10 Days of Cryptocurrency Donations – #3: Wikileaks Saved By Bitcoin Donations

In December of 2010, most payment processors started blocking donations to Wikileaks. In most cases, the bitcoin community embraces opportunities to help organizations like Wikileaks when they’re cut off from the traditional financial system. In this case, Bitcoin was just one year old and not used by many people. Satoshi Nakamoto famously cautioned Wikileaks from using Bitcoin.

“No, don’t ‘bring it on.’ The project needs to grow gradually so the software can be strengthened along the way. I make this appeal to WikiLeaks not to try to use Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a small beta community in its infancy. You would not stand to get more than pocket change, and the heat you would bring would likely destroy us at this stage.” -Satoshi Nakamoto

Since then, Wikileaks has received more than 4,000 BTC in donations, at one point valued at more than $45 million US dollars.

You can view our list of over 100 nonprofits that accept bitcoin and other cryptocurrency donations here.