Topic: On Bitcoin donations (Read 2335 times)

two cents coming in on this one...

it is up to each and every one of us to have personal conversations with those in our communities about bitcoin. even if listeners don't understand the first time, keep at it. the more you talk it through, chances are the more of your own questions you will answer adopting a new currency takes time and perseverance, but its a relief knowing that it can all begin by p2p discussion.

@ the red cross reference... I would love to see donations to aid-based non-profits go toward jump-starting a new economy in a developing country/corrupt village instead of buying supplies. What I mean to say is that supplies for a struggling village is a bandaid. Give them a new p2p currency, and it becomes a digital barter type of system. The problem would be affordable clients, but tis not too far around the corner...

Bitcoin will naturally have more acceptance first where it provides either a significant advantage (Silk Road) or can be enabled as a payment method with minimal investment and minimal risk (donations). It's obvious that major, or even middle-sized companies have a lot of things to take into account when considering Bitcoin. There could be investments required for staff training, staff hiring, bookkeeping, legal advice, hardware etc. For a simple donation address or button, none of these are much of a concern.

I have faith that Bitcoin will move up a tier or two in the coming years but it's important to realize that this development is slow.

Perhaps I've framed this the wrong way since it is titled 'On Bitcoin donations' when it really should have been 'Promoting Bitcoin through commerce'. If I had to boil this down, I would like to ask:

How can we emulate donation-acceptance campaigns toward more commercial (and hopefully more effectively promotional) ends? Instead of non-profits, how can we coordinate to convince smaller to medium for-profit enterprises to accept Bitcoin?

Im trying to get SeaShepherd.org to accept Bitcoin. They responded positively to my approaches but they haven published a Bitcoin address yet.

It would really help if you guys were to email them and put a bit more pressure on them.

The point of making Bitcoin donations right now isnt so much about the amounts involved, its about the basic concept of how quick and easy it is to paste an address, enter an amount and click send. Its about the 11 steps removed out of the donate process. Its about the fact that paypal can't decide your favorite band is a terrorist organization and close the donation account. And just keeping those ideas floating around is helpful because all the folks who never heard of Bitcoin, or who have given up on finding a better paypal, well this puts that right back in their face that there is a BETTER WAY TO DO THINGS. Just keeping a bitcoin donate address on your page is kind of like a bronze age dood walking around with his bronze cast sword, waving it around in front of all the stone agers who still like to dwell in caves with their stone axes. Sure a stone axe can take the skin off a deer carcass, but the bronze tools are just so much better. Bitcoin is _that_ revolutionary! So brandish your swords, and show them for the world to see, that we have a better way of doing things.

Good first post in this thread.

My view:


1. Something always starts somewhere. Eventually when you reach a huge user base, red cross or any other organization could potetially buy goods and services with bitcoins, not needing to change it to USD or EUR at all.
2. I was never much of a donation guy. But with bitcoin it's so easy, so I've actually donated bitcoins to several independent devs and organizations. It takes me like 10 secs to donate, complete hasslefree. While logging in to my online banking account and sending funds is a much longer process.
3. As to the 'what then'. What if you gave me something worth 200 USD, but it was some kind of electronics equipment that you no longer used but I would never use, so I sold it on e-bay for 160 USD. If the alternative was that you never gave me anything, what would I be better off with ? Nothing, or something I could sell for something that had value to me ?

If you think it's no point in giving bitcoins to an organization called 'Baptist mums for drugfree streets in Boston', perhaps write them an e-mail and ask them if they're interested in having some cofee sent over ? If yes, then you could order coffe through some site selling cofee for bitcoin. Then you would help both 'Baptist mums for drugfree streets in Boston' and the bitcoin economy.

Great video!

Correct.  Organizations that accept donations are serving as the first followers.  

  "There's no movement without the first follower"



 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8amMCVAJQ

Incidentally, here's a list of many of the organizations that accept Bitcoin donations:
 - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Donation-accepting_organizations_and_projects

Exactly!  Plus try sending money all over the world and see how much you actually get "delivered."  Accepting bitcoin enables worldwide support for organizations anywhere from anywhere!

Go bitcoins!

Who said so? I basically disagree with your post.

While it may be argued that quantitatively, running and using services that accept Bitcoin payments is more effective than donations, donations serve multiple purposes.
[/quote]
Yes. The EFF accepting bitcoin (for a while) brought us publicity. Eventually, this lead to additional bitcoin business poping up.

+1

Try to accept a $1 donation with CC or Paypal.  You'll be lucky if you receive $0.70.

Who said so? I basically disagree with your post.

While it may be argued that quantitatively, running and using services that accept Bitcoin payments is more effective than donations, donations serve multiple purposes.

1. Even if all the donation amounts to is A buying bitcoins, donating to B, B selling bitcoins, this creates more volume in the market which improves stability.
2. Donating bitcoins encourages organizations to start or continue accepting Bitcoin donations, which in turn has advantages listed below.
3. An organization stating that they accept Bitcoin donations helps more people to learn about Bitcoin.
4. Referring to a popular charity indicating that it accepts Bitcoin donations reinforces the sense of its general acceptance and legitimacy.
5. Donations are a powerful use case for Bitcoin, and actually applying it is a good demonstration for its capabilities.
6. After enough time of receiving Bitcoin donations, the charity might be inclined to take a closer look at Bitcoin, and to start reducing costs by using Bitcoin to pay for goods and services directly.
7. Current possibilities for using Bitcoin are limited, which causes some people to simply sell their bitcoins; a charity accepting Bitcoin gives another option for using them, which may cause some people to donate them (with the above advantages) rather than sell them. This, in turn, increases the confidence that any future bitcoins gained will be useful.

tl;dr: The main thing missing for Bitcoin is network effects. Larger network = good.

so does the word cliche.

and plague.

Donations are very easy to make with Bitcoin. Enter in an address, amount, click "send," and away they go. There are no fees, no checks to write, no dilution. There's also no record of it kept for wife to see. I prefer donating using BTC -- I don't really give a damn how the charity wants to accept my money. Don't accept BTC? Fine, I'll find someone who does. It's not as though there's a lack of competition in the non-profit area. Given how scammy many of them are (>20% in admin fees), it's becoming increasingly difficult even justifying donations to anyone but individuals. Charities need to work for donations, and that includes putting in an few hours of labor reading up on Bitcoin and how to use them - or just register on Bit-Pay. What's that take? 30 minutes? They'll even convert the BTC to fiat for a small fee (smaller than Paypal's, for sure), and even though that would "dilute" the donation, at least it's going to a fantastic BTC business.

The word mindshare comes to mind.

~Bruno~

think of it like a payment for keeping the word 'bitcoin' on the donation page.

the charity might not find the ~2 BTC very useful, but as long as it's kept there as an option, other people visiting that charity will discover / be reminded of bitcoin.

last time i looked, the wayback machine had quite a bit donated.

Explain that to the guy who painted his house in '08, then updated the kitchen in '09. Seriously, each positive step bitcoiners take to bring awareness to Bitcoin is, in retrospect, painting its house, albeit psychedelically.

FreeMoney, lol, I saw your post in my search about bitcoin donations where someone spoke of a hypothetical 10k BTC at $0.06 needing a very small increase in price to pay for the donation.

Glad this isn't controversial...it just seems like nobody has made a dedicated topic for donations.

Agree.

I donate sometimes, but not to spread coins.

i already said that month ago in some donation thread:
even if every charitable organisation in the world accepted bitcoin donations, thats still no real incentive to get it and it wont grow. make it "the solution" in only one niche market, even a small one, and its all downhill from there.