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Donate to SFU – with Bitcoins

BCIT may have a Bitcoin ATM, but Simon Fraser University is the first post-secondary school in Canada accepting donations in the form of the digital currency.
SFU Bitcoins
From left, SFU student Lauren Shandley, SFU Bitcoin Club president Mike Yeung, student Laurie Macpherson and alum Scott Nelson recently celebrated the university's first Bitcoin donation. The $6,000 contribution from Yeung and Nelson will help fund a humanitarian co-op project in India by Shandley and Macpherson.

BCIT may have a Bitcoin ATM, but Simon Fraser University is the first post-secondary school in Canada accepting donations in the form of the digital currency.

The first donation, worth $6,000, comes from SFU grad Scott Nelson and Simon Fraser Bitcoin Club president Mike Yeung in an effort to popularize the decentralized virtual cash system.

“Having been an SFU student, I am thrilled to be helping the university become one of the first institutions in the world to work with digital currency in this way,” stated Nelson, who serves as chief technology officer of dana.io, a crowdfunding platform for artists, authors and activists.

“We are embracing Bitcoin because it is innovative, open source, entrepreneurial and fits well with SFU’s mission to engage the world,” added Yeung, who is also the founder and CEO of Saftonhouse Consulting Group.

The first donation will go toward a humanitarian co-op project in Kolkata, India, led by students Laurie Macpherson and Lauren Shandley. The duo will spend the fall working for Destiny Reflection, a social group that provides livelihood opportunities for female human trafficking victims and others who are vulnerable of being trafficked.

“As soon as I heard about the humanitarian project the Bitcoins will be supporting, I knew this would be the ideal way to make a difference,” said Nelson.

Yeung noted he hopes SFU’s acceptance of digital donations will spark conversations on how non-profits in developing areas can use Bitcoin.

“Bitcoin can be molded in ways that can benefit people (in every part of the globe and every segment of society) in many ways,” he said. “And those benefits can only be realized when Bitcoin is driven by community efforts and the passion of those with vision and determination – the very traits that SFU breeds and supports.”

@jacobzinn