2013-02-19 thenextweb.com - Internet Archive Starts Taking Bitcoin Donations to

[Maciek]

Internet Archive Starts Taking Bitcoin Donations to Pay Employees

The Internet Archive on Thursday made a bold announcement: the organization is considering giving all its employees the option to be paid in Bitcoin. The move is apparently in response to employees asking to be paid in the digital currency, as soon as this April.

Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency, currently the most-widely used alternative to common forms of money. Because it has no central issuer, it has no single authority and thus no way to lock out certain users (or countries) out of the network. Bitcoin can be used to pay for certain transactions both offline and online.

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http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/02/21/after-employees-opt-to-be-paid-in-bitcoin-the-internet-archive-asks-for-donations-in-the-digital-currency/

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[Phinnaeus Gage]

One down, X employers, worldwide, to go.

[bits4coins]

fabulous news!

the original announcement by the Internet Archive is here
http://blog.archive.org/2013/02/21/employees-to-be-paid-in-bitcoin-please-donate/#comment-255751

[Mike Christ]

Awesome!  I wish my employer paid me with bits...

[marcus_of_augustus]

Wow .... pioneering experiment.

[Stephen Gornick]

The Internet Archive does benefit from being among the first to accept Bitcoins and also being a service that many Bitcoiners use and support therefore they got a fair number of coins ... 822 BTC show as the total received and a balance yet of 336 BTC.
 - http://blockchain.info/address/17gN64BPHtxi4mEM3qWrxdwhieUvRq8R2r

It would be great to know the intentions of the employees who are opting to receive some of their salary as bitcoins.  Are they doing so because they are going to keep the coins (e.g., as investment / speculation), or do they plan to make purchases with bitcoins, or are they simply going to cash out to a local currency?

I know that organizations that need to send funds to a global workforce are constantly challenged with payment networks which have high conversion costs and limitations.  Bitcoin cuts through so much of the burden for the employer that using bitcoin instead will be a natural progression.  So far it is the P2P Foundation, Bitcoin Foundation and the Internet Archive as the first organizations to publicly state that they pay salaries using bitcoins.  When that list includes other org oDesk, Freelancer.com, eLance, etc. -- all of which would benefit greatly from offering Bitcoin as a funds transfer method for their businesses we'll know there's no turning back.

[TraderTimm]

Its nice seeing an organization with the foresight to take a reasonable risk. Well done!

[Akka]

Wow, this is really surprising.

Interesting to see if / how much of their employees will take the offer.

[Mike Christ]

I'd like to see how they'll average out the wage.  If bitcoin's value is going to be jumping back and forth, you could be getting paid great one day, and then blam, minimum wage or less.

[Serenata]

It would be great to know the intentions of the employees who are opting to receive some of their salary as bitcoins.  Are they doing so because they are going to keep the coins (e.g., as investment / speculation), or do they plan to make purchases with bitcoins, or are they simply going to cash out to a local currency?

I suppose it will be both; spend some, keep some. But if there are more people with bitcoins in their hands (so to speak) that need to be spent, then there going to be more merchants wishing to accept them.

[Frequency]

Very good news.. great to see another very intresting party getting in to BTC....!!!

[mccorvic]

So awesome!

[ArticMine]

I find the motivation for seeking donations in BTC, namely paying employees, particularly significant. It implies saving on currency conversion fees and / or hedging currency exposure.