BTCPay Server, an open-source payment processor, has announced a Bitcoin crowdfunding campaign for the Tor Project, a non-profit organization that develops the privacy-focused Tor protocol and web browser.

People can donate Bitcoin to the campaign, using the BTCPay portal or contribute via onion, that can be accessed using the Tor browser. The Tor Project, being non-profit, depends completely on donations from users to run its operations.

Raising Funds for the Tor Project

The crowdfunding campaign has set its minimum soft cap goal at $10,000. As of July 16, the campaign has raised over $8,500 in donations, achieving 85 percent of its goal with over 290 contributors. The campaign is set to end on July 30, 2019.

[Update: July 17, 2019, BTCPay Server has reached its full $10,000 goal for the Tor Project]

In the crowdfunding portal, BTCPay notes that the funds received from the campaign will go directly to the Tor Project’s cryptocurrency wallet, with no fees or intermediaries involved. It also thanked Ledger, the company that makes cryptocurrency hardware wallets for sponsoring the crowdfunding event with a limited edition engraved hardware wallet.

After its first crowdfunding campaign in 2015 which raised over $200,000 from over 5,000 donors, the Tor Project has been looking to get more spending flexibility and expand its donor base beyond the U.S. government.

BTCPay: The Go-To Crypto Crowdfunding Platform?

BTCPay Server, a self-hosted and open-source alternative to crypto payment processors like BitPay, was created by Nicholas Dorier in 2017. BTCPay Server’s fundraising efforts have made news in the past, with the most recent instance being the crowdfunding of Hodlonaut’s legal battle against Craig Wright.

BTCPay Server’s main contributors noticed that Tor was using BitPay to accept donations in a manner which was neither private nor efficient when this made them reach out to Tor.

“…about privacy and security improvements they can get by BTCPay Server, not only for themselves but also for their donors.”

“With BTCPay, people are their own payment processor,” said Pavelnex, a BTCPay Server contributor. The open-source project also offers better privacy since its developers have “integrated Tor into BTCPay as a default option for all deployments.”

BTCPay Server has been looking to expand its crowdfunding model to other open-source projects, seeing Bitcoin (BTC) as a viable fundraising option for the future.

Do you think these fundraising events will help BTCPay gain further goodwill from the cryptocurrency community? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.