Letter to the EFF

[BrightAnarchist]

Hmm, is there a reason to censor their ... name?

Please remove these names immediately.

[BrightAnarchist]

GREAT NEWS!!

I heard back today. Basically, they say that yes they got the account and that they're most likely going to liquidate the coins for USD through one of the exchanges.

In addition, they also said:

"Once all the logistics are squared away, we plan to place this on our Ways to Help page and notify our social networks. At this time, it isn't possible to integrate it with our membership donation forms.  Thanks for taking the time to contact us again and for everyone's generosity!"

So it looks like they're going to post a Bitcoin donation address in their "Ways to Help" page!

YaHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[BrightAnarchist]

Btw, the reason it took so long way due to the difficulty of deciding if they wanted to be accepting anonymous donations via Bitcoin or not. Looks like they decided yes, even if they put it in a "less formal" donation area.

[kiba]

Two months of work....success!

[MoonShadow]

Btw, the reason it took so long way due to the difficulty of deciding if they wanted to be accepting anonymous donations via Bitcoin or not. Looks like they decided yes, even if they put it in a "less formal" donation area.

I wonder if there is a legal liability with accepting anonymous donations.  I know that donations to political action committees and election campaigns require disclosure.  Perhaps they were trying to figure out a way to accept them and keep the funds seperate of their political activities.

[kiba]

I guess this thread will be used for news of EFF's eventual implementation of bitcoins.

[mizerydearia]

I had contacted Aaron (EFF's Aaron, not Aaron name changed below) yesterday with the following message:

Hello Aaron,

Apparently your organization has not produced a response or message to the Bitcoin community regarding and a lack of attention or update is generating a bit of concern.  I have not been included in the emails that have been sent beyond the one below, however, you may see the current status of the community discussion at http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=804.180

Sincerely,
Mizery

Here is their response:

Hey Aaron* and Mizery. It's taken longer to get back to you than I expected - I apologize for causing any panic.  While we like the idea of incorporating an anonymous donation system with Bitcoin, it's not a small decision for us.  Most of EFF's suppport comes from checks and credit cards so there are pros and cons to consider in adding this. I hope you don't think we left you in the dust! I have the MyBitcoin account info from before and I recently set up a Bitcoin Market account as we will likely exchange these via PayPal later on.

We are currently using the address: 1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt, however the market site states, "CAUTION: ALL BITCOIN ADDRESSES FOR DEPOSITS HAVE CHANGED" and I'm not certain what that means. What am I missing?

Once all the logistics are squared away, we plan to place this on our Ways to Help page and notify our social networks. At this time, it isn't possible to integrate it with our membership donation forms.  Thanks for taking the time to contact us again and for everyone's generosity!

* Bitcoin community member name changed since it is not identical to their forum alias.

My follow-up:

Hello Aaron,

Thank you for your prompt response.
        
Regarding https://bitcoinmarket.com's cautionary warning, you should not have any concern for it really.  What it means is, if you have previously saved into your address book or other means a Bitcoin address for depositing bitcoins from your client into your Bitcoin Market account, you may want to take caution and to verify that the address is updated since the site owner has establish a new Bitcoin wallet and therefore will not actively monitor previously established addresses.  If you have a Bitcoin Market account you may visit the "Funds" page at https://bitcoinmarket.com/home/funds/ and see a similar notice, warning you to make certain that when you send bitcoins to make sure it is the correct address.  Do keep in mind that http://bitcoinmarket.com is an exchange market and is separate service/site owner from http://mybitcoin.com  Additionally there are other exchange markets besides Bitcoin Market.  You can see which other exchange markets exist by visiting http://bitcoin.org/trade.  Mt. Gox is also popular.

Additionally, do keep in mind that the value of bitcoins are in flux.  About four months ago someone offered 10,000 bitcoins for about us$25 worth of pizza.  Just about two weeks ago 10,000 bitcoins were exchangeable for ~us$650.  About one week ago, 10,000 bitcoins were exchangeable for ~us$580.  Now, 10,000 bitcoins is exchangeable for ~us$709.  It is very likely that the value will increase in the next few days, however, it is not guaranteed.  You should also consider the likelihood that bitcoins will increase in value and for example (this is just an example and may or may not be true at any time), 10,000 bitcoins could be valued at ~us$70,000 or even beyond.  Considering that as bitcoins becomes more successful and used more by the masses, the value will increase, and therefore you may want to consider preserving donations as bitcoins and not to convert or exchange it into usd or another currency.  However, the choice is yours.
        
Sincerely,
Mizery

[theymos]

We are currently using the address: 1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt, however the market site states, "CAUTION: ALL BITCOIN ADDRESSES FOR DEPOSITS HAVE CHANGED" and I'm not certain what that means. What am I missing?

Tell them that this is only relevant for people who had BCM's receiving address saved. BCM regenerated everyone's unique address for deposits into BCM.

The warnings at the top of bitcoin.org, bitcoin.org/smf/, and BCM don't look good to outsiders... It makes the system look unstable.

[BioMike]

WOW, great!

[mizerydearia]

Response to my email (above):

Thanks, Mizery! I'm going to check out Mt. Gox as well. It's pretty new to most of us, so thank you for your advice and help.

[kiba]

So I don't see any mentions to donating to bitcoins on EFF's WAY TO HELP page?

[true]

Great - another way to fund useless "rights protectors" that do little more than talk about how good they are and take high profile cases to elevate lawyer's income and / or egos.

[kiba]

Someone will need to commence asking EFF what is up.

[FreeMoney]

Great - another way to fund useless "rights protectors" that do little more than talk about how good they are and take high profile cases to elevate lawyer's income and / or egos.

Yeah you can't blame them though, they wouldn't want to put a reference to bitcoin on the site and have it come up during their fancy dinners with congressmen.

[kiba]

Seem to me that nobody is willing to do the deed, I guess I'll have to contact them.

[MoonShadow]

Seem to me that nobody is willing to do the deed, I guess I'll have to contact them.

I sent them an email about four days ago, I have had no response.

[Timo Y]

Success!

http://www.eff.org/helpout

"Donate to EFF using Bitcoin P2P Cryptocurrency. Transfer money from your Bitcoin account to ours: 1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt"

[BrightAnarchist]

Success!

http://www.eff.org/helpout

"Donate to EFF using Bitcoin P2P Cryptocurrency. Transfer money from your Bitcoin account to ours: 1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt"

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!

Me very excite!!

[ShadowOfHarbringer]

Success!

http://www.eff.org/helpout

"Donate to EFF using Bitcoin P2P Cryptocurrency. Transfer money from your Bitcoin account to ours: 1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt"

Dear Sir, that is pure juicy AWESOMNESS !
Bitcoin rocks !

[da2ce7]

Yeah, thanks heaps! I just sent 50