Author: A Ray's New World, BlockBeats
"If you could press a button to cure your child's brain tumor at the cost of immediately ending your own life, every parent would unhesitatingly strive to be the first to press that button. But the cruelest part is that such a button does not exist." Mira's father Chen Siqi wrote this on Twitter. The calm yet love-filled words reveal his helplessness and confusion.
The story behind the death button
On September 23 of this year, Chen Siqi's daughter Mira was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor called craniopharyngioma. Although this tumor is benign, it is located in a very dangerous area of the brain, and with a slight misstep, Mira could suffer from diseases and become unable to care for herself due to this brain tumor.
Chen Siqi has been actively collaborating with Dr. Todd Hankinson from the University of Colorado, the only institution researching this brain tumor, to secure biweekly intravenous injection trials to suppress the tumor's growth for his daughter. However, there is currently no complete cure for this type of tumor, and extensive funding support is needed to research this rare disease. Therefore, this Christmas, Chen Siqi began his web3 'Drip Fund' journey.
Chen Siqi began posting on Twitter, calling for netizens to donate to the Hankinson Lab. A campaign to save girl Mira unfolded on Twitter, with former Uber CEO Ronak, HelloPatient co-founder Alex, and many other big names supporting Mira.
The heavens seem to have heard Chen Siqi's helpless cries at the corner of the wall, and have seen him wipe away his tears secretly behind the door each time. Within just 3 hours after Chen Siqi posted, $75,000 was quickly raised through gofound.me. As of now, Chen Siqi has raised $224,000, with 25% remaining to reach his target of $300,000.
Web3 Drip Fund Reappears
However, what seems to be a story of a WeChat circle drip fund reappearing on Twitter has only just begun. In addition to raising funds through Web2 methods, Chen Siqi has not forgotten to attach his Solana and BTC addresses.
Mira's story was propelled into the crypto space thanks to the efforts of two men.
One is Shaw, who is still preaching in China. After learning about Mira's plight, Shaw donated $100,000 worth of $degenai tokens to Chen Siqi's wallet to help their family through the tough times. The other is Waddles, the Dev who created tokens in pump.fun. After seeing Mira's story, Waddles donated 50% of the $MIRA tokens to this father who is striving to treat his sick daughter. Wherever there is attention, there is a flow of funds. With the backing of Shaw, Ronak, and other Web3 and Web2 celebrities, MIRA achieved nearly a 60-fold increase in less than 3 hours.
So who is Chen Siqi, and why did he attract Shaw's attention? Chen Siqi is the founder and CEO of Runway, a startup funded by a16z. He has also served as the CEO of SandVR (a16z) and the product president of Postmates (which was later acquired by Uber). It is precisely because of his professional experience that so many 'big names' are supporting him.
At the same time, Bio Protocol has also noticed this scientific donation event and believes that decentralized scientific funding will become a major use case in the next crypto cycle. In real life, research on rare diseases rarely receives funding support, while the pump.fun and MIRA events have further pushed the Desci narrative to a climax.
Through interactions with Bio Protocol and Shaw, MIRA has become a representative meme of the Desci concept.
Chen Dad, walking a tightrope: How should the donations be handled?
Despite having a large amount of funding, how to properly handle this donation is also a problem. Clearly, Chen Siqi is also at a loss. If this fund is handled well, it can not only raise money for his daughter but could also further expand Desci's development direction. If handled poorly, it will not only provoke public anger, but it is very likely that just like Judge Wang Hao's remark, 'If you didn't touch it, why would you help?', people will no longer contribute to similar cases.
Thus, Chen Siqi's approach is very cautious. Four hours ago, Chen Siqi announced plans to sell 10% of the supply at some point today to donate to the Hankinson Lab, while keeping the remaining part, which accounts for 5% of the total supply. He will not sell any more tokens unless announced 24 hours in advance. He also started soliciting opinions from netizens on Twitter regarding whether to sell his portion while announcing that all newly incoming funds would be donated to the Hankinson Lab for tumor research.
Despite the mixed reactions to Chen Siqi and Mira's story on Twitter, the blockchain has demonstrated the feasibility of on-chain donations and fundraising through its transparency and broad participation, ensuring that the flow of every fund can be monitored in the public eye. Perhaps on-chain donations will be a ray of hope on the eve of large-scale Web3 applications.
