Written by: The New World of Ah Ray
"If you could press a button to cure your child's brain tumor at the cost of ending your own life, every parent would rush to be the first to press that button. But the cruel reality is that such a button does not exist," wrote Mira's father, Chen Siqi, on Twitter. His calm yet loving words reveal his helplessness and confusion.
The story behind the death button
On September 23 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 a slight misstep could cause Mira to suffer from diseases and lose her ability to care for herself.
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 for his daughter to inhibit tumor growth. However, there is currently no complete cure for this type of tumor, and a significant amount of funding is needed to research this rare disease. Therefore, this Christmas, Chen Siqi started his web3 'crowdfunding' journey.
Chen Siqi began posting on Twitter, calling on netizens to donate to the Hankinson Laboratory. A campaign to save girl Mira unfolded on Twitter, with former Uber CEO Ronak, hellopatient co-founder Alex, and many other big shots standing up for Mira.
It seems that the heavens have heard Chen Siqi's helpless cries in the corner and have seen the tears he secretly wiped away behind the door. Within just three hours of Chen Siqi's post, he quickly raised $75,000 through gofound.me. As of now, Chen Siqi has raised $224,000, still 25% away from his goal of $300,000.
Web3 crowdfunding reappears
However, this story, which seems to be a crowdfunding campaign on Twitter, is just beginning. In addition to fundraising through Web2, Chen Siqi did not forget to attach his Solana and BTC addresses.
Mira's story was able to break into the crypto scene 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 at pump.fun. After seeing Mira's story, Waddles donated 50% of the $MIRA tokens to this father who is striving to help his daughter get treatment. Where there is attention, there is funding flow. With the support of Web3 and Web2 celebrities like Shaw and Ronak, MIRA achieved nearly a 60-fold increase in less than three hours.
So who is Chen Siqi, and why is he receiving Shaw's attention? Chen Siqi is the founder and CEO of Runway, which is a startup funded by a16z. Additionally, Chen Siqi has served as the CEO of SandVR (a16z) and the Product President of Postmates (later acquired by Uber). It is precisely because of his professional experience that so many 'big shots' stand by him.
At the same time, Bio Protocol also focused on this scientific donation event and believes that decentralized scientific funding will become the main use case for cryptocurrency in the next cycle. In real life, research on rare diseases rarely receives funding, while the pump.fun and MIRA events further pushed the Desci narrative to a climax.
Through the interaction between Bio Protocol and Shaw, MIRA has become a representative meme of the Desci concept.
Chen Siqi, walking on a tightrope: how to handle donations?
Despite having a lot of funds, how to properly manage this donation is also a problem. Clearly, Chen Siqi is also at a loss. If this fund is managed well, it can not only raise funds for his daughter but can also further broaden the development direction of Desci. If not handled properly, it will not only provoke public anger but also likely lead to a situation similar to Judge Wang Hao's remark, 'If you didn't touch it, why do you need to help?' People will no longer be willing to support similar cases.
Thus, Chen Siqi's handling was very cautious. Four hours ago, Chen Siqi announced his intention to sell 10% of the supply at some point today to donate to the Hankinson Laboratory, while keeping the remaining portion, which accounted for 5% of the total supply. He would not sell any more tokens unless announced 24 hours in advance. Additionally, he began soliciting netizens' opinions on whether to sell part of his holdings on Twitter, while announcing that all new incoming funds would be donated to the Hankinson Laboratory for tumor research.
Although Chen Siqi and Mira's story have received mixed reviews on Twitter, blockchain has proven the feasibility of on-chain donations and fundraising with its transparency and broad participation, ensuring that the flow of every fund can be guaranteed under public scrutiny. Perhaps on-chain donations will be a glimmer of hope on the eve of the large-scale application of Web3.
