Russell Brand Kicks Off Cryptocurrency Revolution

Self-styled anti-capitalist campaigner Russell Brand plans to use cryptocurrencies to raise funds to support his political activism.

The former comedian has announced that his YouTube show The Trews is partnering with crowdfunding platform Startjoin, as well as the website’s Startcoin cryptocurrency.

The partnership will aid The Trews’ “Revolution for digital literacy” campaign, which looks to improve the digital access of Hoxton and surrounding areas to allow people better representation online.

Fight for your right

The campaign is looking to raise £150,000 in total, which it says will fund the purchase of ‘at least’ a thousand laptops, and will also go towards improving the wireless connections in the targeted areas, although no detailed information on how they plan to do this is given.

“We know that Rome was not built in one day but we are laying the foundations for it,” the Startjoin page for the campaign says.

“We want to give the most marginalised individuals in the community access to resources, not only for educational purposes and greater employment opportunity in the future, but also as a machine to access digital spaces, where they can join in with making their voices heard. In reality, a lot of the time, voices for change are most heard and most effective on the web.”

Backers can donate online to the campaign now, with larger donations receiving souvenirs such as branded travel card holders (£25) and t-shirts (£60).

Startjoin, described as ‘proper crowd funding’ on its website, was launched in London in February 2014, and was co-founded by financial commentator Max Keiser, who like Brand is well-known for his outspoken views on British banks and big business.

“The end game is, the Trews, StartJOIN and StartCOIN are all providers of alternative avenues, be it of the media, financial or social practices, and we want to empower others to do this, or really, their version of this. We want to equip everyone with the capacity to understand existing problems, to be aware of the current socio-economic hegemony,” the campaign page adds.

“We want this to be the beginning of developing better provision of truer, fairer economic and digital education.”

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