Bitcoin Offering in Churches

[Makus]

May the Lord of Christians forgive me if this is a sin, the pastor is probably accepting Bitcoin because he understands that it can't be traceable by anyone, since it's church offering.

A pastor taking Bitcoin as offering is quite questionable, why would he even consider to do this aside from the fact that those money being paid are laundered or cannot be traced, don't let religion make you assume that the questions you ask about this are not valid or they are a sin, we are supposed to think logically when it comes to situations like this because it's actually not right.

There's definitely more going on here that a lot of people are yet to know about or perhaps he has his reasons for taking these funds in Bitcoin.

[lombok]

May the Lord of Christians forgive me if this is a sin, the pastor is probably accepting Bitcoin because he understands that it can't be traceable by anyone, since it's church offering.

A pastor taking Bitcoin as offering is quite questionable, why would he even consider to do this aside from the fact that those money being paid are laundered or cannot be traced, don't let religion make you assume that the questions you ask about this are not valid or they are a sin, we are supposed to think logically when it comes to situations like this because it's actually not right.

There's definitely more going on here that a lot of people are yet to know about or perhaps he has his reasons for taking these funds in Bitcoin.

Such concerns about the willingness of religionists to accept crypto assets can be easily explained since many perceive the decentralized nature of the technology as a tool used for making money laundering possible through the absence of control from the legal institutions. Blockchain accounting technology does not provide any opportunity to remain unnoticed, since each transaction gets registered in a decentralized manner and becomes accessible to anybody in the world. Houses of worship are usually trying to use the advantage of sending money across borders without having to pay extra expenses associated with shipping money from foreign countries wishing to make a contribution to help. Using crypto technology allows easy check of money balance transparency without having to use any bank intermediation services associated with high commission charges.

[davis196]

- How would you handle volatility?
If someone gives $100 in BTC on Sunday and it's $85 on Monday,
who takes the loss?

- Should the church convert instantly to fiat or keep it as church treasury? Our pastor asked me this and I didn't have a good answer.

Nobody "takes the loss". The church is not a profit-driven organization. Religious donations cannot be considered "revenue" or "income".
It's up to the person, who collects the BTC donations to decide when to convert the Bitcoins into fiat. He can decide to convert them as fast as possible in order to neutralize price volatility, or he can decide to just HODL. Congrats to the open-minded pastor in your church for accepting BTC/crypto donations. I have never seen any church in my country to accept crypto donations. The church in my country is heavily subsidized by the government, so the priests don't care that much about collecting donations.

[Call_Me_Guru]

What do you think?

You asked so many questions that are repetitive and you are not sincere with the true reflection of the fact. Bitcoin will charge more than an average means of making transfer nowadays. Gone are the days you would be crying that banks transfer charges will suck your money, many fintechs have taken that place and they do spend money homes as if you are sending money within your country.

Bitcoin is a good choice if the pastor knows how to handle it, but they shouldn't pretend it's for the high fees. People abroad send money home daily, the mother could bring it in cash to the church if she wanted. If they prefer to pay in Bitcoin, God doesn't need it physically seen before the offering is accepted.

[5W-KILO]

It's actually not a bad plan, it means that people around the world can choose to pay tithes without having to come down to the church, once they have the Bitcoin address they can keep paying their offerings this way.

The only problem here is the person in charge of the Bitcoin wallet private key, if it's in one man's control they can one day decide to steal everything and move away from the city or even the country if the amount is good enough.

The elders in the church must all come together and open a Bitcoin address where the keys can be shared among three elders in the church, meaning one person can't move funds without the others approving it.

[Italian Panic]

My Church Started Accepting Bitcoin Offering

I don’t know where you’re from or how things work where you are, but in my case, the various churches scattered across the country have to find a way to survive on their own without any help from the Vatican, which sends no aid to keep the local church afloat; on the contrary, it never misses an opportunity to remind them that they have to fend for themselves. Thanks for the idea.
Donations in Bitcoin would be a godsend for these communities, especially the smaller ones, should Bitcoin’s value rise significantly. In fact, Bitcoin represents exactly what the Church wants from the faithful: untraceable donations, and that is precisely what Bitcoin is. A donation is tax free and is an excellent way to raise funds; you cannot give 5k dollars to a friend, but you can certainly donate it to the Church.

[knowngunman]

Stop!
- making things up
- post nonsense
- trying to fish merits

Finally, someone pay attention!

I'm surprised that several replies above yours didn't notice the nonsense (probably AI made up story) they're replying to. Maybe people just want to air their opinion without even questioning how genuine the thread is.

If fishing merits is this easy, everyone should be legendary by now 

Try more effort, Op.

But I have yet to see QR codes for Bitcoin or crypto donation or offering. It would be interesting if OP could share some pics.

You won't see because the story is likely made up. According to Op, he will share the QR on Sunday if the forum admin permit it. Lol

I can't wait to check back on Sunday. Remember they have small balance in their wallet. We can verify everything on chain and if his story check out, I will offer my apologies by the way.

[Supreme Donvic]

~
- Has anyone seen a church,mosque,temple accepting Bitcoin as offering or tithe regularly?

 Does it work long term?
- How would you handle volatility?
If someone gives $100 in BTC on Sunday and it's $85 on Monday,
who takes the loss?

- Should the church convert instantly to fiat or keep it as church treasury? Our pastor asked me this and I didn't have a good answer.

What do you think?

This is first time that I hard of that chiurch accepts Bitcoin. It really surprised me, because I cant imagine a church acepting BTC in my country. Maybe the example that you presented will set up a trend and more churches will start accepting donations in BTC.

Also to answer your question if I would be a priest and if I received BTC donation I would just hold in on the wallet (as Iexpect for BTC price to rise), and sold it just if there is a big need for it.

Wow so this is the first time you are hearing that a church accepts Bitcoin as offering, I have not just heard it, I have seen it, there is a church a friend of mine invited me, in the church they accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency as offering and tithe, it is not a new thing and I think I have seen a thread about a church accepting Bitcoin even a School in this forum.

It won't be possible for you to hold the Bitcoin for long-term and waiting for it so rise because the money is actually in position of the treasurer and not the priest or the pastor and I'm sure no treasure will take the risk because the money can reduce because of Bitcoin volatile nature.
Churches won't hold bitcoin paid as offering, tithe or donation for long term except they have decided to run a bitcoin investment with those offering, tithe and donations.

[SamReomo]

Should the church convert instantly to fiat or keep it as church treasury? Our pastor asked me this and I didn't have a good answer.

What do you think?

The people at church might not understand how Bitcoin works even if they understand it they will not be able to secure their Bitcoin holdings from hackers and scammers. Now I will come back to your questions they should convert it to fiat for their own peace of mind so they can spend it easily and it won't be affected by the volatility of Bitcoin market.

[As-Soon-As]

- Should the church convert instantly to fiat or keep it as church treasury? Our pastor asked me this and I didn't have a good answer.

What do you think?

It is best to hold Bitcoin for the long term, tell the person in charge of your church that you will keep Bitcoin for this church at a long-term rate. The longer you hold Bitcoin, the more its value will increase and your wallet will be filled with donations, then by donating to each other in one place, you will receive a large amount of Bitcoin as a gift. Just be patient for a long time, of course you will be able to receive the capital of Bitcoin with benefits.
So no one will have to bear this loss for this short period of time, you will continue to get more benefits from holding Bitcoin.

[Itz-prisigold]

Nah...this isn't a real story, and in fact it is AI  generated. I don't think a church will do that, if they wanted to receive money from their international members, they'd send them the address or bar code in this scenario, and not display it for offering.

Although, I do find the story funny, but it was obviously AI generated.

I think it’s not really okay for you to dismiss this story quickly or even go to the extend of saying it’s AI generated story just because you don’t believe it. Giving Bitcoin donations to Church is not an impossible or new concept as many people may think,  and having a QR code to scan and send the donation to the wallet is a simple and convenient solution for church members to donate without asking for the wallet address. After all even if the QR code is displayed, that doesn’t stop the church from giving out their wallet address privately to those outside the country.

Yeah it’s true that we cannot actually confirm if this particular incident really occur, but I don’t think it right for us to just dismiss the whole thing as an impossible situation just because it sounds like Ai generated.

[Rockstarguy]

- The youth abroad actually prefer it. They send $10-$20 instantly, no Western Union $12 fee.

- The elders don't trust it. How will we count it on Sunday if it's in the phone?

- The treasurer now has to learn what a confirmation is.

It's been 1 month, total ∼$68 in BTC. Not much, but more than we expected.

This is one of the advantages of bitcoin; it can go across every location without any protocol. For those who follow church services, it will not be easy for them to pay some offerings, and bitcoin is a good option. I don’t see this as something bad because there are some churches that have gone global; it is people from different locations, and bitcoin is a good option for transactions.

Apart from churches, there are services that accept bitcoin because of how global they have gone and because of the adoption of bitcoin. People are willing to spend bitcoin just as traditional money is spent.

[fighter2627]

Honestly speaking, I don't see anything wrong with a church accepting offerings or tithes through bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.

If the advantages and cons of Bitcoins can be explained properly and correctly, it would actually be a good idea for any church organization to do this,
in my opinion.

[Antotena]

First of all, this is literally the first time I’m hearing this, but I think I really like the sound of that. I don’t know why I just really get excited over every form of usage of Bitcoin, especially in the most unexpected ways lol. Accepting Bitcoin in a church just shows that Bitcoin is actually serving its purpose, I mean it’s doing what it knows how to do best, that’s being a seamless form of payment, especially across borders.
Yeah, they would’ve probably been charged a high fee if they used other alternatives to send their offerings, especially when the amounts are small; but thank God for Bitcoin right??

I don't want to call OP a liar because I have seen churches post chruch account number in many social media and they also makes followers pay tithe on live settings. I don't see anything wrong with that as long as the followers are willing to pay, it's their money and if they feel it's their responsibility, then there is nothing that is not possible. Bitcoin is a money and people can do anything for the house of God. If non government organization accept crypto donations, churches can accept it too.

My fear is how churches tend to manage transactions that may not be clean. Some people are dangerous, they can send transaction that is not clean to the wallet address if there is any and since government frowned on using organization to launder money, they will get acused of doing such. I think the better they use the banking system the better unless if they are not touching the donations.

[Taricoins]

This is rally wild, I didn't even think of this sector when we talk about mass adoption of Bitcoin and looking at it, it makes sense especially for members that are currently outside the country, the best I have come to this same experience was a time in my church where the youth where requesting funds from other youth members to complete a project and one sent through bitcoin transfer

[Tungbulu]

My fear is how churches tend to manage transactions that may not be clean. Some people are dangerous, they can send transaction that is not clean to the wallet address if there is any and since government frowned on using organization to launder money, they will get acused of doing such. I think the better they use the banking system the better unless if they are not touching the donations.

Even dirty money could be sent through the traditional banking channels you know. The thing is, no one would actually know if it’s dirty money or not, but the in my opinion I think it’s most unlikely that anyone would wanna send in such Bitcoin to a church wallet, but even if they do, the leave they can do is investigate it, and they’ll still not be able to find anything, except of course there was actually something hidden in the cupboard.

[JoyMarsha]

Does it work long term?
- How would you handle volatility?
If someone gives $100 in BTC on Sunday and it's $85 on Monday,
who takes the loss?

- Should the church convert instantly to fiat or keep it as church treasury? Our pastor asked me this and I didn't have a good answer.

What do you think?

It's funny that your pastor is asking you this about Bitcoin.
Why is he adding Bitcoin as part of the church offering when he doesn't know what to do when Bitcoin is sent to the church's Bitcoin address, because that will be easily accessible to the public, to know the amount of Bitcoin being received and sent out.

Already, a church that wants to add Bitcoin to its offerings box should know how the volatility of Bitcoin works. What to do or not to do when Bitcoin is received.

Your pastor should first be grounded in Bitcoin knowledge so that questions and confusion about this will not arise from his side or from the church members sides about the Bitcoin that is being sent to the church's Bitcoin address

[Anayochukwu]

This is the first time I'm hearing that a church is accepting Bitcoin as an offering, what should we call this new development? Isn't it going to be a distraction?  Is this true or op is just making up stories?

I won't blame the elders for not trusting it because they have use Fiat currency as a form of offering and this is a new change that they can understand if you explain to them that Bitcoin can be used as Fiat to purchase things too since they have bank accounts were they receive money from their children home and in abroad, its volatility could cost confusion in the church because that $85 may drop to $50 and you have to explain it to everybody and the treasurer should be ready to explain hence the reason why I asked if it isn't going to be a distraction in the church since many people don't understand how it works.

[Sobz]

My fear is how churches tend to manage transactions that may not be clean. Some people are dangerous, they can send transaction that is not clean to the wallet address if there is any and since government frowned on using organization to launder money, they will get acused of doing such. I think the better they use the banking system the better unless if they are not touching the donations.

Even dirty money could be sent through the traditional banking channels you know. The thing is, no one would actually know if it’s dirty money or not, but the in my opinion I think it’s most unlikely that anyone would wanna send in such Bitcoin to a church wallet, but even if they do, the leave they can do is investigate it, and they’ll still not be able to find anything, except of course there was actually something hidden in the cupboard.

If dirty money is being sent it has nothing to do with the church because if the church has no hand in money laundering they have no querry. Money launderer who send money to a church account and if it is traced this doesn't mean this doesn't mean the church will hold responsible.  The church is a place where all kind of people are gathered, both bad and good, so if dirty money is being dropped, the government understands how they can go about it with their investigation.

[ovcijisir]

~
Wow so this is the first time you are hearing that a church accepts Bitcoin as offering, I have not just heard it, I have seen it, there is a church a friend of mine invited me, in the church they accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency as offering and tithe, it is not a new thing and I think I have seen a thread about a church accepting Bitcoin even a School in this forum.

~

Well if this is so wide spread, maybe you could provide some website of the parish where they claim that they receive BTC tithe.

I believe that OP didn't send any link to prove his claim on the the thread so far...