The Archdiocese of San Francisco is accepting cryptocurrency – joining a growing but still relatively small group of nonprofits and church organizations who can process donations in the digital currency.
The archdiocese has partnered with The Giving Block (thegivingblock.com) to make this happen. The Giving Block is the leader in cryptocurrency donation solutions for nonprofit organizations. It provides a system for nonprofits and charities to raise cryptocurrency dollars, a place for crypto donors to find nonprofits that accept crypto gifts, and an easy, secure way to make crypto donations.
The Giving Block is the cryptocurrency donation solution trusted by over 1,000 faith-based organizations, nonprofits, and universities. Among the organizations who use The Giving Block are the Catholic University of America, the American Cancer Society, Save the Children, and many others.
A cryptocurrency (or “crypto”) is an electronic, peer-to-peer currency. This intangible asset is created using encryption algorithms and is circulated independently of a central monetary authority, like a bank or government. Consumers can convert traditional currencies, such as dollars or euros, into crypto, which can then be used to make investments, or even purchase goods or services. Most crypto exchanges use blockchain technology, allowing users to make safe and secure transactions, whether they are buying, selling or trading crypto.
….Your cryptocurrency gift will have a great impact by furthering the mission of an Archdiocesan entity or ministry while reducing your tax-gain burden. When donating crypto, you receive a tax deduction for the fair market value of the crypto, and you avoid the capital gains tax you would have incurred if you had sold the cryptocurrency and then made a donation….
The above comes from an April 28 posting on the site of the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
We walk by faith and not by sight. However, show me the money. The real money.
The “real” money? I think that would be Monero, not Bitcoin.
Anything for a buck.
” I am sending you out like sheep with wolves all round you; so be as wise as serpents and yet as harmless as doves.” (Jesus in Matt. 10:16)
“‘Show me the coin used for paying the tax.’ They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, ‘Whose image is this? And whose inscription?’ ‘Caesar’s,’ they replied. Then he said to them, ‘So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.'” (Matt. 22:19-21)
Though not a fan of bitcoin, is there anything unethical about accepting donations via that route?
Churches and other charities accept checks, credit card donations, electronic transfers and Venmo.
Just a bit of a question.
Money is just a medium of exchange, and if bitcoin can function like that, then there is nothing unethical about it. Not inherently at least.
Although, I do see something quite unethical about a nation’s government destroying its own citizens’ wealth and, therefore, livelihood, as I would say is happening in the United States with the USD through the Federal Reserve and techniques like quantitative easing and fractional reserve banking. Economic conditions like these are what is spurring the whole crypto movement and shift to decentralized finance in the first place. So, as far as ethical questions are concerned, I would start with the economic background to cryptocurrency myself. Cryptocurrencies themselves are quite possibly the solution to an ethical problem, not the creation of one.
And especially from a Christian and Catholic point of view, I would by far opt for a medium of exchange that an anti-Christian government could _not_ use to trace and, consequently, persecute me with in the event that I’m living in an oppressive nation. Crypto allows precisely that (just not bitcoin).
Bitcoin will fall to zero. It’s backed by nothing, it creates nothing, it’s tied to nothing of value. It’s a Ponzi scheme.