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Topic: Getting Wikipedia to accept Bitcoin donations - Community pledge - page 6. (Read 19110 times)

donator
Activity: 2058
Merit: 1054
Stupid idea, waste of money.

People who spend their time to post wiki pages, make edits etc never get any money.

Wikimedia is already earning good enough money via donations for their operating cost.
The Wikimedia foundation is a nonprofit, they're not "earning" money.

Whether they're putting the donated money to good use can be assessed from their financial reports.

I am generally very supportive of this.

1. The amount that would be donated via Bitcoin is too small to be worth the trouble.

This objection is the easiest to refute; all we need is to demonstrate the quantitative aspects of our willingness to donate, and this is what this post is mostly about.

Can you ask them to qualify how much exactly makes it "worth the trouble"? Once you have a specific target amount, and escrow, I will willingly donate $50 to this cause.
I asked Jimmy in an informal context and he directed me to the fundraising team which makes the official decisions. I want to have something behind us before I make the first formal inquiry.

I don't think they should be bothered before we have at least $10K worth (100 BTC at current rates), preferably much more. Do you need them to quote a number? If so, why?

In the arrangement I suggested every treasurer acts as an "escrow". No qualifications are required other than being trustworthy. Do you mean there are some specific people you wish will be treasurers?
hero member
Activity: 924
Merit: 502
I am generally very supportive of this.

1. The amount that would be donated via Bitcoin is too small to be worth the trouble.

This objection is the easiest to refute; all we need is to demonstrate the quantitative aspects of our willingness to donate, and this is what this post is mostly about.

Can you ask them to qualify how much exactly makes it "worth the trouble"? Once you have a specific target amount, and escrow, I will willingly donate $50 to this cause.

sr. member
Activity: 308
Merit: 250
Stupid idea, waste of money.

People who spend their time to post wiki pages, make edits etc never get any money.

Wikimedia is already earning good enough money via donations for their operating cost.
donator
Activity: 2058
Merit: 1054
Alternatively, don't donate anything to Wikipedia as they clearly just don't need the money that much. There are other good things you can do with your money!
I sympathize with the passive-aggressive stance, but it's factually false and not really helpful. They obviously do need the money. They need our help to overcome the reservations they have about accepting Bitcoin for it. Let's offer it.

But yes, there are of course many other causes worthy of donation.
donator
Activity: 674
Merit: 523
Donation sent.

Also... i donate every December... so instead of giving them money directly, this year, i will donate to 19HHHDya8PNqdVpiCdZYuwKyuWFoU1TC9A and let them know about it via email.

If 100/1.000/10.000 of us do the same... i guess they will start scratching their heads.
full member
Activity: 130
Merit: 100
Alternatively, don't donate anything to Wikipedia as they clearly just don't need the money that much. There are other good things you can do with your money!
full member
Activity: 211
Merit: 100
You are not special.
I support this idea but I've already sent my yearly payment to wikipedia. To be honest I would still use my credit card even if bitcoin was a payment option since I still find bitcoins difficult to obtain and like keeping them when I have them.
legendary
Activity: 1358
Merit: 1003
Ron Gross
donator
Activity: 2058
Merit: 1054
From their site:
Quote
BitPay has setup a merchant account that will accept and forward donations to Wikipedia on behalf of the Bitcoin community. BitPay will automatically convert these into US dollars and deposit US dollars into Wikipedia’s bank account every day.  BitPay will offer this service at no charge to the donors or to Wikipedia.
This offer is not officially supported by Wikimedia. There's a huge difference.
newbie
Activity: 25
Merit: 0
Funny coincidence.  I actually emailed them yesterday with a list of reasons why accepting Bitcoin via BitPay would be an easy and free way to accept Bitcoins without actually touching them.  I got this response today:

Quote
Hi Dave,

Thanks for your email and for your suggestion. We are aware of bitcoin, and we will continue to monitor it with interest. Please note that we also tend to avoid donations made from outside of the payment methods we've integrated with. The accounting nightmare we would be inflicting upon ourselves if we simply created accounts with every payment processor we don't integrate with would cost us much more in administrative costs than your generous support.

Thank you again for your support, and please let me know if you have any further questions!

Sincerely,
Joanie

Seeing as BitPay would set them up for free with their API, and they would still essentially be accepting USD via BitPay (which I clearly explained), this response made no sense to me beyond her not reading/understanding what I was explaining.  For those thinking BitPay charges 0.99%/transaction, they actually wave this for charities.

Anyway, I fully support this idea and will donate some BTC via John K. if he comes on board!
hero member
Activity: 614
Merit: 500
Wikimedia isn't getting jack from me until they accept Bitcoin.
sr. member
Activity: 420
Merit: 250

From their site:
Quote
BitPay has setup a merchant account that will accept and forward donations to Wikipedia on behalf of the Bitcoin community. BitPay will automatically convert these into US dollars and deposit US dollars into Wikipedia’s bank account every day.  BitPay will offer this service at no charge to the donors or to Wikipedia.
donator
Activity: 2058
Merit: 1054
Wait, I have to send money to the address to pledge?
Yes. The pledge needs to be credible. We're not going to say "We have X BTC pledged" and in the moment of truth start chasing people and hoping they'll come through.

The only problem is the current address, I'd prefer that there be some trusted escrow address or something along those lines.
What do you mean by "a trusted escrow address"? We could do a multisig thing after all, but barring that actual people will have to hold the funds. I want more people to share the load but I'm as good as anyone else, my reputation is rock solid.

We should get John K.
By all means.
sr. member
Activity: 420
Merit: 250
I love this idea(s), a large sum of bitcoins would definitely help getting past the biggest objection of the amount of money donated in bitcoins is small. (which admittedly is a problem until bitcoin gets bigger.)

The only problem is the current address, I'd prefer that there be some trusted escrow address or something along those lines.
We should get John K.
member
Activity: 91
Merit: 10
I love this idea(s), a large sum of bitcoins would definitely help getting past the biggest objection of the amount of money donated in bitcoins is small. (which admittedly is a problem until bitcoin gets bigger.)

The only problem is the current address, I'd prefer that there be some trusted escrow address or something along those lines.
sr. member
Activity: 420
Merit: 250
Wait, I have to send money to the address to pledge?
global moderator
Activity: 3794
Merit: 2612
In a world of peaches, don't ask for apple sauce
This is a great idea. People around me don't trust and often look sceptically at Bitcoin. They won't once the most used community encyclopedia adopts it.
WiW
sr. member
Activity: 277
Merit: 250
"The public is stupid, hence the public will pay"
Excellent initiative!! Let's do this!

tl;dr: If you want Wikipedia to accept Bitcoin donations and to donate to Wikipedia, please send bitcoins to one of the following.

Wikipedia pledge collection addresses:

Meni Rosenfeld: 19HHHDya8PNqdVpiCdZYuwKyuWFoU1TC9A
legendary
Activity: 1134
Merit: 1118
tl;dr: If you want Wikipedia to accept Bitcoin donations and to donate to Wikipedia, please send bitcoins to one of the following.

Wikipedia pledge collection addresses:

Meni Rosenfeld: 19HHHDya8PNqdVpiCdZYuwKyuWFoU1TC9A

Witnessed. Great idea(s). If Wikipedia does start to accept Bitcoin donations, it'll be an amazing boost.
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