** Edit! The SBI shares have been awarded **

Shares went to: @dylen, @creyestxsa94, @sarez, @baa.steemit, @preshey, @futuremind, and @sonime

Edit #2: There's now a 1 STEEM #steembounty on this post.

What is #steemfunds?

This account, @steemfunder, is the steem account for the #steemfunds app. We are in early beta with big ideas for taking funding with steem mainstream. We will actively campaign outside of the existing steem community to bring in more users and help them fund their projects.

There is a website in development at https://steemfunds.com

Why does it need to exist?

Right now, anyone who is reading this has the opportunity for steem to change their lives. In steem, we have the incredible potential to help each other out. With the click of a button we are able to exchange and distribute currency.

I've heard stories of Steemians who are making their living with steem. During the #steemcreators conference, we heard that 1 steem could buy four meals in Ghana. This was a fact that blew my mind as I sat with over 10 steem banked in my account and in a room with millions of steempower combined.

Steemfunds needs to exist because there's so much good we can do here with steem. This is about freedom. It is also my (@nikema), personal mission to see good people with the money in their hands needed to do their good work.

Everything that Steem Basic Income stands for, (read the overview) I second. I have a personal interest in creative arts, education, and startups. Those are the areas we will focus on in addition to basic income. We have beautiful groups already in existence, but there's still room in this community for highlighting artists, creators, and entrepreneurs who don't specialize in cryptocurrency.

How we will grow

We are not looking to reinvent the wheel, so we are piggy-backing on the awesome work of steembasicincome and #upfundme.

In this first phase of the project, we will just be sponsoring steembasicincome shares and upvoting non-spam posts in the #steemfunds tag. A post template is coming soon.

In the future, we may have a membership subscription with an exclusive curation trail.

I'm super excited to get started, and I already have some SBI shares so it's time. We'll see how it goes from here.

The contest (this one's over)

I'm giving out a share of Steem Basic Income to the first three commenters on this post who answer the question:

What could you use some extra money for today? Optional: How much would that cost?

Bonus: Join the #dynamicsteemians on Discord

https://discord.gg/9rq9eSM

Sign up for our discord server and say, "hi" in # nikema's-tea-shop and I'll sponsor you for an additional share. I will award up to 6 shares to 3 commenters.