Running Bitcoin Challenge 2024

We all stack sats. And occasionally steps too. Today I wanted to draw the Stacker's attention to the fact that we're fundraising in support of Fran Finney and the incredible work both she and her husband Hal Finney have done for ALS research & Bitcoin. All sats from this SN post will be donated to the Stacker News team page of the Running Bitcoin event.

Note: Please also check-out & zap this SN post from @gnilma who has already got their 21km done:

Running Bitcoin - ALS Golden West Running Bitcoin Challenge

Run with us 10th January! 👟

For those that want to get their 'chicken legs' out, JOIN US for a half marathon run (21km or 13.1m). Just sign-up via our team page It need not be done all in one go, but we're supposed to be clocking up the miles this week to make sure we hit 21km or 13.1miles total by 23:59 on January 10th. Would be great to see more of you Stackers get involved!

All Zaps will go to ALS charity ⚡

Any proceeds from this post, will be paid via BTCPayServer by 6pm EST on Wednesday 10th January to the Running Bitcoin account. A comment will be added to this post with proof of payment(s) via BTCPayServer. It may be better however if you can donate directly on the ALS website page. There are a few more steps involved (inc. personal data) so either way is fine. I wanted to make this as accessible and uncomplicated as possible. See the steps below if you'd like to contribute personally.

Hal Finney 💎

In 2 days time, we'll all be celebrating Hal Finney's famous tweet (whilst I nurse my cramped-up calves). Yes this could have been posted on the day, but hopefully we can get more keen runners like Hal involved!

Hal has been discussed a few times here on SN for those that are interested. I'm sure later this week there'll be a few more posts to pop-up like these:

So, what is ALS ❓

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a motor-neurone disease that progressively gets worse over the course of a few short years. ALS, also called Motor Neuron Disease (MND), is still today in 2024 not well understood. It can only mostly be diagnosed by process of excluding all other possible causes of the symptoms, although there are now some markets. Most of the time there is no test. For the best complete description of how symptoms can unfold, it would be best to hear it described by Fran Finney (Hal's wife) pictured above in her WBD interview on YouTube timestamped from 14m50s. Furthermore I encourage you all to read more about the disease on the ALS.org website.

What did Hal say about his symptoms? 🗣️

Read more about the effects of ALS, straight from the great Hal Finney on Bitcointalk.org:

ALS is a disease that kills moter neurons, which carry signals from the brain to the muscles. It causes first weakness, then gradually increasing paralysis. It is usually fatal in 2 to 5 years. My symptoms were mild at first and I continued to work, but fatigue and voice problems forced me to retire in early 2011. Since then the disease has continued its inexorable progression.

Today, I am essentially paralyzed. I am fed through a tube, and my breathing is assisted through another tube. I operate the computer using a commercial eyetracker system. It also has a speech synthesizer, so this is my voice now. I spend all day in my power wheelchair. I worked up an interface using an arduino so that I can adjust my wheelchair's position using my eyes.

It has been an adjustment, but my life is not too bad. I can still read, listen to music, and watch TV and movies. I recently discovered that I can even write code. It's very slow, probably 50 times slower than I was before. But I still love programming and it gives me goals...

That's my story. I'm pretty lucky overall. Even with the ALS, my life is very satisfying. But my life expectancy is limited.

Why ALS needs our help? ❤️‍🩹

Studies to develop more treatments and a cure for ALS, many funded by The ALS Association, are ongoing around the world. Scientists ARE making progress in understanding how the disease works, identifying biological indicators that can help diagnose and treat the disease, and learning ways to prevent cases of ALS. Learn more about ALS research. The research is under-funded though, despite the ice-bucket challenge years ago, bringing some awareness to the disease. Since then however many charities have struggled to find funding for research and treatment. There is therefore a great opportunity for Bitcoin to make a huge impact on ALS research. I'm sure this 'Running Bitcoin' event will be ongoing catalyst.

Learn more about Fran Finney 🏃‍♀️

As I mentioned, sats or no sats, please make sure you watch the** What Bitcoin Did interview** with Fran Finney, Hal's wife. It was discussed** here on SN** by @siggy47. It was incredible to hear of her resilience in spite of the immense struggles they both had together. And it is still wonderful to see her smiling and still thinking about Hal each and every day.

Steps to Register / Donate 🚨

For transparency, I've documented the steps for both registering to run & donating. It does require some personal info and KYC so I wanted to be transparent on that...


STEPS TO JOIN	STEPS TO DONATE
1. Choose Option (I suggest 'Join a Team')	1. Provide billing info (real names optional)
2. Click 'Join as Participant' anyway	2. Select dollar amount
3. Search for our team! ⚡	3. Add email (for receipt, optional)
4. Pay your entrance fee	4. Email again, then scan QR, then Done!
5. Make donation anonymous (optional)	5. Drop a comment on SN to celebrate ✨
6. Register details (real names optional)
7. Enjoy the run! 👟

Buy a Ticket & Run 🎫

Tip: If you do buy an 'entrance fee' it will double as a donation, enabling you to receive a 'Running Bitcoin' t-shirt later this year (with worldwide shipping). You can run anywhere and any day (before 11th).

3 options to run. T-shirts (for top 2 options) will apparently be distributed after the event now:

Anyone who registers between December 8 & May 1, 2024, will still receive their shirt, but after the primary Challenge week of January 3-10.

Website links 🔗

So there we have it.... SN is up and running! 🏃‍♂️

Our first year participating in the Running Bitcoin event.The goal is set at $1k for now, but let's see how far we can get! I leave you with this image posted here on SN by the artistic @Esperanto.

⚡ Zap zap run!

You can also zap the runraiser SN account below:

200 sats \ 1 reply \ @phatom 9 Jan

I'm down for this run, signing up on the page now

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @davidw OP 9 Jan

Awesome! See you at the finishing line 🏁

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @brave 9 Jan

A good initiative, keep it up, zapped

478 sats \ 1 reply \ @Natalia 8 Jan

nice work! @davidw

I listened to a few podcasts from Hal's wife Fran Finney lately, so touching and really sad to see such a talented and curious person have a disease like this; I'm still trying to figure out why some people can live so long and sickness-free, and yet some are relatively young but with different illnesses.