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Wikipedia Bitcoin

Wikipedia founder deluged with Bitcoin donations following tweet

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By John Glenday, Reporter

March 11, 2014 | 2 min read

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has accidentally opened up a new and potentially lucrative revenue stream after posting a tweet about dabbling in the virtual currency – before publicly posting his personal Bitcoin address for all to see.The move immediately triggered an avalanche of cash directed toward Wales personal account, implying long-pent up frustration on the part of many supporters whose options to donate have hitherto been limited.Commenting on Reddit Wales said: "I thought I would buy and sell some, and try to spend on real world things, etc. I've been watching Bitcoin for a long time, of course, and I thought it past due to test it as a consumer - how hard is it, how confusing is it, etc," "Anyway, I mentioned this on Twitter and a guy asked for my BTC address and last night a bunch of people got all excited and sent me BTC. Obviously I'm going to cash all that out in a few days and send it onward to the Wikimedia Foundation so if you want to keep doing that, I'm ok with it.

"When two or three people were giving me money 'for a cup of coffee' or 'for a beer' I didn't feel like I had to give it to the Foundation since it was just people being nice. But it sort of blew up overnight... so obviously I'm not going to keep that for myself. "A lot of people would like to see us add a banner on every page 'Now accepting Bitcoin!' Mostly I fear people are thinking more about the benefit to Bitcoin rather than the benefit to Wikipedia, which would be limited in the grand scheme of things." Just before Wales went to bed he reported receiving nearly 18 Bitcoins, which converts to over $11k, all of which will be donated to the Wikipedia Foundation.
Wikipedia Bitcoin

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