On Thu, Dec 12, 2013 at 4:31 AM, Tim Starling tstarling@wikimedia.org wrote:
On 12/12/13 02:54, Nathan wrote:
Bitcoin isn't native currency for anyone, and anyone who wishes to make a Bitcoin donation could certainly do so using a more standard currency.
I would think that if anonymity is the main concern, a transaction system with a public log of all transactions would not be the best choice.
I guess we're pretty lost in several different agendas and purposes.
Bitcoin is clearly controversial in the sense that due to its anon and non-government-controlled nature it is used in ways traditional money was neither planned nor accepted, and its very existence is a fight against control, trail tracking and other various (legal and illegal) means of invading privacy of honest people and criminals both.
I observe quite different reasons people would like to have BC accepted.
I guess for the most part it's about support freedom, fight against governmental control and fight against invasion of privacy. People make point to use BC instead of govt money to donate thus pulling in organisations to support monetary freedom (of their opinion, at least). In this aspect, and I guess that's the main aspect, Wikipedia should support that freedom. In this aspect, however, it is clear that supporting this is dangerous since it's an open fight against governmental control, and governments are sensitive abvout losing their hard-collected rights. It is also a political move in that sense, and aven it's not for any given political force should not be taken lightly.
Other aspect is where anonimity is the main reason, where people or organisations risk by donating an US organisation or to Wikipedia, The Guardian of Free Information in general. Cash drop is obviously not the solution for a Chinese or Russian citizen, and honestly we're quite out of alternatives here. (Please do not get into debates about why anyone would strongly prefer to stay anonymous, that is not the point, thank you.)
Another aspect would be technical: "why not?" There are steps and resources required to process bitcoin, especially strong mphasis about informational security since BC is quite prone to electronic theft. However these are not impossible, not even hard steps, and WMF is absolutely capable to create the infrastructure to accept BC safely. I see no real problem here. (And even if it requires work from accountants and tax-professionals and lawyers we do have the resources to archieve that easily. We might even set example for smaller NGOs about how to do that legally; they may not have the resources to reach a working solution.)
Again a different aspect is volatility or unstable exchange rates, some people argue that BC is not a stable currency. Ackowledging the truth in that I believe it is irrelevant: if people keep their money in BC that's their worry, if they donate $100 worth of BC which will be exachanged to $50 next week it is still $50 donation for us. We do not plan to keep our assets in BC, and even if we would keep BC donations in BC (why not) there's nothing to lose; if it loses 90% of its worth due to whatever happening then that's it, might just happen to a "real" currency either. We cannot lose more than the donations in BC anyway.
A few people start something I usually would call trolling in different context ( :-) ) which debates on why bitcoin and why not johndoecoin or billygold or whatever. First because this topic is about BC, let the whatever scheme debate run elsewhere (and you may work to have BC accepted as a basis for your esoteric semicurrency LATER). Second because BC "market penetration" is not comparable, people are using it, it is hard to deny, and there are stable exchanges giving you real money for it, the demand is much higher than for susiecoins or whatever.
Out of the topics above the only risk I see is the political/anti-government/anti-control/free-speech aspects, and these are not easy problems indeed. But I do not believe people arguing the other aspects have much to debate on. Seems you're running in circles, pulling up the same non-reasoning over and over.
For the record I do not plan to donate in BC, neither do I mine it. I just tend to support more freedom in general.
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