Wikimedia Foundation is now accepting Bitcoin donations

[Cubic Earth]

I woke up and saw this email in my inbox:

Hi John Doe

Thanks for your email.  I wanted you to be among the first to know that as of this morning, the Wikimedia Foundation is accepting Bitcoin donations!

Later today, you'll receive a generic email from the Foundation with the news, but I'm hoping that my note reaches you first.  If your offer is still good, we're definitely interested, and we would be very grateful for your generosity and your patience! 

You can donate here: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Ways_to_Give/en#bitcoin.

Best,
Caitlin

Caitlin Virtue
Director of Development
Wikimedia Foundation

[1715386598]

1715386598

[1715386598]

1715386598

[herzmeister]

wow, this was a weekly topic back in the day... when the fook is wikipedia finally gonna accept bitcoin... and now it doesn't feel like anything special anymore

[QuestionAuthority]

Did you tell Rassah at Bitcoin100 so they can get a donation?

[Brooker]

wow, this was a weekly topic back in the day... when the fook is wikipedia finally gonna accept bitcoin... and now it doesn't feel like anything special anymore

Yea I really was expecting this to be fud. It's been a while since I've seen a thread from someone complaining why wikipedia don't accept bitcoin. I guess this is good for both wiki and bitcoin. I hope more charities start accepting it now.

[Cubic Earth]

Did you tell Rassah at Bitcoin100 so they can get a donation?

Not yet.  I don't see any news stories or other posts on this yet... did I break the news?

[Brooker]

Did you tell Rassah at Bitcoin100 so they can get a donation?

Not yet.  I don't see any news stories or other posts on this yet... did I break the news?

It seems time have just covered it http://time.com/3059325/wikimedia-wikipedia-bitcoin-donations/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+timeblogs%2Fnerd_world+%28TIME%3A+Techland%29

[cozk]

Took them forever.

[lenny_]

TO DA MOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Peter R]

You need to click on the "other ways to give" link near the bottom of the main donation page.  Then you can click on "Bitcoin" and then you're taken to a Coinbase form to complete the donation.  You are also required to fill out the email and physical address sections of the form before you can submit it, so this is an obstacle if you just want to quickly give $5 and don't care about the tax receipt.  

[Cubic Earth]

Here is the generic follow-up email:

Dear Wikipedia Supporter,

Recently, many donors have been in touch to say they were interested in supporting us with donations of Bitcoin. We are happy to announce that as of today, the Wikimedia Foundation will be accepting Bitcoin donations. You can read our announcement here:

https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/07/29/wikimedia-foundation-now-accepts-bitcoin/

We strive to provide flexible e-payment options for our donors around the globe, and we’re happy to add this new way to give today. If you choose to give, your donation will support the technology, people, and projects working to provide the sum all of human knowledge to everyone, for free.

Please click here to donate Bitcoin.

We have no plans to accept other forms of cryptocurrency in the near future, but we will continue to monitor them with interest. For a full list of other donation options, please visit:

http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Ways_to_Give/en

Thanks again for taking the time to email us,
The Wikimedia Foundation Fundraising Team

They are using Coinbase.  There is a little form you have to fill out, with email, name, address, etc, but there is no verification.  That is fine if you want to get a tax write-off or something, but I hate to see them pass up the simple beauty of just posting a static donation address and QR code.

I think they should also have a separate donation address where they pledge to keep the donations in Bitcoin and spend them as bitcoins.  I'll write back to them with the suggestions.

[Sutters Mill]

I think it's great that charities and organizations like Wikipedia start accepting it as it really legitimizes it's use and helps to clean up it's media smeared image. I hope this gets some good media coverage.

[QuestionAuthority]

Did you tell Rassah at Bitcoin100 so they can get a donation?

Not yet.  I don't see any news stories or other posts on this yet... did I break the news?

Not sure but send a PM to Rassah anyway.

[Nerazzura]

I woke up and saw this email in my inbox:

Hi John Doe

Thanks for your email.  I wanted you to be among the first to know that as of this morning, the Wikimedia Foundation is accepting Bitcoin donations!

Later today, you'll receive a generic email from the Foundation with the news, but I'm hoping that my note reaches you first.  If your offer is still good, we're definitely interested, and we would be very grateful for your generosity and your patience! 

You can donate here: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Ways_to_Give/en#bitcoin.

Best,
Caitlin

Caitlin Virtue
Director of Development
Wikimedia Foundation

although I did not receive an email like you, but when I read this post I come to feel happy. This is good news for us all

[sangaman]

I got the email and will probably donate today, however the link in the email seems to be dead. Was this working earlier?

https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/07/29/wikimedia-foundation-now-accepts-bitcoin/

[inBitweTrust]

I have been wanting to donate to wikimedia for some time ... now they gave me a reason I couldn't refuse....

[Nathonas]

Great news. Wikipedia is a very big name on the internet, and I've personally donated to them 3 times over the years. I've written countless high school and university papers with help from their sources and probably read thousands of wiki pages on interesting, useful and fun stuff. Great to see them move forward with emerging technology.

I really hope they release how much BTC was donated after a week or something. Would be very interesting to see.

[sangaman]

Just got another email, the correct link to the story is:

http://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/07/30/wikimedia-foundation-now-accepts-bitcoin/

I'm a big fan of both bitcoin and wiki and I've been putting off donating until bitcoin was accepted. I certainly have learned a lot from wikipedia and they're more than deserving of support. I'll be donating today and I hope others do the same.

[hellscabane]

It'd be awesome if they could display the fact that you can donate in bitcoin more prominently. Other than that, it's definitely welcome news.

It's funny that it took this long though. There was such a push for this before.

[jbrnt]

I want to make a donation, but I have to give my email and physical address? This is ridiculous! Why can't I make an anonymous donation?

[inBitweTrust]

I want to make a donation, but I have to give my email and physical address? This is ridiculous! Why can't I make an anonymous donation?

just make up an address... its probably for tax writeoff reasons....You place fake info , you don't get the tax right off but get anonymity.