Bitcoin Forum

While I am searching for churches that readily accept bitcoin for donations, I realized that there are now some who seem to see the potential use of cryptocurrency in their financial operation (religious groups do need money as just like any other organizations).

"Father Rosado believes that St. John’s the Evangelist is the first Catholic Church (https://www.coindesk.com/saint-johns-becomes-worlds-first-catholic-church-accept-bitcoin-donations) to accept bitcoins and he thinks virtual currency donations can be much more useful than those in fiat currencies. 'In theory, in the future, you could exchange bitcoins for any currency. It would be faster to move money around,' said Father Rosado."

"An evangelical church in Zurich (https://www.newsweek.com/bitcoin-accepted-church-offering-784354) will begin accepting offerings in the cryptocurrency bitcoin. “Digital currencies and the blockchain technology will change our daily lives more and more in the next years,” Nicolas Legler, spokesperson for Zurich's ICF Church, told Swiss media."

Have you encountered a denomination near your area accepting bitcoin or cryptocurrency? Would you share the same idea to the denomination or faith you are a part of?

Not at all, as in our country, bitcoin isn't adopted that much in local landmarks in the first place. Though I see this being adopted more on churches in the near future, though mostly on countries that has decent amount of bitcoin adoption in general.

I personally wouldn't. I'm personally big on hiding my affiliation with bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general, for security purposes. If I would be able to do so anonymously, probably? Though I don't see a significant number of people giving their tithes with bitcoin in my country probably for a few years.

Local merchants in my area have not adopted BTC yet which is why it is pointless to think about churches currently in this context. There are a couple of charities that do accept BTC donations online in my country.

As adoption rates continue to grow with time, you can expect such religious institutions(Churches, Mosques, Temples etc) to accept BTC as an alternate denomination, but I am not expecting this to happen anytime soon op.

Not yet, though crypto is somehow accepted and adapted in my country, churches have not accepted crypto as donations.


If it would benefit churches and other groups or organizations, why not. Cryptocurrency is more convenient to use than fiat since it's faster to use for transactions. However, it still depends on country, if there are only several merchants or places where churches can use crypto, it would not benefit them at all.

In the past working with banks was sinful and not allowed as Christians are not supposed to engage in usury.  Direct giving, and therefore bitcoin, was the only acceptable donation. Can you imagine that now, lol. Usury is the business many large churches are in.  If you are like most, then your God is 3% MasterCard.

Okay so what exactly is that church? Is that another church that's using the name of God for business? In the OP, you said about donations right? Is donation the right term for this if you are dictating what people donates you?

Can you expound more on this? Why do they "disagree" or why are they against bitcoin and cryptocurrencies? It surprises me that they actually acknowledged bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in the first place.

I don't think those people will accept my BTC donation. I am not saying that they don't want the money but I guess it is just bothersome, instead, I can just sell that BTC and gave the fiat to them right?

I only see this progression on countries in which bitcoin development is very evident, but for places in which there is still little to no education for the said cryptocurrency, I don't think charitable institutions and churches would be going the route of digital currencies knowing that most of them are in need of fast cash in order to buy things for their cause, and most are kinda iffy on the idea of digital money. Christians do have something regarding a cashless society as somewhat a sign for the end of times. It's quite ironic that churches nowadays are accepting most donations through bank transfers (which is somewhat cashless) and becomes a business for most pastors, men of church etc.

I’m surprised to know that some Churches are accepting bitcoin I really think they would not consider bitcoin like the government, well I guess even priest were able to see the good side of bitcoin, it would be very convenient because they can move around with it and just exchange it to the accepted currency. However, not all countries are into bitcoin until now so they can only use it in a country where merchants accepts bitcoin.

first time i hear about this , find it abit wierd that a church accepts donations i bitcoins when most stores and what have you dont do.

No, I'm not aware of any church in our area that accepts crypto as donation. To be frank, I was surprised to see the link that you posted. Anyways, I'm not against it, it's in Zurich, and I'm under the impression that crypto is readily accepted in that place that's why churches open it's arm and just decided to accept it, so no harm done.

Don't be fast to criticize any church that's accepting donation from cryptocurrency, churches are built by humans and to be maintain by humans, what's wrong by accepting donation from members or philanthropies? God said, bring ye all thy fruits including money(fiat,cryptocurrency etc), and giving freely to the development of the church. The priest has the right to seek what members should donate to the church.   

one good thing about donation through a transparent currency like bitcoin with a publicly available ledger is that your donations can be tracked by you so you could see how and where the place accepting your donation (in this case the church) is spending the money received.
in fact there has been transparent charities accepting bitcoin mainly because they could show everyone easily where the money is going.

it is difficult to understand how churches work, today there are many churches that say they perform miracles and promise many things they never do. In fact, churches have become a way for a certain group of people to earn a lot of money


You have to ask this in the church.

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honestly, it will be good for bitcoin to keep away from churches

Am yet to see any of the church around me  and good to know that some church in your area are now accepting crypto currency particularly Bitcoin. The main reason why church are yet to adopt crypto currency is not far from the knowledge about Bitcoin and crypto currency in general as many of the head of church do not have knowledge of crypto currency. I see that if the adoption of crypto currency is massive in the business domain then the church will follow suit.

Reason why the church might accept due to the demands from that place, if Bitcoin is not yet been accepted for sure the church that mentioned will not allowed this form of donations as they don't have any idea about crypto currency, it's an impression  that this denomination is after the value of this currency and nothing else.

Churches can accept Bitcoins in a form of donations to enable givers that do not want to disclose their identity to contribute to the kingdom of God. I think most churches can display their Bitcoin address in a form of bar code at entrance so that not only donation but offertory can be made in a form of Bitcoins too. 

Wow, this is awesome! I never thought of this actually in the global adoption of cryptocurrencies. That a church would decide to accept offerings in cryptocurrencies. Too bad i can't convince my folks over here to accept cryptocurrencies as offerings. They would even think i am coming to scam them or something.

Do we really need to donate much on churches? they have the money now as i can see there are so many big time churches.
Their churches is really beautiful and has a lot of money to spend.
why dont we focus on less fortunate people like people on streets?

Though on the issue, cryptocurrency is not adopted yet in many countries, if it is! they are not well adopted yet!

Switzerland is one of the crypto loving countries that i know of. It's government has allowed the development of many crypto institutions and projects in its countries. I know of so many ICOs that have been launched in this country and have seen great success. I am not really surprised that its religious bodies have also allowed members to start paying their offerings in cryptocurrencies.

Well, I have not come across it yet probably because btc is not legalised yet in my country or because btc use hasn't been so popular here. Well, I doubt my denomination will accept it anytime soon unless of course, the whole country plunges into crypto use

Why? bitcoin does have monetary value and as said it can be exchanged to any currency in the future but actually you can do it today. And that's with the use of many exchanges, globally and locally.

Can you name those religions that disagree the adoption of bitcoin? I don't think that there's something related to religion and bitcoin and I'm very curious to know why they disagree with that if they can also benefit by receiving donations through it.

Maybe, they are still hesitant to accept bitcoin because they don't know how to deal with it yet. If people are not knowledgeable on how to do business with bitcoin or any other crypto, then they would be hesitant to accept it. But I believe if you teach them the basics around it, the benefits and advantages, high chance that they will gladly accept it. Most people are hesitant with something owed to their ignorance of the matter on hand.

In my country, bitcoin is only legitimized as a digital investment commodity, no more than that, so that both business and religious activities have not been able to receive bitcoin well, bitcoin is only understood by a small number of citizens here, and even in a small amount of investment, especially for bitcoin religious activities and crypto currencies are still considered taboo and the majority of the population still thinks that bitcoin is something negative.

Exactly.Even in my own local churches,they are only accepting fiat currencies as donations.I think they already have few ideas about bitcoin but since the government itself is not yet adopting bitcoin as a mode of payment,so they are also hesitant to accept it thinking that it would be hard for them to purchase using bitcoin as a currency.

Bitcoin here in our country is not so popular.but I know time will come bitcoin will be known well.If giving donation for a church why not if the bitcoin is known of all people.all transaction made by bitcoin why not I think this can be possible now we are in new generation using high.technologies

The church has followed the times and technology. Because most people are made there are many who already know bitcoin, so some churches follow it. Donations for tithing can use bitcoin, it's really fun.

Wow, for real? I didn’t expect that churches will accept bitcoins, I think it has something to do with the place or location, it could be that the demand of bitcoin is high or a lot has been using it thus to be convenient they are accepting bitcoins for donation. Also, maybe the management of the church are well informed about bitcoin and they see it as a good currency.

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send here https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa for donation to the CREATOR.

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I think many churches might have some issues with fact that you cannot track the origin of some of the money that are donated, when you use Crypto currencies. It might happen that a person running some Paedophile network, donated some money from their income to the church and this could lead to an embarrassing situation when this comes to light.  :P

I know some churches do not want to accept money donated from professional gamblers for instance, because gambling is not an acceptable practice in some churches.  ;)

In all industries that we have, I think churches and any religious are the ones who will be the last industry and organizations to adopt bitcoin as a form of donations. However, if you are a church and someone would like to donate a bitcoin, you won't need to hesitate to accept it as it is also a form of currency that you could use for your daily operation. If the person is willing to donate bitcoin, then the church has no option but to accept it instead of having nothing or asking for another option (it is just a donation so you don't need to complain and be demanding).

Here in my country, maybe it's possible and they might give a consideration in accepting bitcoin in the future if they were given enough knowledge about it. And if they're open about it. But haven't heard yet about churches here who accepts bitcoin.

What a great news that step by step bitcoin will be on top where every people aware with what bitcoin really is. They saw the potential of it that's why even churches accept it as a donation. Hoping that this coming year everyone of us will be educated about it.

My first thought on this was  like "How come they are so quick on adapting cryptocurrency?" I mean, they don't get involved in technology a lot but this was very surprising. In our country, donations are done by the nuns/sister handing the net-like cloth to us. So if this happens then we will just scan the qr code while we are singing our praises and sending our bitcoin? I don't see anything beneficial to this article honestly.

I don't usually give donation to the church, so I would not know.
Also, in our country, bitcoin is not yet mainstream, so maybe it will take a lot of time before I will see some people or establishment showing
their interest to accept bitcoin .

IMO, church accepting bitcoin as donation is favorable to them as they also have a lot of followers in different countries, so sending money would be easy.

Since Christianity is more of an organized business than an organized religion, it won't surprise me a bit if the churches decide to accept payments or donations in cryptocurrency. Recently, I came across this news article from the BBC:

https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-47675301

It shows how the Christian pastors are becoming millionaires, by exploiting the poorest group of Americans. For them, only money matters. It doesn't matter whether the payments are made in fiat or crypto.

Why not walk in and ask if they are willing to accept Bitcoin by explaining the advantages and how cool it will be seeing a Church go with the trend?

Churches generally generate most of their income through donations, and how cool would it be to have an extra donation option? I can see how people instead of declearing taxes over some of their profits, they donate it to a Church and may even be able to get some of it back because in some countries donations to charities are tax deductible. I'm not sure if a Church can be seen as a charity too (might differ from country to country), but it wouldn't hurt to look into it.

Introducing them to Lightning might even lead to a large flood of donations just because people love playing around with it.

Also in my country here, many are yet to get the full understanding of this digital cryptocurrency which is the mainstream, although one cannot tell if by their understanding of this technology they will accept Bitcoin for donations. If churches can accept Bitcoin, then we should be happy to drive toward adoption with the grassroots.

It is a positive development for churches to start accepting bitcoin as a means of donation, although in my country I am yet to hear of any religious body that accepts bitcoin as means of donation. This is so because only less than 1% of my country's population has actually heard of the term bitcoin, and for the few that have heard, most consider it scam.

Giving donations to churches in cryptocurrencies will be a very nice innovation especially when sending it to a far away churches or one's home church, this way no monitoring by financial agents and low transfer fee.

That is absolutely fascinating. I guess I never really thought to look at places like churches to accept bitcoin but I guess this is another space that is necessary for mass adoption.

I'm also thinking that what they only know about bitcoin is its old use as a tool for illegal transactions and they are still not aware that it's already on the mainstream and everyone can use it for good transactions as well.

We can't force them to use bitcoin if they don't want to use it and disagrees to its adoption. Yet, I'm still very curious to know what are those religions that you he had mentioned.

Surprisingly churches here too accept bitcoin as a donation. They are filled with old and traditional people yet they have been given some sort of information from another organization that manages the address for them and process the exchange to give churches cash. The churches are nearly financially independent for the task they manage and bitcoin is bringing donations from near and far.

Here in my country, there are actually lot of merchants now that accepting bitcoin as mode of payment to their business already.
But I never heard and didn't know that there is some church accepting bitcoin. what does that means? are they accepting it as one of the donation or offering?

Most likely, because if we are talking about church involving money, the first thing that will come into our mind is the donation.
Church soon will also adopt with the technology as more option will help them receive more donations.
They have to increase the donations received and find ways to do it as the church only live in donations of the people or its followers.

It depends on their mentality too. I'm sure that a lot of churches are so conservative and government supportive, that they might not even want to accept it because it's being created out of thin air and doesn't have a central bank behind it.

I still bump into people from time to time who can't or don't want to understand that the government not backing it doesn't mean Bitcoin is a scam or safe haven currency for criminals.

I see the problem mainly being the transaction fees due small scale donations. If they don't understand how Bitcoin works and send a multi input transaction with a low fee, it may be stuck for days depending on the state of the network.

I don't if this could bring an enlightenment like for the people of the book, but I believe here in our country, the mass or majority of the people believe in our leader, the president. The thing is he doesn't support any churches at all. The fact that he does't care about the 500 years upcoming celebration of Christianity here proves he don't mingle at all.

I never heard such thing here on our country since bitcoin is still not legalized here though there are merchants that accept bitcoin. But hopefully if ever there will be a mass adoption on churches, i hope bitcoin would not be use for their own purpose.

Churches are moving with the new trend.Great news to here.Old barrios will break.BTC wallets will open.From now on our btc lovers can send their donations directly to church's account.If the churches can accept bitcoin why the companies can't accept that? Great news ..Great start..

It's has always been a great relief anytime is see that some people are adopting the use of cryptocurrencies in all this hatred and denial about cryptocurrencies. This would go a long way to change the perceptions of believers about the use of cryptocurrencies and the fact that it is not some sort of scammers currency.

You guys should check out biblepay if this is your thing. I know you asked for bitcoin but biblepay is better it has its very own currency. I'm insure of they support churches yet but I know they include Bible versus in their block chain. It might be something some of you will take interest in.

It is great that some church are accepting it as donation.
And I think it could help them a lot just imagine some church from other countries that is doing some activities to help others and need some funds.
People from all over the world could help them easily and they would get the money way more faster.

Some people here saying that it is not right. Well, I guess it is not wrong to follow what is on-trend. Group of religious are using cryptocurrency for funding and that is a good start. They have the advantage. They for sure have the knowledge. We should see this as a kind of adoption in the real world and not just in the virtual world.

I have never seen this, even because many religious tend to stay away from technology and its innovations. Furthermore, many religious people have issues with money: many of them see money as an evil thing, and preach against the accumulation of material goods.
So, bitcoin, as a speculative investment is very frowned upon among these groups. I don't think they are going to adopt it now or soon. I know not all religious communities think this way and some of them value prosperity as result from hard work, but it's not the case here.

I mentioned the idea to my local pastor and he was not familiar with how BITCOIN would be able to benefit the church.
He is a older man so this is probably the reason why he was not familiar with the new technology even though he said he was aware it existed
Maybe if your church pastor is younger and interested in crypto then your church will begin to accept BITCOIN but mine was not willing to do so.

Sounds good but in our country the scene is different! Church or any kind of religious institutions won't take donations in online money! They say donation should be hand to hand or in real cash, not in Payoneer or any other currency, but if you want to donate from other countries, then online money can be accepted! In our country, Bitcoin still needs 20 years more to be accepted in these sectors!

in London there are some public figures who accept donations for public needs by receiving BTC.  the Bitcoin community in my country has active transactions using BTC.  adoption is very important.  but knowledge is also very important for stabilizing the graph.

The churches accepting bitcoin around the globe is not a big thing in my view. Particularly this is very common with churches on the western nation. Few years back itself this is being started by the churches, what they need is donations and when people are ready to give in terms of cryptocurrencies and if they're not ready then loss is to the church fund. Accounting the same long back itself churches started accepting bitcoins as donations.

I never seen any churches accepting Bitcoin but that doesn't mean that every religious tend to stay away from technology, money or sees money as evil thing because you totally misunderstand the stand of religious people as money is concern because they actually believe much love or chasing after money (greed) lead to people doing evil thing which what make some scammers abusing the benefit of crypto currency.

Our churches here in my country is not yet accepting bitcoin as donations or financial assistance but i know few years from now it will start to deal with bitcoins too knowing that some banks here are already studying into accepting bitcoin. 20 years is just too long for my country to be inclined with bitcoin. It might be realized already maybe 5-10 years from now.

Well this would only make sense because the church can not argue with receiving donations for their cause because this how they funds their entire congregation and nothing else but from the kindness of their followers and church goers.
The muslim religion has accepted using bitcoin by making it halal so why wouldnt the other religions as well? :-[

Maybe that will be changed in no time, when bitcoin explode and be adopted in anywhere in the world your country have no choice but to also
follow the trend, accepting the system and churches will also follow it and begin to embrace this venue of donation process, every countries have its
own time in terms of adopting the chain.

I doubt it will a real problem to accept or not the Bitcoin as a global payment method for churches. Governments also join the trends but Bitcoin is not something can be outdated so soon.

That is actually a good reason and its true that its easier to move the money faster using crypto and because the bitcoin is not affected with inflation then the church could help more people, now the only challenge is the fluctuative price and some people don't really like about bitcoin reputation, but for me this is a good way to used bitcoin

Congregations accepts everything from farmers crops, farm animals to digital currencies and to them they are all money.  Individuals who gave them all these are the ones motivating these congregations, all they need to say is if you give you are SAVED! If they hide thier business to church to evade tax, all the more they would go for BTC as they can just receive BTC without declaring it to the government.

In countries where Cryptocurrency is a leagal form of payment, there is no problem with churches accepting crypto as offering or donations. After all, it is money that can be exchanged into fiat very easily so its a good thing.

I am just using a platform that will alow me to buy smartphone loads for text, chat and calls. Other than that the platform now accepts bills payment in electricity, water connection bills and other esports games offering even lower fees than the usual payment using third party service like bayad center or remittances. Thus, letting you know the current adaptation of bitcoin in our country as you ask for it in your thread OP.

Now, churches of course cab accept that especially it is a donation. The churches never ever rejected to accept donations especially monetary donations.

Bitcoin and Jesus? What is this, a crossover episode? :D You know, CROSSover :D

Jokes ahead, it's good that more and more organizations are giving a chance to this technology. I keep my fingers crossed for every of such actions

In my country, we still not integrate yet the use of digital currency in donating in churches. I believe that it is so modest and good if we will donate tangible things. Though you have the same objectives, it can be appreciated by the church if you will not use the technology. I will not give any cryptocurrency in church because I respect it the most. If ever they accept it, I rather to give thighs using fiat.

Churches are also adopting technologies, and they have to because they need funds to help their services. Its good that churches are also improving, just to give some insight Churches in my country owns a lot of investment and they are one of the major investors on our top local bank, so I think they are also looking for more investment and with bitcoin they can earn more without paying high taxes.

That's a good thing, but I think it won't affect the future of BTC . Agree that churches accept BTC, we can use BTC to donate to churches. But that was just something extremely small. I still hope to have bigger elements ..  ::) ::)

I think all institutes which don't seek profit should accept any cryptocurrencies. I mean they are mostly getting funds by donations so why should they say no to any kind of money. If i were an administrator of a church or foundation i would put a huge Accept Bitcoin&Altcoin banner.

Did I say *every*? I said many.
Not all religions and their preachers are against money and technology, but it's undeniable that are many of them who are. Sometimes the religion isn't even against it, but its preachers interpret the commandments and sacred words in a very strict way for ignorance or personal goals.

That's the best donation ever could be for churches. Imagine, someone made a donation with 10 btc 5 years ago :) Churches could be best cryptocurrency hodlers. What if they mine crypto in their's church's basement.

Bitcoin as a donation in church is lovely idea. selling bitcoin will help in solving most of financial problems facing the church

What ever you donates even fiat or cryptocurrency as long as your really willing to do that and have a good purposes that is good.
This means other church now accepting cryptocurrency for the people who wants to donate will be a good news because even the churches will support cryptocurrency. But my country will not accept cryptocurrency as donations to the church.

I think if there is still a lot of sensitivity in bitcoin in religion, there might be a church that accepts bitcoin as a payment, but I prefer to donate money because bitcoin could experience price declines and to be changed in money must require a lot of process. I would rather recommend money for religious matters, especially in the church

there should be a special body that oversees church funding for bitcoin. because bitcoin is very related to virtual, so when there are contributors to bitcoin in the church, they should be able to deal with it and church readiness is also needed for bitcoin acceptance and the like

Good thing some churches in selected areas are open for bitcoin donations. A good step for mass adoption. However, in my country, it is not yet well known and only selected merchants are accepting btc and other coins as a payment but not with the churches. Maybe, if churches are well esucayed about this king of digital currencies, it maybe an eye opener to them. It is beneficial although the price is flactuating but we can handle that issue as btc is volatile.

No I haven't and it would be weird if some churches here in the country accepts bitcoin as donation because we are a religious country after all. Church offerings are usually done by passing a basket and dropping the money there until all passed through. Its odd if they pass a POS together with the basket for BTC donations. Although i know some churches who accepts checks and credit card, i cant say that bitcoin would be one because the church needed to have a bitcoin address and could loss the money through time without proper guidance. Converting it into fiat would be a great source.

Of course, whatever kind of medium you use as long as the essence is for giving, church would not refuse it. I think invention of cryptocurrency is a blessing for those people who needs a helping hand. In return, churches will be also a blessing for cryptocurrency, why? People who has a negative views about Bitcoin will not over doubt the existence of it because it became an access for giving.