This week, as you’ve watched your Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin rise and fall and rise again, perhaps you’ve been wondering: how can I put my cryptocurrencies to good use? Should I buy a new car or yacht? Plow it into Amazon stock? Well, at least some of you have turned to the Internet Archive—a place where you can donate your cryptocurrencies directly to help ensure that the Web is free, secure and backed up for all time.

At the Internet Archive, we are big fans of the cryptocurrency movement and have been trying to do our part to test and support alternative means of commerce. We’ve been accepting Bitcoin donations since 2012, and starting this week, we are now accepting donations of Bitcoin Cash and Zcash.

This week it all started when UKcryptocurrency tweeted us asking the Internet Archive to start accepting Bitcoin Cash. We love a good challenge and got that link up within hours.

Here’s how you can donate in cryptocurrency:



Bitcoin is an experimental, cryptographically secure, semi-anonymous method of transferring value between parties. Introduced in 2008, it has been successfully used as a token system between thousands of people. The Internet Archive has proudly experimented with bitcoin including paying some employees with it and encouraging local businesses to experiment as well.

Internet Archive Bitcoin Address: 1Archive1n2C579dMsAu3iC6tWzuQJz8dN



When Bitcoin was first created, developers and miners questioned whether the cryptocurrency could scale properly. To ensure its future, on August 1, 2017, developers and miners initiated what’s known as a ‘hard fork’ and created a new currency called Bitcoin Cash. For more information, visit: https://www.bitcoincash.org/

Internet Archive Bitcoin Cash Address: 12PRZjrLo5yqnHMmUCtPUse4kCyuneby3S



Zcash is the first-of-its-kind cryptocurrency that offers both privacy and selective transparency for all transactions. Zcash gives you the option of using a transparent addresses (what the Internet Archive uses, listed below) or shielded addresses which keep sender, receiver, and amounts private. For more information on Zcash visit https://z.cash/, and for details on the differences between transparent and shielded transactions visit: https://z.cash/support/security/privacy-security-recommendations.html

Internet Archive Zcash Address: t1W6JqMECmbqmDGZ9uLSXWQZ6EgxFkfuty8

We are a non-profit organization with a huge mission: to give everyone access to all knowledge—the books, web pages, audio, television and software of our shared humanity. Forever. For Free. But to build this digital library of the future, we need your help. If you’re feeling flush from a cryptocurrency-windfall, please consider giving to the Internet Archive today.

More info on why cryptocurrencies matter to us: http://blog.archive.org/2017/09/02/why-bitcoin-is-on-the-internet-archives-balance-sheet/