Bitcoin.org, an independent open source community website with contributors from around the world, received a donation of 14 Bitcoin ($120,000) on Monday. The donated money is said to go towards general upkeep of the site, translating the Bitcoin whitepaper into more languages, offering new content and creating a new introductory video. According to one of Bitcoin.org’s co-owners, this was the first time the site received such a large donation.
Bitcoin.org was originally registered and owned by Bitcoin’s first two developers, Satoshi Nakamoto and Martti Malmi. When Nakamoto left the project, he gave ownership of the domain to additional people, separate from the Bitcoin developers, to spread responsibility and prevent any one person or group from easily gaining control over the Bitcoin project.The site is now an independent, open-source project and members of the Bitcoin community can help to keep it updated.
The site is now owned by Michael Marquardt—known as “Theymos” in crypto circles—and a pseudonymous individual called “Cobra,” who owns the popular forum Bitcointalk and describes himself as an anarchist.
“It’s the biggest donation we’ve received,” Cobra said. “Normally we receive very small donations (below $100) and the occasional donation above $1,000. Once we received a $40,000 donation but this recent one blows everything out of the water.”
Cobra publicly thanked the anonymous donor on twitter. Saying the money will be used to continue to educate millions of people worldwide about bitcoin. He also mentioned that ”No other donation in this space will make as much of an impact as supporting the site that started it all.”
