We’re now taking Bitcoins

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I’m finally being dragged into the 21st century… Along with the other donation options — Patreon, PayPal, shopping with Amazon, check or cash, all
[See the full post at: We’re now taking Bitcoins]

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Hi Woody,

I am just a casual visitor, and I deeply thankyou for your site as it has been a very helpful place to visit in these uncertain times, However to get to my question, I am from Oz and having just read that you are now taking Bitcoins has me wondering. I do not know much about these Bitcoins except that they are a digital currency and they are personally a bit too much on the cutting edge for my liking, however, my query is that as I have just seen on tonight’s TV News that the  cost of 1 (one) Bitcoin is Aus $2,000.00 (2k) today’s prices. Does this mean that by using the Bitcoin currency you cannot donate less than 1 Bitcoin? as I am somewhat confused in just how that could be done. I certainly think you and your site is worthy of such donations but it appears to be a very big minimum if it cannot be broken down to fractions off the whole. Bitcoins may be a subject or topic on their own for us learners to become more accustom to them, so that we could then use this new currency to donate. Please accept my heartfelt thanks to you and all of the knowledgeable contributors to your site for the wonderful work that is done to assist all us learners, and may your site attract a plethora of Bitcoins in donations in the near future. Cheers.

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Excellent question.

I use a site called Electrum. Bitcoins there are reported in mBTC – which is to say, .001 of a Bitcoin. If you donate 5 mBTC, that’s about US $10, or 0.005 of a Bitcoin.

I tried using Bitcoin a couple of years ago, working through Mt Gox, which had a horrible history and difficult end. I think the Bitcoin situation now is much more stable than it was then.

It’s a whole different world, with a fascinating foundation.

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Woody, I made a donation when you first asked, in order to support your admirable work and the continuation of this site. Apart from the monthly Patron level contribution, have you considered implementing something along the lines of how the original Windows Secrets contribution worked, whereby people contributed what they could afford, or thought the site was worth to them, on an annual basis? Or would keeping track of such donations and annual reminders be too much admin for you?

Win10 22H2 Pro, MBAM Premium, Firefox, OpenOffice, Sumatra PDF.

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I would love to implement Brian Livingston’s old idea – pay what you think it’s worth. I think it’s still viable, although Windows Secrets abandoned it years ago.

The problem is that I need to offer something tangible for the payment – a newsletter, in WSN’s case. The newsletter format is getting less and less tenable nowadays.

I’ve considered creating a roped-off section of AskWoody “for paying members only – you decide how much you want to pay.” Not sure it would get any traction. I’m also not sure how to implement it. But I’m sure it’s feasible.*

As things stand, between the advertising and donations, I’m not even up to minimum wage. 🙂

*It also makes anonymous posts much more difficult…

1 user thanked author for this post.

TonyS

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I’m not so sure a newsletter does much, apart from generating yet another email and taking away the responsibility of searching for things oneself (not to mention the work involved for you). To me, the value of AskWoody lies in the sheer range and depth of the analysis, contributions and debates, from which I can pick & choose what I read, extend my knowledge and make decisions – sometimes I even make a contribution myself!

One suggestion I should like to make is the possibility of a daily or weekly update of threads to which folk subscribe, instead of the instant ‘chirrup’ we get now?

But some way of increasing the number of donating readers and contributors must surely be vital to it’s continuation. Maybe just an option to set up a regular PayPal donation of any amount – a sort of ‘fit and forget’ option?

Win10 22H2 Pro, MBAM Premium, Firefox, OpenOffice, Sumatra PDF.

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Out of idle curiosity, are there folks who have contacted you claiming they are willing to pay in BitCoin yet are not willing to donate via any other method?

I’m not judgmental, I’m just trying to learn… I’m all for progress (though I don’t yet know whether BitCoin should be called that) I’m just trying to understand why a non-traditional commerce method has appeal.

My impression so far is that a process for payment that cannot be traced could be said to have both a bad side and a good side.

Put another (naïve) way, why would a legitimate businessman want to use the payment method of choice of ransomware writers?

-Noel

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TonyS

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Yep, that’s exactly what happened – one of the posters (who I think wants to remain anonymous) suggested I take Bitcoin as an alternative.

The method of payment isn’t material. Western Union has been the #1 conduit of ransomware for many years. Bitcoin is enormously useful for transfers among currencies, whether it’s tracked or not.

I’m still getting my feet wet, but I like what I see…

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Noel Carboni

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It was asked as a Suggestion to Improve the Lounge 🙂

Glad to hear it worked out!

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Woody: Have you considered selling coffee cups and t-shirts? You can charge a big markup on these items, and I’ll bet you would sell a lot of them. I for one would love to have an AskWoody coffee cup on my desk at my job!

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

3 users thanked author for this post.

JDeC, Karlston, Noel Carboni

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It might leak

CoffeeLeaks 🙂

Win10 22H2 Pro, MBAM Premium, Firefox, OpenOffice, Sumatra PDF.

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Bitcoin should never been accepted as a currency.

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Next you’ll be putting ransomware on our computers, right, Woody?

😉

Fortran, C++, R, Python, Java, Matlab, HTML, CSS, etc.... coding is fun!
A weatherman that can code

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