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EFF Resumes Accepting Bitcoin Donations After Two Year Hiatus
hypnosec writes "The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has started accepting donations in the form of Bitcoins again after a two year hiatus, stating that the legal uncertainty hovering over the digital currency has all but disappeared. On their blog the EFF noted that a report from U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), in addition to their own findings, 'have confirmed that, as a user of Bitcoin or any virtual currency, EFF itself is likely not subject to regulation.'"
And money, real or imagined, is money !!
Five of the last nine stories.... just sayin
Pity they hadn't been collecting them for the past two years, and just saving them. They'd have made a mint!
You could sell your grapes on the Silkroad?
I donated some just because. I don't use my wallet that much anyway and there is never a bad reason to toss a little money EFF's way.
posting ac because <spookyvoice\>ooooo... bitcoin anonymity...</spookyvoice\>
They should rename it 'freedom currency', because as governments try to track and control the flow of money and decide who can spend what where, Bitcoin is about the only thing you can use with any certainty. Governments don't get to say which bitcoin can be sent to whom, and when they blocked Wikileaks donations, it showed we couldn't trust the financial banking system to stay free from extra-legal USA pressures.
P.S. I always said that SWIFT data the EU Commission handed to the USA would be used for political control, and when the US leaked it to UK and Australia marketed as 'anti-money laundering leaked data'*, it was no surprise to see that *no* rich and powerful US politicians were on the leak list, as if they'd been removed.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/apr/03/offshore-secrets-offshore-tax-haven
* A subset of the data was extracted related to tax havens, and leaked to the "Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists", the much larger dataset, including everyone else, lots of ordinary innocent people, was handed to the IRS, UK and Australia. A reach-around around the US Financial privacy act and a lot of criminal laws in Europe. See, it wasn't 'given' officially, it was 'leaked'. Do you see any criminal investigations into the leak of the financial records of billions of people in any of these countries? No. So they know where that data came from, and the journalists were patsies in marketing that data.
You, sir, sound like someone who has only dealt with credit card companies as a consumer. Their per-transaction rates and additional fees are ridiculous and they reserve the right to reverse any transaction at any time on their own discretion. A move away from centralized payment systems, with their single points of control and the accompanying rent-seeking is a benefit to everyone except the major processors.
Do you really think that giving a few financial service companies a stranglehold on most economic activity is a good thing? If a handful of companies including Visa, Inc. work together, they can effectively stop payments to any organization they like. Bitcoin isn't perfect, but it's a step in the right direction.
Use of the words "good", "bad" or "evil" is almost invariably the result of oversimplification.
Accepting them is a "no-brainer" as a donation, there is no loss. But for any other serious financial transaction, well, unless you are a mobster or a dope dealer or otherwise involved in something illegal, the real question is WHY DEAL WITH IT.
Because freedom.
Also as the system become mature and ubiquitous it will be a good way to avoid extortion fee from the banks and credit card processors. There is lot more competition in currency exchange. As a result trading currency(eg: Bitcoin to USD) is cheaper then all the transaction fee you get for processing credit cards.
But yeah, continue to spread FUD about new technologies. In the meantime the US government continue to use 'honest' and 'legit' USD to traffic drugs.
You : "Mobsters, drug dealers, gunmen, fraudsters, Wallstreets biggest financial frauds, all done in US dollars. The real question is WHY DEAL WITH IT."
Me: "Just because the dollar is used for crime, doesn't mean you are a criminal for using it. Don't be afraid of stuff so that you're guilty by association because that's how fascism works."
You : "Identity thieves, scammers, fraudsters use Paypal. The real question is WHY DEAL WITH IT."
Me: "Just because Paypal is used for crime, doesn't mean you are a criminal for using it. You are not a criminal, you have nothing to fear in a free world."
You : "Drug dealers use Cash. The real question is WHY DEAL WITH IT."
Me: "Oh get over it, you wimp, its a currency, its more solid than any fiat currency, you can buy real legal things with it. Get over it."
Regarding
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/05/eff-will-accept-bitcoins-support-digital-liberty
I am writing to notify you that from this moment I have decided to stop giving
financial support of EFF, via both my membership and donations, including via
campaigns like the Humble Indie Bundle. I understand that my contributions
were not of any significance, so you probably won't even notice -- but thought
I should let you know anyways.
The reason for that, is I will not support or have any business with any
organization that implicitly gives legitimacy to Bitcoin by accepting them for
payment for any services or as donations.
Thanks
Regarding
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/05/eff-will-accept-bitcoins-support-digital-liberty
I am writing to notify you that from this moment I have decided to stop giving
financial support of EFF, via both my membership and donations, including via
campaigns like the Humble Indie Bundle. I understand that my contributions
were not of any significance, so you probably won't even notice -- but thought
I should let you know anyways.
The reason for that, is I will not support or have any business with any
organization that implicitly gives legitimacy to Bitcoin by accepting them for
payment for any services or as donations.
Thanks
They're just numbers after all.
I do understand that it's a lot of work to generate just one, but what is it that, once I've generated a BitCoin, motivates someone else to want it so much that they're willing to sell me something in exchange.
This isn't a troll. I really want to know.
Accepting them is a "no-brainer" as a donation, there is no loss. But for any other serious financial transaction, well, unless you are a mobster or a dope dealer or otherwise involved in something illegal, the real question is WHY DEAL WITH IT.
There is a (potential) loss. As soon as the Bitcoin collapses, some people will have lost money. And Bitcoin might, in retrospect, be regarded as a pyramid scheme. People will not be happy with any party that has profited from that.
Accepting them is a "no-brainer" as a donation, there is no loss. But for any other serious financial transaction, well, unless you are a mobster or a dope dealer or otherwise involved in something illegal, the real question is WHY DEAL WITH IT.
I guess one of the several good reasons should be enough for your trollish post: Because you want to be able to accept/send money from/to anyone in the world connected to the internet within reasonable time (one hour) and with small fees (cent per transaction)
... what is it that, once I've generated a BitCoin, motivates someone else to want it so much that they're willing to sell me something in exchange ...
That they can convert the bitcoin to a US Dollar, a Euro, etc **immediately** after receiving it. They don't hold bitcoins, they convert them to something else.
And money, real or imagined, is money !!
Question is, which one is more "real"?
The one people are willing to hold. If people who accept bitcoins for transactions immediately convert them to something else then that something else is more real.
When you consider that USD and most other currencies are backed by nothing more than the governments that print/mint the stuff, suddenly Bitcoin doesn't seem so fake after all.
Nothing.
I do not think it means what you think it means.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
$1.2 per transaction, actually. The default transaction fee is 0.01 BTC, and current exchange rate is $120 per BTC.
That's becoming somewhat of a problem, actually.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
Ummm... bullshit?
The default transaction fee is 0.0001 BTC. 1.2 cents.
I like this though:
"That's becoming somewhat of a problem, actually."
Makes it appear that you're part of things, and know what you're talking about.
I'm just wondering... if I rock up to EFF HQ with a box of cupcakes which I'd like to donate, will they say "no thanks, we don't accept cupcakes"?
The "Main" tab in "Options" menu of the qt client says: "Optional transaction fee per kB that helps make sure your transactions are processed quickly. Most transactions are 1kB. Fee 0.01 recommended."
Also, setting this to 0 in results in both "Debit" and "Net amount" in "Transaction details" be the same thing, and "Transaction fee" to not show up. So I conclude that 0.01 BTC is indeed the default fee.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
Define "serious financial transaction". How does it differ from a regular financial transaction?
But in any case, the reasons to use Bitcoin is: you don't need the approval or cooperation of any third parties. You don't need a credit card, PayPal account nor even a bank account. You don't need to pay fees associated with these nor care if a government or a lobby group disapproves of your business. You don't need to worry about chargebacks nor people stealing your card number. You don't need to wait until the next day to have your transaction verified. Your have privacy - no, even if I don't do anything wrong or illegal I still don't want a stalker watching me. And you don't need to worry about things like the recent bank troubles in Cyprus.
Bitcoin is simply superior in over-the-Internet transactions, especially multinational ones.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
you don't need the approval or cooperation of any third parties.
Sure you do: you need the cooperation of the entire network of bitcoin miners.
You don't need a credit card, PayPal account nor even a bank account.
Instead you need at least one bitcoin wallet, and practical working knowlege about how to secure it (which is not simple).
You don't need to pay fees associated with these
Instead you need to pay bitcoin transaction fees. What's the difference in the end, really? (Except that bitcoin fees provide me a hell of a lot less services than my banking fees do...)
nor care if a government or a lobby group disapproves of your business.
Er, what?! What in the fuck does that have to do with choice of payment methods? If your business is illegal it's going to be illegal in bitcoins too.
You don't need to worry about chargebacks nor people stealing your card number.
Instead you need to worry about people stealing the magic numbers which define your bitcoin wallet. (This is not a theoretical risk.) And you also need to worry about making sure you don't lose those magic numbers, as unlike a real bank account there's absolutely no way to get the money back if you lose said magic numbers. (This too is not a theoretical risk.) And if you're a consumer you need to worry about the fact that it's a one-way transaction. Chargebacks are a feature, not a bug.
You even need to worry about typoes. Get one digit of that incredibly long hex string wrong when trying to send someone some bitcoins? Congratulations, you've just paid nobody at all. And those bitcoins are gone forever, irrevocably destroyed. No way to get them back. (This too is not a theoretical risk! All of these things have actually happened.)
You don't need to wait until the next day to have your transaction verified.
Instead you need to wait for the bitcoin network to process your transaction, which is nowhere near the instantaneous gratification that people demand of credit/debit cards. There isn't even a guarantee that the bitcoin network will actually process your transaction either. You're reliant upon hoping one of the next nodes that mines a block decides your tip is large enough to include the transaction in that block. This has actually become a practical issue recently, with many nodes choosing to be picky about what transactions they accept.
Your have privacy - no, even if I don't do anything wrong or illegal I still don't want a stalker watching me.
Uh. You do know that the bitcoin block chain is public knowledge, right? Transactions are all out in the open. The only thing which isn't public is the ownership link between a bitcoin address and your name, but a "stalker" might easily manage to figure out some addresses owned by you through internet detectivery, hacking your PC, etc. How is this any better than using a credit card? At least with a CC you don't automatically publish every transaction to the whole world! (note: publishing is the same as giving a stalker-type attacker a much bigger attack surface to work with)
And you don't need to worry about things like the recent bank troubles in Cyprus.
Yes, because bitcoin is so free of any worries at all. (not!)
Bitcoin is simply superior in over-the-Internet transactions, especially multinational ones.
You're simply full of shit. It's amusing how you bitcoin fanatics live in this alternate reality where glaring flaws with bitcoins don't exist and every tiny problem with conventional currencies is OMG SKY IS FALLING.