Re: Donations to the PostgreSQL project using bitcoins

Michael,

> While looking at the donation page of Postgres, I noticed that there
> is nothing to be able to give donations in bitcoins. I imagine that it
> could be nice to add a bitcoin wallet address that people could use to
> send donations to the PostgreSQL project, and have of course the
> wallet being managed by the same entity/people as the other money
> donations.

SPI looked into bitcoin donations a while ago, and there's some serious
issues with accepting bitcoins for a US 501(c)3:

1. Accepting bitcoins would greatly increase the chance of an audit by
the IRS's anti-money-laundering team, which would be very expensive in
volunteer/CPA time.

2. Accepting donations in a "currency" whose relative value fluctuates
rapidly raises a number of problems with providing donors with accurate
tax statements.

If bitcoin became more accepted and stable, then it would be worth
reconsidering SPI's position.  For now, though, SPI does not accept bitcoin.

If people are really interested in accepting bitcoins in order to donate
to PostgreSQL, my suggestion would be for some commercial entity to
accept and convert them, and then donate them.  This is the same thing
we do with "unrelated business income" such as tshirt sales.

--
Josh Berkus
PostgreSQL Experts Inc.
http://pgexperts.com