Wikipedia and Paypal, Most Favored Nation Status

[TippingPoint]

This might explain why Wikipedia has repeatedly rejected requests to accept Bitcoin donations:



Has Paypal "requested" that Wikipedia not accept Bitcoin donations?  Is this an illegal restraint of trade?

[1715592285]

1715592285

[BadBitcoin (James Sutton)]

it really seems like they want to kick the gift horse in the mouth for not taking bitcoins...
I don't understand their thought process in not accepting them unless they believe bitcoins to be "politically controversial" or something of that nature.

[Epicurus]

Occam's Razor guys, come on.

They take paypal because it's one of the most widely used money transfer methods in the western world. They don't take bitcoin because the number of people that use it is insignificant at this point and so integration is not worth it.

[TippingPoint]

"Not worth it"?  It is free money.  And they are begging.

[countryfree]

Don't be negative. Maybe they're thinking about bitcoin, but that they think few people would give in bitcoin. Hey, just compare the number of people who have a Paypal account versus the number of people who have a bitcoin wallet.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/FAQ/en#How_much_money_are_you_hoping_to_raise.3F

Why does the Wikimedia Foundation not currently accept Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a form of crypto-currency; in their own words, "an experimental new digital currency that enables instant payments to anyone, anywhere in the world."(Bitcoin P2P Digital Currency. Retrieved 2 November 2011.) The Wikimedia Foundation's position on the matter is as follows:

The Wikimedia Foundation, as a donor-driven organization, has a fiduciary duty to be responsible and prudent with its money. This has been interpreted to mean that we do not accept "artificial" currencies – that is, those not backed by the full faith and credit of an issuing government. We do, however, strive to provide as many methods of donating as possible and continue to monitor Bitcoin with interest and may revisit this position should circumstances change.

The Wikimedia Foundation does try to make donating as easy as possible, however. For a list of ways to give, see Ways to Give.

But they do accept Amazon Payments:

What is Amazon Payments?

Amazon Payments is a service that provides you with the ability to send and receive payments for goods or services by using the payment methods already associated with your Amazon.com account. To make a payment, you can use a credit card, bank account, or Amazon Payments Account balance.

How soon will it be that one will be able to donate to Wikipedia via Amazon Coins?

First Bitcoin, Now Amazon Coins – Amazon Releases New Virtual Currency

Today Amazon announced they have launched their own virtual currency, called “Amazon Coins”.   With all the recent fanfare with Bitcoins, it was inevitable that other companies would test the currency waters.

Currently, they're only used for purchasing apps--CURRENTLY!

When that day comes, it would surely negate...

...we do not accept "artificial" currencies...

[BitTrade]

https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/FAQ/en#How_much_money_are_you_hoping_to_raise.3F

Why does the Wikimedia Foundation not currently accept Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a form of crypto-currency; in their own words, "an experimental new digital currency that enables instant payments to anyone, anywhere in the world."(Bitcoin P2P Digital Currency. Retrieved 2 November 2011.) The Wikimedia Foundation's position on the matter is as follows:

The Wikimedia Foundation, as a donor-driven organization, has a fiduciary duty to be responsible and prudent with its money. This has been interpreted to mean that we do not accept "artificial" currencies – that is, those not backed by the full faith and credit of an issuing government. We do, however, strive to provide as many methods of donating as possible and continue to monitor Bitcoin with interest and may revisit this position should circumstances change.

The Wikimedia Foundation does try to make donating as easy as possible, however. For a list of ways to give, see Ways to Give.

But they do accept Amazon Payments:

What is Amazon Payments?

Amazon Payments is a service that provides you with the ability to send and receive payments for goods or services by using the payment methods already associated with your Amazon.com account. To make a payment, you can use a credit card, bank account, or Amazon Payments Account balance.

How soon will it be that one will be able to donate to Wikipedia via Amazon Coins?

First Bitcoin, Now Amazon Coins – Amazon Releases New Virtual Currency

Today Amazon announced they have launched their own virtual currency, called “Amazon Coins”.   With all the recent fanfare with Bitcoins, it was inevitable that other companies would test the currency waters.

Currently, they're only used for purchasing apps--CURRENTLY!

When that day comes, it would surely negate...

...we do not accept "artificial" currencies...

I like your analysis.. It would be interesting to monitor this, and point out the glaring hypocrisy if wikipedia ends up accepting amazon's virtual currency.

[Gabi]

The wikimedia foundation clearly DO NOT need money.

Why do you keep wanting to give money to who do not need it? 

[Peter Lambert]

"Not worth it"?  It is free money.  And they are begging.

It is "free money" in that people are willing to give it to them, but to figure out how to accept it and what to do if they got any requires some work, and I guess they think they will not get enough donations to justify spending the time to set up payment processing, and integration to their current accounting policies.

[moni3z]

Doesn't Bitpay provide instant BTC->USD for registered charities at no cost?

I also fail to understand why they can't accept advertising and auction off the spots with a contract stipulating the advertisers have absolutely no say what goes on in the articles. So when you look up "VIrtual Private Network" there could be some non intrusive ads on the right side for some service providers and as long as they are fully transparent about it, and aren't doing any data mining for marketers what's the problem.

[TippingPoint]

"Not worth it"?  It is free money.  And they are begging.

It is "free money" in that people are willing to give it to them, but to figure out how to accept it and what to do if they got any requires some work, and I guess they think they will not get enough donations to justify spending the time to set up payment processing, and integration to their current accounting policies.

The low-cost solution for them is to download a free wallet, publish one Bitcoin address on their donation page, wait for whatever period of time they want, and check the total.  No other action is required.

[surebet]

*snip*

Come on Phin, get your head out of your ass. Amazon coins are the same thing as Facebook credits of Zynga tokens, an internal method of payment across apps, within the Amazon ecosystem. It has nothing to do with bitcoin, and to keep bringing it up as a comparison just makes you look unable to comprehend how things work.