It looks like crypto has a Robin Hood.
About a week ago, someone named Hood started the Twitter handle @savethemhood. They promptly sent out these three tweets:
I am here for the greedy. Taking the crumbs and spreading them to those in need.
— Hood (@savethemhood) March 14, 2014
The top wealthiest 1% possess 40% of the United States wealth.
— Hood (@savethemhood) March 15, 2014
I’ve been watching the dogecoin community. They have pure intentions. I will extend a hand out to help.
— Hood (@savethemhood) March 15, 2014
What happened next was amazing, even by the highly charitable standards of the Dogecoin community. First, Hood showed up in the chat room dogechat.net and gave away 1 million Doge to users. He then proceeded to /r/dogecoin where he started this thread and used the Reddit Dogecoin tip bot to tip over 1.5 million Doge to members of the subreddit, asking only that they comment with the phrase “save them hood”. Most of the tips totaled 10,000 Doge and were followed by the message: “twitter follow @savethemhood if we are aligned. health and peace to you. please upvote.”
There were some unique tips, however. Showing a keen sense of humor, Hood tipped /u/mohland (creator of the Reddit tip bot) so that he could “buy some faster hardware” for his famously overwhelmed creation. Then, when Hood was prompted to help out with the Dogecoin community’s Doge4Water initiative, he made a donation of 100,000 Doge and said “let them drink, everyone deserves water. everyone. the 1% could solve this, yet they drink and feast without concern. savethemhood, i’ll, try.”
Hood then moved to twitter and outdid all the giving he had already done (over $1,700 worth of Doge at that point) with this one tweet:
@tipdoge tip @Doge4water 14000000 may we all drink water. let the wealthy fill your cup. #savethemhood
— Hood (@savethemhood) March 16, 2014
The tip, worth around $11,000 at the time, brought Doge4Water to their goal of raising 40 million Doge and instantly set the record for most money donated or sent directly via a tweet.
After the tweet, Hood went quiet for a few days before reappearing on Twitter to post a video of him/her handing out cash to various people on the streets of San Francisco. Two days later another round of Doge tipping was started with this tweet:
Struggling? Reply to me with a picture of food stamps or an overdue bill, include #savethemhood in the pic. Don’t expose your personal info.
— Hood (@savethemhood) March 21, 2014
In total over 4 million Doge was given away to needy Twitter users including a new mother and father, people overwhelmed by medical bills, and a man trying to keep the lights on at his house. Hood implied the donations were made because he empathized with the users’ financial situations, tweeting:
when i was younger i had to declare bankruptcy, it took me years to rebuild, better days are ahead, friends, keep believing. #savethemhood
— Hood (@savethemhood) March 21, 2014
Not much is known about the identity of Hood except that they have an affinity for helping out the needy, dislike the 1%, and (judging by Twitter followers) enjoy street art, a medium with its roots in class struggle.
A disagreement followed Hood’s appearance on Dogechat.net, with a user claiming that he was tipped 2 million Doge (later 2 billion), when in actuality the tip was for 10,000. The exploitation temporarily cleared out Dogechat’s wallet, but a mod informed Bitcoin Magazine that the situation has since been rectified.
While there has been some controversy over Hood’s implication that the donated money was acquired through ill-gotten means (“taking from the greedy”), the irrepressibly positive Dogecoin community seems mostly content with knowing that their coin is being used to help those in need.
At the time of this article’s writing the Twitter account seems to have gone silent, but it would not be surprising to hear from him/her/them soon. During the Reddit visit Hood said “this is just the beginning”. So far about 20 million Doge has been donated ($14,000).
UPDATE: Hood has created a Facebook page.
