Last month, the bitcoin community received excellent news after weeks of bankruptcies, security vulnerabilities and price declines when Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales accidentally launched a bitcoin donation campaign. He tweeted that he bought 0.1 bitcoin worth but then his online wallet was released and he garnered more than a dozen bitcoins, which were donated to the Wikimedia Foundation.
He wrote that he was planning to have a meeting with the organization’s Board of Directors to discuss the possibility of the foundation accepting the digital currency. One month later, Wales has noted that the group is treading softly.
In a brief Twitter exchange with an individual, Wales tweeted that the matter was being investigated by the Board, but no specific reasons were given as to why the virtual currency had yet to be implemented by the online encyclopedia.
“Staff are looking into lightweight implementation and will make recommendation to board as I understand it. We are cautious. :),” tweeted Wales.
@jimmy_wales what happened to #bitcoin donations for wikimedia foundation? u said u will bring this topic up. now is the best time
— Mister Schtief (@mrschtief) April 11, 2014
It remains to be seen what exactly Wales and the Board are “cautious” about when it comes to bitcoin. Perhaps it has to deal with the security breaches that have transpired over the past year or some of the negative sentiment that has clouded bitcoin in the establishment media.
With that being said, the bitcoin community is enthusiastic about one of the most popular websites in the world today accepting bitcoins to help fund operations. Time will tell if an update is posted on the Wikipedia page about it allowing bitcoins.
