Introduction

As you know, I've spent a fair amount of time, energy, and money, travelling overseas to speak about Monero over the last 2.5 years. At the time the community simply couldn't afford to cover my expenses, and it was a burden I happily bore as it raised a great deal of awareness of Monero. At this time I'd like to raise funds to cover my Jan 2017 conference trip.

The Trip

2016-12-26 to 2017-01-01: Hamburg, Germany, for 33c3 (not being funded, for my own costs)

2017-01-01 to 2017-01-05: Amsterdam, The Netherlands, I'll be talking at Bitcoin Wednesday on 2017-01-04

2017-01-06 to 2017-01-09: San Francisco, USA, I'll be talking at Coinbase (note: not open to public attendance) on 2017-01-06, and I'll be at the Monero Silicon Valley Meetup on 2017-01-07

2017-01-10 to 2017-01-16: Florida, USA, where the wife and I will take a few day's break and explore the Keys (not being funded, for my own costs)

2017-01-16 to 2017-01-20: Miami, USA, where I'll be talking at The North American Bitcoin Conference on 2017-01-17 / 2017-01-18

2017-01-20 to 2017-01-30: Secret Location, where I'll once again be representing Monero at the Satoshi Roundtable (note: not open to public attendance)

Funding Structure

A few points of order:

33c3's costs are not included in this, as we are not hosting a Monero assembly at 33c3 this year due to how difficult it was to get tickets - only 3 members of the Monero community will be in attendance, that I know, besides myself.

I'm not expecting to raise the full amount, and anything not raised by the end of January will be for my expense.

All the expenses are calculated on basic 3-star hotels (excluding hostels) and economy flights. I will cover upgrades, as well as my wife's tickets and costs, of my own volition.

I have not factored in food and drink costs, and there is no per diem, as that's largely not a big deal and I don't want to bankrupt the community.

All of my travel is already 100% booked and even mostly paid for (discounts on up-front hotel payments), so my trip is not contingent on fundraising.

Due to the nature of international travel, jet lag, flight availability, conference timing, and the need to prepare, I always give myself a few days on either side of a speaking engagement.

I am not paying to speak at any of the conferences / events, nor am I being paid - it's all 100% free and at the cost of the community and myself.

Flight pricing was done using Kiwi's multicity search, and a reasonable combination was selected (note that for some flights I couldn't take the cheapest due to extremely tight time constraints between Bitcoin Wednesday and Coinbase, but I can't reflect this on Kiwi easily).

Hotel pricing was done using BookingComplete's multicity search.

Note that if the proposal is over-funded I will take a reasonable portion of the over-fund for food / drink / taxis / per-diem, and the rest I will reapportion to other fundraisers as needed.

Costs Breakdown

Flights come to $2963, all in.

Accommodation in Amsterdam comes to $362.

Accommodation in San Francisco comes to $540.

Accommodation in Miami comes to $413.

Accommodation in the Satoshi Roundtable Location comes to $297 (can't show the screenshot for that:)

Total fundraiser is, therefore, for $4575. Monero is currently sitting at $7.75, so the fundraiser is for 590 XMR.