There are a wide amount of variances in how many actual innocent people are in jail. Some believe it to be 2 – 3%. However, some statistics believe it to be as high as 25% of the prison populace in the US.

Over the last 40 years, there has been a 500% increase in prison populace. Part of the problems include the failed “War On Drugs,” and the need to scale back sentences for non-violent offenses. Many feel that “mandatory minimum sentences” do more to serve the prison industry itself, as opposed to any real benefits to society on a whole.

A large reason for many innocents to be in jail include a combination of inadequate defense, along with judges and prosecutors that have an agenda against the accused, the accused’s “profile,” or feel the need to “take a strong stance against crime,” and allow that to cloud their objectivity.

From The Innocence Project, in the some of the worst cases, lawyers have:

• slept in the courtroom during trial
• been disbarred shortly after finishing a death penalty case
• failed to investigate alibis
• failed to call or consult experts on forensic issues
• failed to show up for hearings

Lawyers have also been known to not object when a client’s “right to a speedy trial” has been violated, encourage clients to waive that right, and to not fight with their all, especially compared to the prosecution, whenever their clients’ rights are violated, or there are reasons for there to have “reasonable doubt” regarding the case.

Disclaimers

As always, DYOR (Do Your Own Research). This is provided for informational purposes, only. Consult your own professionals. While this is geared towards NPOS, businesses can use this information for accepting cryptos.

This is a guest post from our associates at 100K Investing. We receive commissions from many of the linked companies here.

Key Points

You can accept crypto, without worrying about price flux.

Use a gateway (think PayPal or Stripe, for crypto), like CoinPayments.

CoinPayments allows you to auto convert between what you receive from clients, into the crypto of your choice. For this, it is suggested to select a stable coin. Common stables include:

• CoinBase’s USDC
• Binance’s BUSD (if in the US, join Binance.US)
• Gemini’s GUSD
• Trust’s TUSD

When you use CoinPayments auto convert to one of those stables, the companies offer a 1:1 exchange between their stable and the USD. Visit their sites for specifics.

What you can offer

As you may know, the price of cryptos can fluctuate a lot. If you visit a site like CoinMarketCap or CoinGecko, you can get an idea as to the various tokens available, and see how they fluctuate. Not only is there BitCoin, but a few different BitCoin peg:

• WBTC
• BTCB
• renBTC
• TBTC
• And more, and that’s just BTC pegs.

As you can see, just from these tokens, there are a lot of differences in prices. For traders, and others, there is the problem of taxes. This is where you can position yourself as a nonprofit and accept crypto, so that they can have the tax write-offs, and you can gain new donors.

Here are some top npos that accept cryptos:

• Red Cross
• Save the Children
• Watsi
• The Water Project
• Internet Archive
• Humanity Road
• Free Software Foundation
• Tor Project
• TunaPanda
• Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Code to Inspire
• United Way

How you can accept crypto

While you can create a number of different crypto wallets, an easier way is to use a processing site, like CoinPayments. The advantages of using CoinPayments are that you have one location to accept all of your crypto, and they have a very handy auto-convert.

With auto convert, you can decide what you want your crypto to auto convert to.

I highly suggest Binance’s BUSD, as well as CoinBase’s USDC. Both offer a 1:1 between their stablecoin and USD.

These sites will allow you to accept crypto payments, auto-convert to USDC/BUSD, and then, convert the USDC/BUSD to USD. Make sure that you are aware of each site’s respective fees, as well as fees on the networks.

I cannot recommend TUSD, as they have a $1000 (at this writing) conversion minimum.

Likewise, due to USDT’s high conversion minimum of several thousand, and the long list of controversies, including concerns of no true audits, and that instead of holding cash reserves, they hold “cash and other assets,” may mean you may have a harder time converting tether.

Of course, you can accept donations in TrueUSD or Tether, and auto-convert to USDC/BUSD.

Before Converting

Before you convert to fiat, and even before selecting auto-convert, you should look at the interest offered, staking rewards, and other bonuses. Both Binance and CoinBase allow you to earn on some of the tokens you hold. You will need to visit each site, for their programs’ details.

You may also be interested to earn additional interest on Blockfi and Nexo.

To summarize, you can accept crypto, and have the option to either auto convert them all to a stablecoin, with a 1:1 exchange rate, or earn interest, with an average of 8%.

You can also see a bit more about stables on Wikipedia. Stables include: PAX, USDC, DAI, TUSD, GUSD, USDS, USDT, BUSD, and EOSDT. This is not a complete list. As with many things in crypto, DYOR (Do Your Own Research).

For a 1:1 exchange of USDC, you will need to got to CoinBase, not Circle.

Note that while USDT was one of the first stablecoins, and is the biggest, it has a lot of controversy. There also seems to be a large amount of USDT that one must have, to convert to USD. There is also this thread on reddit. Thus, you may be better off with USDC, BUSD, GUSD, or any other that offers a 1:1.

To get an idea about how well USDT, TUSD, BUSD, GUSD, USDC, and other stables are trading, you may want to check out a site like Coin Market Cap.

Welcome to Lights of The Spirit: Shining The Light of Hope.

Lights of the Spirit is our humble corner of the web, where we share what we’re doing, to serve as a Light in these dark times.

Lights of the Spirit will feature various projects from out members and associates, ranging from various creative projects as we strive for improvement, to various fundraisers we will host, for various causes of members, and the community at large.

The fundraisers can include memorabilia, tickets to sporting events, or trips to various locations in North America and Europe. If you know of a school, church, or other cause that would like to offer such options for their fundraising efforts, please reach out to us with the name of the person who would handle the fundraiser, the name of the organization, and their contact, and we shall pass it on to our vendors.

May The Light Shine On You!