Has it been effective?

So far, no. There’s a few glaring problems: We have no real guarantees they are actually sending the money Most companies are lying to us about the simplest things, trying to claim they can’t afford it saying they are many times smaller then they actually are. They think we can’t read LinkedIn and zoominfo, or that we haven’t downloaded a list of their employees while we’re in their network… So they will probably also try to lie and cheat about sending the money. Sure we require reasonable proof that they have actually sent the money, but the company can always whine to the police, their bank, and the organization afterwards to get it reversed. They won’t send money to genuine grass-roots organizations To give an example, a few companies asked us to suggest an organization and we said Kenyan Peasants League . Don’t get mad at them or blame them for our actions, they have nothing to do with us and no company sent them money. Such an organization is unacceptable to companies, they will not send money to them, and we settle for companies donating to charities like Red Cross, and Doctors Without Borders. Companies will only donate to organizations like that… “solutions” offered by the same countries that are causing the problem. Those charities do meet some people’s material needs, but without at all challenging the system causing the problem, and often reinforcing the relations that perpetuate that system. Real grassroots organizations meeting peoples’ material needs while also addressing the root problems are unacceptable to companies. Consciously or not they know their own profits depend on global inequality and exploitation. They are more willing to pay ransomware groups directly! Apolitical ransomware groups are easy for companies to understand. The pursuit of profit at the cost of others, to CEOs is just another business transaction. So we will become just another ransomware group demanding payment in cryptocurrency. It is both the only way for us to verify that companies have made an irreversible payment, and the only way for us to get money to groups that have a hope of changing anything.