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Jimmy Wales Reveals Wikimedia is ‘Cautious’ About Accepting Bitcoin

Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia, said in a Twitter conversation that Wikimedia, the non-profit foundation that operates the site, was “cautious” about the Internet encyclopaedia accepting bitcoin donations.When Twitter user ‘Mister Schief’ asked Wales for an update on Wikimedia Foundation accepting bitcoin donations, Wales responded by saying that staff were looking into a lightweight implementation:@mrschtief Staff are looking into lightweight implementation and will make recommendation to board as I understand it. We are cautious. :)— Jimmy Wales (@jimmy_wales) April 11, 2014This news comes just a month after Wales revealed that he was starting to get into bitcoin. He wrote a reddit post explaining to the community that he wanted to use bitcoin himself before pitching the idea to the board.“I have 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.”Another bitcoin enthusiast on Twitter asked or Wales’ wallet address and donated 5 BTC to him. At the time, that was worth about $3,104.This is my bitcoin address: 1McNsCTN26zkBSHs9fsgUHHy8u5S1PY5q3 @Kosmatos— Jimmy Wales (@jimmy_wales) March 6, 2014Wales said that he would donate all of that to Wikipedia, thereby, making it the first bitcoin donation to the site.Minutes from the September 24th 2013 meeting of the board of directors show that bitcoin has been on their radar for quite some time. The minutes reveal that Florian Effenberger, chairman of the board, was “researching Bitcoin options”.Back in July 2013, the Board had already raised the question of accepting digital currencies. The minutes in that meeting read: “BitCoin (sic) should we have it.”In his reddit post, Wales added that he was planning to re-open the conversation with the Wikimedia Foundation board of directors at their next meeting.This meeting is due to take place on 7th June, 2014 in London.Jimmy Wales image via Wikipedia Creative CommonscharitydonationsWikipedia
Original author: Roop Gill