Re: lilypond - bitcoin donations?

[David Kastrup]

SoundsFromSound <address@hidden> writes:

> David, 
>
> I'd like to donate and contribute towards your LilyPond work, but I don't
> understand what you mean when you write:
> "...you can try so using the address 1Kw7HZMd8L52BCL9vEjSxdPG4p3phRvtQF"
>
> Can you give me a quick guide on how to donate this way, using the process
> you're describing? BitCoin?
>
> Is it different for those of us living in the US?

Have you ever used BitCoin?  If so, you have a wallet (on your personal
computer, or on some webservice which acts as a bank without the
guarantees, so letting it hold large amounts is probably not the best
idea).  Your wallet is represented by a private key (losing it means
losing the wallet and its content) which better be backed up somewhere,
and by the related total BitCoin transaction on the BitCoin network
(losing _that_ is pretty much impossible).

Amounts are transferred from wallet to wallet via transactions, and
those are made out to BitCoin addresses connected to a wallet.  The
above address is connected to my wallet.

BitCoin is its own currency with its own fluctuations determined by
demand and availability.  For example, a year ago a BitCoin was worth
about €10, a month ago €100, 1.5 days ago €180, half a day ago €220.

Transferring BitCoins is easy, fast and basically without cost.
Exchanging them for real money comparatively cheap (basically, this is
done on market places working somewhat like stock exchanges).

The high fluctuations make it somewhat unpredictable.  Yet if you
exchange bitcoins reasonably fast, you are not likely to incur large
losses.

-- 
David Kastrup