fund, don't be in a hurry to purchase your BTC, Bitcoin prices fluctuate several thousand dollars over the course of a week, buy low -- sell high.

Step 3. Once you have purchased your BTC, your artist will receive her referral commission and your on-going support can start. You should now have $97.01 worth of BTC and if you followed step 2, your holdings should increase to beyond $100.00 on the next upswing. When you notice that your balance has increased beyond $100.00, let's say, $112.00, send $12.00 worth of BTC to your artist's BitCoin address (a long cryptic number/characters (s)he will publish on her website or social media page -- this one is mine 3HUH6cqaddCvMs6uHZ6kkY8QtC1MvnF8gt).

• Be sure you have the correct sending address!!! There are no refunds in crypto currency!!!

Step 4. Periodically, the artist should move the donated BTC from the published account to a hardware wallet or some other wallet. Coinbase has a BTC-Vault with enhanced security.

What if my account value drops to less than $100.00?

Don't panic, but do temporarily suspend your giving. The key is to maintain your principle balance to earn profits. Over the past twelve years, Bitcoin has always recovered losses. Once your account re-establishes the $100.00 benchmark, continue giving.

Alternately, you could buy some bargain price BTC and send it along to your artist anyway.

Why not just give the $100.00 or BTC to the artist?

It's your money to give, but the concept is to create a rainy day fund that the artist does not use for daily expenses, taking advantage of Bitcoin's historical rise in value. Your $100.00 seed investment could generate several hundred dollars per year, at no cost to you. On the other hand, if the artist spends your generous gift, the seed money and hopes for appreciation is gone.

With the Federal Reserve's target inflation rate of 2%, and minuscule interests rates at banks, it does not make sense to save in dollars.

Competitive spirit

If you are a member of a fan club and want bragging rights, simply set aside more seed money, $200.00, $300.00? You can use websites like Blockchain Explorer to track your transaction to display your gift to the group and win the monthly competition.

Bitcoin in the news

• Institutions Bet Big On Bitcoin, Forbes
• PayPal’s Entry to Crypto Followed Long Buildup in Expertise, The Wall Street Journal
• Bitcoin climbs above $53,000 as Elon Musk backs crypto over cash, The Economic Times
• Bitcoin is now worth more than Visa and Mastercard combined, CoinTelegraph

Disclaimer

This is not to be taken as financial advice and other than my personal account with Coinbase, I have no affiliation to any products mentioned on this page.