A Rounding Error | 1,000,000 coffees needed | loading... donated so far | Still employed. Regrettably.
A Rounding Error
One Million Coffees

One million coffees.
One retirement.

If one million people donate the cost of a coffee in Bitcoin, one ordinary person retires early. That person is me. This is the experiment.

Coffees Donated
—
Raised (USD)
—
Target
$3,000,000
Loading live data...

What does your coffee actually buy me?

☕ $5
At $5 that's roughly calculating... — a rounding error in any wallet, and approximately — of my future freedom. I'll take it.
The Experiment

Formally stated,
for science.

This is not a charity. I have not done anything heroic. I am simply a 50-year-old who did the maths, found the internet, and decided to ask a question.

Hypothesis The collective rounding errors of one million wallets are sufficient to fund one ordinary person's early retirement.
Method Ask. Publicly. With a BTC address and a progress bar. Then wait.
The Maths 1,000,000 people × $3–5 = $3M–5M. Each individual contribution is a rounding error in their own wallet — too small to notice, too small to miss. Collectively, it is a retirement. The maths is sound. The question is human.
Success Condition $3,000,000 USD equivalent in BTC. Not because it's glamorous. Because the 4% rule says $3M generates ~$120k/year indefinitely. That's not rich. That's just not working.
Timeline Open-ended. I will be at my desk in the meantime.
Identity Anonymous until the experiment concludes. At $3,000,000 raised, you'll find out who you retired.

I am 50. Not old enough for anyone to feel sorry for me. Not young enough to pretend I still enjoy performance reviews. This is the window. This is the experiment.

The Numbers

A rounding error
in your wallet.

The average crypto wallet holds thousands of dollars. The average net worth of someone reading this is likely more still. My entire retirement target — $3 million — is a rounding error spread across one million generous souls. $5 will not change your life. It could change mine entirely.

1M
People needed. That's one mid-tier YouTube video. One Reddit front page. One slow news day.
$3–5
What I'm asking for. A rounding error in your wallet. The cost of a coffee you won't remember spending.
0.0002%
$5 as a share of a $250,000 net worth. It will not show up. It will not be missed. It will retire someone.
30 yrs
Estimated years remaining. At $120k/year from the 4% rule. The maths works. The question is whether you do.
Experiment Log

Breadcrumbs.
Dropped as we go.

At each milestone, I reveal one detail about who I am. Consider it a reward for collective participation. The final reveal happens at $3M.

$10,000 ~2,000 coffees
🔒 Locked unlock at $10k
$50,000 ~10,000 coffees
🔒 Locked unlock at $50k
$100,000 ~20,000 coffees
🔒 Locked unlock at $100k
$250,000 ~50,000 coffees
🔒 Locked unlock at $250k
$1,000,000 ~200,000 coffees
🔒 Locked unlock at $1M
$3,000,000 1,000,000 coffees
🔒 You find out who you retired. I find out what freedom tastes like. Experiment concludes.
Frequently Asked Questions

Answered honestly.
Mostly.

Is this a scam?
You are voluntarily sending a few Satoshi to a stranger on the internet with full knowledge of exactly what it's for. That's not a scam. That's the experiment.
Why should I donate to you specifically?
You've spent $5 on worse things today. This one has a progress bar, a clear goal, and the modest ambition of retiring exactly one person. That's more than most $5 can say.
Why Bitcoin?
Because the rounding error framing only works in an asset class where 0.00005 BTC is a legitimate amount to send. Also because I'm a geek that believes in Bitcoin.
What if you don't reach $3M?
I return to work on Monday. As I have every Monday for the past decade. The experiment has no end date and perhaps it might be enough to retire a little earlier.
Will you actually reveal yourself?
Yes. That's the deal. At $3M I reveal who I am, where I worked, what I did with my last day. You'll have earned the ending.
Where does millioncoffees.com go?
Here. Same experiment. Same progress bar. Same one person hoping a million strangers feel generous. Both roads lead to the same retirement.
Surely you can retire on less?
In practice: expensive city, a mortgage with strong opinions about interest rates, and young children who have a lot of school ahead of them and, if this works, a parent who won't be at a desk for most of it. $3M isn't ambition. It's arithmetic."