"If you could press a button that would cure your child's brain tumor at the cost of ending your own life, every parent would immediately strive to be the first to press that button. But the cruel reality is that no such button exists," 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 any misstep could lead to Mira suffering from diseases and losing 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 to inhibit tumor growth for his daughter. However, there is currently no complete cure for this tumor, and research on this rare disease requires substantial funding support. Thus, this Christmas, Chen Siqi began his web3 'crowdfunding' journey.

Chen Siqi began posting on Twitter, calling on netizens to donate to the Hankinson Lab. A movement to save girl Mira unfolded on Twitter, with former Uber CEO Ronak, hellopatient co-founder Alex, and other big shots coming forward to support Mira.

It seems the heavens heard Chen Siqi's helpless cries in the corner and saw the tears he secretly wiped away behind the door. Just three hours after Chen Siqi's post, $75,000 was quickly raised through gofound.me. As of now, Chen Siqi has raised $224,000, leaving 25% to reach his goal of $300,000.

Web3 crowdfunding reappears

However, this story, which appears to be a crowdfunding campaign in a circle of friends reappearing on Twitter, is just beginning. In addition to fundraising through Web2, Chen Siqi has not forgotten to attach his Solana and BTC addresses.

Mira's story getting attention in the crypto world cannot be separated from the efforts of two men.

One is Shaw, who is still preaching in China. After learning about Mira's situation, Shaw donated $100,000 in $degenai tokens to Chen Siqi's wallet to help their family through the tough times. The other is Waddles, the Dev who created tokens on pump.fun. After seeing Mira's story, Waddles donated 50% of the $MIRA tokens to the father who is working hard to treat his daughter. Where there is attention, there is a flow of funds. With the support of Web3 and Web2 celebrities like Shaw and Ronak, MIRA achieved nearly a 60-fold increase in less than 3 hours.

So who is Chen Siqi and why did Shaw pay attention to him? 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 shots' are supporting him.

At the same time, Bio Protocol also took notice of this scientific donation event and believes that decentralized scientific funding will become the main use case for crypto in the next cycle. In real life, research on rare diseases rarely receives funding, and the pump.fun and MIRA events have further pushed the narrative of Desci to a climax.

With the interaction between Bio Protocol and Shaw, MIRA has become a representative meme of the Desci concept.

Chen's father, walking a tightrope: How should the donations be handled?

Despite having a large amount of funding, managing this donation is also a problem. Clearly, Chen Siqi is also at a loss. If this funding is handled well, it can not only raise funds for his daughter but also further expand the direction of Desci's development. If handled poorly, it will not only provoke public anger but may lead to a situation similar to Judge Wang Hao's remark, 'Why should you help if you didn't touch it?' where people will no longer support similar cases.

Thus, Chen Siqi's handling was very cautious. Four hours earlier, he announced that he planned 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 he announces it 24 hours in advance. Additionally, Chen Siqi started soliciting opinions on Twitter about whether to sell his part of the position, while announcing that all new incoming funds would be donated to the Hankinson Lab for tumor research.

Although Chen Siqi and Mira's story has received mixed reviews on Twitter, the blockchain has proven the feasibility of on-chain donations and fundraising with its transparency and wide participation; the flow of every fund can be guaranteed under public scrutiny. Perhaps on-chain donations will be a glimmer of hope for large-scale applications in Web3.