Wikipedia Selects Coinbase for Bitcoin Donations

Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation have been toying around with the idea of accepting Bitcoin for donations for the past several months.

It seemed like they were unsure with how to move forward and Jimmy Wales even stated that they were unsure for several months but it now appears today that we finally have an answer to the question if Wikipedia would start accepting Bitcoin.

That answer is yes as they announced on the Wikimedia Foundation blog today stating:

We’re fortunate that millions of people all over the world support the work of the Wikimedia Foundation through donations. It has always been important to the Foundation to make sure donating is as simple and inclusive as possible. Currently, we accept 13 different payment methods enabling donations from nearly every country in the world, and today, we’re adding one more: Bitcoin.

For those unfamiliar with Bitcoin, it’s a relatively new virtual currency, currently being accepted by a growing number of institutions and merchants throughout the world. Members of our community have asked the Foundation to start accepting Bitcoin. These requests, coupled with recent guidance from the IRS, encouraged the Foundation to once again review our capacity to accept Bitcoin.

During this review, we identified a new way to work around past technical challenges, as well as to minimize the legal risks of accepting Bitcoin. Using Coinbase, a Bitcoin exchange, we’re able to immediately convert Bitcoin to U.S. dollars, requiring minimal technical implementation on our end. Since we now also have guidance on how to account for Bitcoin, there is a clear understanding of how to legally manage it.

The Wikimedia Foundation selected Coinbase for processing of donations to the foundation and the donate page has been updated to have the new donate with Bitcoin button as an option. You can find the updated donation page at: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Ways_to_Give#bitcoin