Forest Hill, MD, Sept. 2, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), the all-volunteer developers, stewards, and incubators of more than 200 Open Source projects and initiatives, announced today that it is now accepting donations through the Bitcoin virtual monetary system.
The ASF's decision to accept Bitcoin donations was in response to an email request received on 26 August. Within 48 hours of opening its Bitcoin wallet, more than 90 transactions reflecting 5.35915909 BTC (Bitcoin currency) --more than US$2,600 at today's rate-- has been donated to the Foundation.
"Accepting Bitcoin allows donors to The Apache Software Foundation the benefit of digital currency exchanges, no matter where they reside," said Upayavira, Vice President of Fundraising at the ASF. "As a United States 501(c)(3) not-for-profit charitable organization, we welcome donations of all amounts from our global community of users, developers, and enthusiasts."
To date, the ASF has accepted financial contributions physically, via check, electronically, through Amazon Payments and PayPal, as well as vehicle donations with America's Car Donation Charities Center. Bitcoin offers new flexibility for donors, particularly those in regions with local banking limitations.
Bitcoin's peer-to-peer, digital token currency operates on a distributed system of trust, using a cryptographically-verified, secure transaction ledger that is jointly maintained by the currency's users. Transactions relating to The Apache Software Foundation can be monitored in the Bitcoin block chain at https://blockchain.info/address/1BtjAzWGLyAavUkbw3QsyzzNDKdtPXk95D?offset=0&filter=0
Additional cash grants to the Foundation are made through the ASF Sponsorship Program, which offsets a significant portion of the ASF's day-to-day operating expenses such as infrastructure, administrative services, and community outreach. For more information on donating to The Apache Software Foundation, please visit http://www.apache.org/foundation/contributing.html
About The Apache Software Foundation (ASF)
Established in 1999, the all-volunteer Foundation oversees more than two hundred leading Open Source projects, including Apache HTTP Server --the world's most popular Web server software. Through the ASF's meritocratic process known as "The Apache Way," more than 450 individual Members and 4,000 Committers successfully collaborate to develop freely available enterprise-grade software, benefiting millions of users worldwide: thousands of software solutions are distributed under the Apache License; and the community actively participates in ASF mailing lists, mentoring initiatives, and ApacheCon, the Foundation's official user conference, trainings, and expo. The ASF is a US 501(c)(3) charitable organization, funded by individual donations and corporate sponsors including Budget Direct, Citrix, Cloudera, Comcast, Facebook, Google, Hortonworks, HP, Huawei, IBM, InMotion Hosting, Matt Mullenweg, Microsoft, Pivotal, Produban, WANdisco, and Yahoo. For more information, visit http://www.apache.org/ or follow @TheASF on Twitter.
"Apache" and "ApacheCon" are trademarks of The Apache Software Foundation. All other brands and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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