Re: Can I donate in bitcoin?
Daniel Pocock <daniel@pocock.pro> writes:
> - Many people feel a strategy of holding assets in the currency that
> aligns with future expenses is helpful. If, for example, 60% of
> Debian's annual expenses were in USD and 40% were in EUR, then it would
> seem sensible to convert any other donations to those currencies.
> Whether the donations are from a volatile cryptocurrency (BTC) or just
> some other currency like Australian dollars or Canadian dollars, if
> Debian doesn't actually need those currencies for any known expense,
> then holding them is a form of speculation.
+1. I believe Debian should only hold bitcoin if Debian anticipates
future expenses in bitcoin. Otherwise, it should convert bitcoin to
whatever currency in which expenses are expected.
I think the decision to hold bitcoin outside of expected expenses are
basically ways for the project to indicate support for bitcoin, and I'm
very dubious that is appropriate. I know there are people who feel like
the goals of bitcoin are in close alignment with the goals of free
software, but I personally am completely unconvinced of that. The
underlying economic theory behind bitcoin appears to me to be based on
theories about "hard" currency that I believe have been completely
discredited in the macroeconomic literature. I realize that other Debian
Developers disagree, and I'm not particularly interested in trying to
convince them that I'm right and they're wrong; rather, I think that whole
debate is rather far afield from our project goals and would be a
distraction.
--
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
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