Internet Archive gets $1 million donation from bitcoin fund
The cryptocurrency landscape has seen a flurry of activity lately as values have reached eye-watering figures and people scramble to get a piece of the digital pie — they’re even re-mortgaging their homes to get in on the action. But while many are in it for personal gain, there are those using bitcoin for more charitable causes. Namely the Pineapple Fund, a philanthropic fund set up by an anonymous bitcoin millionaire, which has just made a $1 million donation to The Internet Archive.
The Pineapple Fund was announced earlier this month, pledging some $86 million in bitcoin to a range of causes. The fund’s benefactor, known only as “Pine”, told Bitcoin Magazine that they saw the promise of decentralized money in the early days of bitcoin, and that the “expectation-shattering returns of bitcoin over many years has led to an amount far more than I can spend”. They also note that the Pineapple Fund is bigger than the entire market cap of bitcoin when they got in, and is one of the richest 250 bitcoin addresses today.
The fund’s latest recipient, The Internet Archive, has been documenting the evolution of the internet for more than 20 years, from MS-DOS games to video clips of Donald Trump. It makes for a fun trip down digital memory lane, but also serves a crucial purpose in documenting content published by governments and news organizations, which in the current political climate is more important than ever. In a blog post, The Internet Archive team wrote that “it is especially gratifying to see those who dreamed big about bitcoin using their wealth to support innovation across the world”.
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