Another person on this forum named Michael emailed me saying he was personally willing to fund the silo alone
For the record, I did not say this. The most relevant quotes from my email are
I saw your recent posts on the EA Forum and I am thinking about the cost-effectiveness of your plan to build a grain drying / processing plant.
and
Given the considerable expense of building a processing facility, why don’t you want to start with a storage silo, which would be much cheaper, and expand from there?
You may have interpreted the 2nd quote as an offer to fund the silo, which it wasn’t. If that’s what happened then I should have communicated better.
Michael, I can see, I misinterpreted your message. Still, by writing to me with those words, you are one of the people who gave me real hope (it is why I interpreted your message in an even bigger way).
If you look at the previous threads you posted, you’ll see I was a strong defender of giving your project a chance. I think grassroots outreach and support in areas like yours is a very good thing, and I’m glad to see you transparently report on your progress with the project.
That being said, I have to agree with the others here that investing in crypto coins like the one you mentioned is generally a bad idea. I have not heard of either of the people you claim are backing the project. The statement that “most people believe Jelly will soon be the new tiktok in the west” is not at all true. I live in the west and I guarantee you that almost nobody has ever heard of this project, and there has not been significant buzz around crypto projects in the west for a good couple of years now.
If you are skeptical, I recommend you go onto reddit and ask people in non-crypto spaces if they have heard of Jelly or are excited about the idea.
People can make money off crypto: but for the average user it’s more or less a casino, where the odds are not in your favour.
I apologise if this comes off as overly critical, but I have heard of a lot of people who have fallen victims to scammers and scoundrels in the crypto space, and I don’t want you to be one of them.
Titotal, thanks so much for this. I surely know you are one of the people who had my back in previous posts. Although I won’t dispute anyone’s views on crypto, I just wanted to point out that the crypto project in paricular that I mentioned (JellyJelly), and its founders, are indeed known in the west, even by mainstream media outlets.
Somewhere you said, “I have not heard of either of the people you claim are backing the project.”.
Sam Lessin is described in this Vox article, this Vice article, and in CNET, as being a former Facebook VP who was also a classmate of Zuckerberg (and that his father is the one who introduced Mark Zuckerberg to some Venture Capitalists in the early days of Facebook).
Sam Lessin, and his wife Jessica Lessin, are also the founders of the tech media outlet “The Information”, which (according to Google) is also called Lessin Media.
On the other hand, Iqram Magdon-Ismail is known by all US media outlets as being the co-founder of VENMO. This is mentioned by CNBC, also in Inc, and Entrepreneur Mag
Today, both Sam Lessin and Iqram’s twitter pages are only tweeting about one thing: JellyJelly, and their intended new social media app JellyJelly.com (please check their twitter pages).
So, although crypto is indeed like a casino, at least I would think putting $10,000 in a token whose founders have such a background, at a time when this token is at the very lowest price it has ever been at, isn’t a big risk—especially if I can’t find someone to directly give me the full GBP 339,000 or the $814,000 that is needed for our intended grain facility.
Although I am new to crypto, I can guarantee that putting $10,000 in JellyJelly now, at the very least, will result in $20,000 (in only weeks from today), which would still at least help our sorghum project alone, if it can’t do so with the grain facility.
I know we had a couple of disagreements about the content of your last post, but I really love the transparency and honesty here about your fundraising efforts and the unexpected increased cost of the facility@Anthony Kalulu, a rural farmer in eastern Uganda. It saddens me to say that level of transparancy quite unusula from my experience in Uganda so good on you for that.
Good on you and all the best with your development endeavors.
And like @MathiasKB🔸 said, advise against the crypto investment!
Also I suspect due to the style, and request in this post you might be downvoted quite a bit but dont be discouraged. This forum isn’t an easy place!
I am very grateful to hear from you too, and thanks so much for this really encouraging message. True, I understand this post might surely attract some downvotes, or even some pushback especially on that part of crypto, but I have also gradually gotten used to this, so I will certainly take it easy.
I have only decided to turn to crypto as a way of raising money for our intended facility only as a last resort—because everything else didn’t work (and I wouldn’t like to give up). I also think the crypto token in particular that I had in mind at least has a solid background (given its founders and its intended use).
Just realise that betting on crypto is like betting on a casino. Probably worse, if it’s a memecoin which has apparently lost nearly all of its value in the last two months. Then decide whether something like a casino but probably worse is how you would want to invest the last $10k which you could still help your fellow farmers with.
FWIW I remember liking your original post and your ambition. I might have some ability to assist with grant application writing. But only if you spend any funds you can get on helping fellow Ugandans, not crypto!
Don’t put all of your savings into shady cryptocurrencies. If it sounds good to be true, it is because it probably is.
Okay Mathias.
For the record, I did not say this. The most relevant quotes from my email are
and
You may have interpreted the 2nd quote as an offer to fund the silo, which it wasn’t. If that’s what happened then I should have communicated better.
Michael, I can see, I misinterpreted your message. Still, by writing to me with those words, you are one of the people who gave me real hope (it is why I interpreted your message in an even bigger way).
Anthony
If you look at the previous threads you posted, you’ll see I was a strong defender of giving your project a chance. I think grassroots outreach and support in areas like yours is a very good thing, and I’m glad to see you transparently report on your progress with the project.
That being said, I have to agree with the others here that investing in crypto coins like the one you mentioned is generally a bad idea. I have not heard of either of the people you claim are backing the project. The statement that “most people believe Jelly will soon be the new tiktok in the west” is not at all true. I live in the west and I guarantee you that almost nobody has ever heard of this project, and there has not been significant buzz around crypto projects in the west for a good couple of years now.
If you are skeptical, I recommend you go onto reddit and ask people in non-crypto spaces if they have heard of Jelly or are excited about the idea.
People can make money off crypto: but for the average user it’s more or less a casino, where the odds are not in your favour.
I apologise if this comes off as overly critical, but I have heard of a lot of people who have fallen victims to scammers and scoundrels in the crypto space, and I don’t want you to be one of them.
Titotal, thanks so much for this. I surely know you are one of the people who had my back in previous posts. Although I won’t dispute anyone’s views on crypto, I just wanted to point out that the crypto project in paricular that I mentioned (JellyJelly), and its founders, are indeed known in the west, even by mainstream media outlets.
Somewhere you said, “I have not heard of either of the people you claim are backing the project.”.
Sam Lessin is described in this Vox article, this Vice article, and in CNET, as being a former Facebook VP who was also a classmate of Zuckerberg (and that his father is the one who introduced Mark Zuckerberg to some Venture Capitalists in the early days of Facebook).
Sam Lessin, and his wife Jessica Lessin, are also the founders of the tech media outlet “The Information”, which (according to Google) is also called Lessin Media.
On the other hand, Iqram Magdon-Ismail is known by all US media outlets as being the co-founder of VENMO. This is mentioned by CNBC, also in Inc, and Entrepreneur Mag
Today, both Sam Lessin and Iqram’s twitter pages are only tweeting about one thing: JellyJelly, and their intended new social media app JellyJelly.com (please check their twitter pages).
So, although crypto is indeed like a casino, at least I would think putting $10,000 in a token whose founders have such a background, at a time when this token is at the very lowest price it has ever been at, isn’t a big risk—especially if I can’t find someone to directly give me the full GBP 339,000 or the $814,000 that is needed for our intended grain facility.
Although I am new to crypto, I can guarantee that putting $10,000 in JellyJelly now, at the very least, will result in $20,000 (in only weeks from today), which would still at least help our sorghum project alone, if it can’t do so with the grain facility.
I know we had a couple of disagreements about the content of your last post, but I really love the transparency and honesty here about your fundraising efforts and the unexpected increased cost of the facility@Anthony Kalulu, a rural farmer in eastern Uganda. It saddens me to say that level of transparancy quite unusula from my experience in Uganda so good on you for that.
Good on you and all the best with your development endeavors.
And like @MathiasKB🔸 said, advise against the crypto investment!
Also I suspect due to the style, and request in this post you might be downvoted quite a bit but dont be discouraged. This forum isn’t an easy place!
Hi Nick,
I am very grateful to hear from you too, and thanks so much for this really encouraging message. True, I understand this post might surely attract some downvotes, or even some pushback especially on that part of crypto, but I have also gradually gotten used to this, so I will certainly take it easy.
I have only decided to turn to crypto as a way of raising money for our intended facility only as a last resort—because everything else didn’t work (and I wouldn’t like to give up). I also think the crypto token in particular that I had in mind at least has a solid background (given its founders and its intended use).
Just realise that betting on crypto is like betting on a casino. Probably worse, if it’s a memecoin which has apparently lost nearly all of its value in the last two months. Then decide whether something like a casino but probably worse is how you would want to invest the last $10k which you could still help your fellow farmers with.
FWIW I remember liking your original post and your ambition. I might have some ability to assist with grant application writing. But only if you spend any funds you can get on helping fellow Ugandans, not crypto!
David,
If there is anything you can do to help, it will be much appreciated.
Crypto is something I first engaged with (for the very first time) only months ago—after I had already posted on this forum seeking support (in vain).
I am not a crypto person, just trying to cling on it as a last resort after everything else had failed.
FYI, titotal:
Iqram and Lessin are also giving regular interviews, and are making weekly twitter spaces about their new social media app JellyJelly:
https://x.com/iqramband/status/1900274440199692779
Not to justify anything, but just to let you know this. Also, they are not merely “backers”. They are the project’s founders.