“If you could press a button to cure a child’s brain tumor at the cost of ending your own life, every parent would hesitate to be the first to press it. But the cruelest part is that such a button simply doesn’t exist,” wrote Mira’s father, Chen Siqi, on Twitter. His calm and loving words reveal his helplessness and confusion.

The Story Behind the Death Button

On September 23, this year, Chen Siqi’s daughter, Mira, was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor called chordoma. Although this type of tumor is benign, it is located in a very dangerous area of the brain. Any slight carelessness could lead to Mira suffering from the disease and being unable to take care of herself because of this brain tumor.

Chen Siqi has been actively collaborating with Dr. Todd Hankinson, the only researcher in the world studying this tumor at the University of Colorado, to secure her daughter’s biweekly intravenous injection trials to suppress tumor growth. However, there is currently no complete cure for this type of tumor, and researching this rare disease requires significant financial support. So, this Christmas, Chen Siqi began his web3 “Water Drop Crowdfunding” journey.

Chen Siqi started posting on Twitter, calling on netizens to donate to the Hansen Laboratory. A movement to save the girl Mira unfolds on Twitter, with former Uber CEO Ronak, hellopatient co-founder Alex, and many other big shots standing up for Mira.

It seems that the heavens have heard every powerless cry from Chen Siqi in the corner, and seen every tear he secretly wiped away behind the door. In just 3 hours after Chen Siqi posted, 75,000 US dollars were quickly raised through gofound.me. As of now, Chen Siqi has raised 224,000 US dollars, 25% away from his goal of 300,000 US dollars.

Web3 Waterdrop Crowdfunding Reappears

However, this seemingly a friend circle water drop fundraising story reappeared on Twitter, but it has just begun. In addition to fundraising in a Web2 way, Chen Siqi also did not forget to attach her Solana and BTC addresses.

Mira’s story of making it into the crypto world would not have been possible without the efforts of two men.

One is Shaw, who is still preaching in China. After learning about Mira’s situation, Shaw donated $100,000 worth of $degenai tokens to Chen Siqi’s wallet to help their family get through the difficult times. The other is Dev, Waddles, who created tokens on pump.fun. After seeing Mira’s story, Waddles donated 50% of the $MIRA tokens to this father who has been working hard to treat his daughter. Wherever there is attention, there is a flow of funds. With the support of Web3 and Web2 celebrities like Shaw and Ronak, MIRA achieved nearly 60 times the increase in less than 3 hours.

So who is Chen Siqi, and why did she receive Shaw’s attention? Chen Siqi is the founder and CEO of Runway, a startup company funded by a16z. Chen Siqi has also served as the CEO of SandVR (a16z) and the product president of Postmates (later acquired by Uber). It is precisely because of her professional experience that she has so many “big shots” standing by her.

Meanwhile, Bio Protocol also paid attention to this scientific donation event and believed that decentralized scientific funding would become a major use case for cryptocurrencies in the next cycle. In real life, rare disease research rarely receives funding, but the pump.fun and MIRA events have further pushed Desci’s narrative to a climax.

Under the interaction between Bio Protocol and Shaw, MIRA has become the representative meme of the Desci concept.

Chen’s father walking on a tightrope: how to handle donations?

Although there is a large amount of funds, how to handle this donation is also a problem. Obviously, Chen Siqi is also at a loss. If this fund is handled well, it can not only raise funds for her daughter, but also further expand the development direction of Desci. If it is not handled well, it will not only cause public anger, but also may be similar to the judge Wang Hao’s question ‘Why did you help if it wasn’t your fault?’ People will no longer pay for similar cases.

So, Chen Siqi’s handling was very cautious. As early as 4 hours ago, Chen Siqi announced plans to sell 10% of the supply at some point today and donate it to the Hansen Lab, while the remaining portion will be retained, accounting for 5% of the total supply. Unless announced 24 hours in advance, he will not sell any more tokens. In terms of fund management, Chen Siqi also started soliciting opinions from netizens on Twitter about selling a portion of his position, while announcing that all new funds will be donated to the Hansen Lab for tumor research.

Although the story of Chen Siqi and Mira has received mixed reviews on Twitter, blockchain proves the feasibility of online donations and fundraising with its transparency and wide participation. The flow of each fund can be guaranteed under public scrutiny. Perhaps online donations will be a glimmer of dawn on the eve of the large-scale application of Web3.