Driven by a desire to promote human dignity, Dignitas International, a Malawi-based charity that has provided medical assistance to 200,000 residents in the land-locked nation since 2004. The organisation is now turning its attention to a challenge of an entirely different kind: transaction fees.

“Dignitas has to deal with high credit card and transaction fees on all of our donations which can range between 2-5%,” explained Anne Connelly, the charity’s director of fundraising and marketing. She added: “Every donation dollar we lose in a currency exchange or a transfer fee is a dollar that is not going to help someone in need.”

It is this frustration with existing third-party payment processors and credit card companies that fuelled the charity’s recent decision to accept bitcoin. With the initiative, Dignitas hopes to reach a whole new pool of donors for whom bitcoin technology can help pass these incremental savings on to life-changing projects in the region.

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“We’re seeking people who want to fully integrate bitcoin into their daily lives – including their charitable giving,” Connelly said. Non-profits who have already taken the plunge have witnessed a generous response from the bitcoin community, just this week Wikipedia received over $140,000 in bitcoin in its first seven days of accepting the digital currency.

Although payment processors Coinbase and BitPay have waived fees for non-profits in the US, Dignitas, which is headquartered in Toronto, uses Canadian exchange Virtex to convert the bitcoin it receives into Canadian dollars. On average each conversion charges the charity a fee between 0.2% and 0.75%, significantly less than via traditional means.

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An event dubbed “part art exhibition, part technology convention” is set to explore the boundaries between bitcoin and the art world later this month. Artists, collectors and bitcoin enthusiasts alike will head to the Bitcoin Meets Art event at Stockholm’s Capitol concert venue on 23rd August for a fresh take on the art market.

The evening will showcase a range of artwork inspired by the digital currency, which visitors will then have the opportunity to buy using bitcoin. DJs and musicians will provide the soundtrack to the night in return in exchange for the digital currency.

The event will also feature a workshop from the team at Stockholm-based bitcoin exchange Safello, who will explain bitcoin and the digital currency market. The company’s bitcoin ATM, the first in the Swedish market, will also be up and running at the event.

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Safello chief executive and co-founder Frank Schuil explained as to why the company chose to collaborate on the project. He said: “This event aims to kick-start creative thinking around bitcoin. Artists have a way of pushing the boundaries of technology to see what’s possible. It evolves from experimentation to new applications.”

Artists taking part in the even come from across three different continents and include Trash is Free and Milos Rajkovic. Each piece being showcased will incorporate bitcoin in a different way, with one artist knitting QR codes on to oven gloves in a quirky, textile take on the theme. Each piece of artwork in the show will be accompanied by a QR code that will link directly to the artist’s bitcoin wallet.

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Bitcoin tipping platform ChangeTip has announced that it is expanding its service to YouTube, Tumblr and Google+. The platform already supports bitcoin micropayments on social media sites like Twitter, Reddit and StockTwits – a popular network for traders and investors.

Dubbed a ‘love button for the Internet’, ChangeTip lets users gift friends and content providers with small amounts of bitcoin as a more tangible alternative to the usual ‘like’ or ‘+1’. In order to send a tip, users must simply connect one or more of their social media accounts to ChangeTip, then top up their wallet balance using the QR code provided.

The ChangeTip team is hoping to leverage the low cost of bitcoin transactions and enable the use of micro-tips for all sorts of content distributed online, so, as well as tipping appealing content, the service can be used for gifting or even fundraising via social media. Content monetisation for blogs and other media is also an option.

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“We believe people are basically good and we let them show their appreciation directly in everyday social media interactions,” said Nick Sullivan, ChangeTip’s founder and CEO. The platform says it wants to change the concept of a “share” or “like” into financial appreciation which, incrementally, can add up to substantial amounts of money.

As well as specific flat amounts, tips are also denominated in everyday items, including a ‘coffee’ ($1.50), a ‘hamburger’ ($2.50) and – bizarrely – a ‘kitten’ ($3.00). Users can also create their own custom denominations, such as ‘3 beers’ or ‘2 coffees’. More elaborate denominations, like ‘a trip to Paris’ are also possible, within limits. The default maximum tip is $25, but this can be adjusted in the user’s account settings.

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The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that owns and curates noted online encyclopedia Wikipedia, has received more than $140,000 in bitcoin donations since it began accepting contributions in the digital currency last week.

The news follows the announcement of the organization’s partnership with California-based payments processor Coinbase to accept bitcoin on 30th July, a development that was widely seen as a validation of bitcoin’s potential to impact non-profit fundraising.

Coinbase revealed the fundraising milestone in a new blog post, saying that the $140,000 – an amount worth approximately 237 BTC – is a sign that bitcoin and the open-source site will continue to prove to be a powerful combination.

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The company added: “We were particularly excited to enable the Wikimedia Foundation to accept bitcoin donations because we feel that the decentralized, inclusive nature of Wikipedia is well aligned with bitcoin and we wanted to help the bitcoin community contribute to the democratization of information.”

The Wikimedia Foundation had been internally discussing the addition of a bitcoin donation option for months as grassroots support within its community grew. Notably, Coinbase announced on 1st August that it had dropped all processing fees for the non-profits it serves, including the Wikimedia Foundation.

In the past, the Wikimedia Foundation has said that the decision was made only after strong internal debate about the legal and financial implications of doing so. The company previously said: “Using Coinbase, a bitcoin exchange, we’re able to immediately convert bitcoin to US dollars, requiring minimal technical implementation on our end. Since we now also have guidance on how to account for bitcoin, there is a clear understanding of how to legally manage it.”

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Security firm Kaspersky Lab has found that bitcoin is the target in more than one fifth of all malware attacks aimed at victims’ money. According to Kaspersky’s latest threat report, entitled ‘IT Threat Evolution Q2 2014’, bitcoin mining malware accounted for 14% of attacks in the second quarter of 2014, while bitcoin wallet stealers accounted for 8%.

Keyloggers, which can be used to compromise both bitcoin and banking services, also made the list, with 4% of all attacks attributed to various forms of key logging malware. Traditional banking malware still leads the way with 74%, but considering the size of the bitcoin economy it is clear that bitcoin users and operators face a significant likelihood of being subjected to an attack.

Although the figures are disturbing, the relative number of bitcoin-related malware attacks has actually gone down since Kaspersky’s last annual report. In the 2013 report, bitcoin wallet stealers accounted for 20.18% of all financial malware attacks, while mining malware accounted for 8.91%, giving a combined total of 29%.

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“Fraudsters are also happy to use computing resources to generate crypto currency: bitcoin miners account for 14% of all financial attacks,” the report warns. “Criminals also use keyloggers to collect user credentials for online banking and payment systems in another bid to access bank accounts.”

In the meantime, the number of threats has gone down, but the threat landscape has evolved – as wallet stealers fell out of favour, mining malware took their place as the predominant form of bitcoin-related malware. Several security firms have issued reports mentioning bitcoin malware in recent months, with the number of attacks rising sharply since early 2013 in parallel with bitcoin’s massive peak in popularity.

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Russia’s Ministry of Finance has announced proposals to ban the issuance of bitcoin and any operations involving crypto-currency. The legality of bitcoin has been discussed frequently in Russia since the beginning of this year. The Bank of Russia was the first government agency in the country to warn citizens and businesses about the risks associated with digital currencies like bitcoin.

Finance Ministry announced on the government’s regulation website that it was drafting a bill relating to cryptocurrencies, which, if approved, will likely see those who break the new laws end up in jail. The Finance Ministry plans to make amendments to Article 27 of the Federal Law ‘On the Central Bank of the Russian Federation’, specifically banning the use of monetary surrogates, including cryptocurrencies.

According to the ministry, the ban is necessary as monetary surrogates are widely used for buying illegal goods and money laundering. Moreover, the government agency intends to restrict access to websites that enable people to buy, sell, transfer and use cryptocurrencies.

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The announcement from Russian Officials said: “According to Article 27 of the Federal Law ‘On the Central Bank of the Russian Federation’ (Bank of Russia) the official Russian currency is ruble. The issuance of monetary surrogates in Russia is forbidden as well as the introduction of other monetary units. However, monetary surrogate has no standard definition in the Russian legislation.”

“Сryptocurrencies have no real value and their prices are determined due to speculations. So, there is a great risk that investors will lose their money,” the ministry’s statement concluded. On a more positive note, the Wall Street Journal last month reported that the Bank of Russia said it would not seek to take harsh measures against cryptocurrency use.

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