You can donate to support Namecoin via a number of methods.

Note that donations are not tax-deductible.

Direct Cryptocurrency Donations

The Namecoin developers accept unrestricted donations via the following cryptocurrencies:

Warnings: Bitcoin and Namecoin do not provide anonymity for donations, although they may (under some circumstances) provide pseudonymity or location-anonymity.

Issue/Task-Specific Cryptocurrency Donations

If you would like your donation to be earmarked for a specific issue/task, you can donate to one of these Bitcoin addresses. If the issue/task you want to fund is not listed here, contact us and we can set up an address for it.

  • Decentralized search engine for Namecoin websites. Expected to be feasible with 100 mBTC of donations. 18caYmssEY7PB72jSvTRgFgYiZubSs6cCq
  • Trezor wallet support for Namecoin. 19dnJGDq1ji2U9X2PeScJk6WqYgJ6RTpRJ

Warnings: Bitcoin does not provide anonymity for donations, although it may (under some circumstances) provide pseudonymity or location-anonymity.

ShapeShift Cryptocurrency Donations

ShapeShift can be used to donate to the Namecoin Marketing and Development Fund (operated by Phelix) using many cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin and Namecoin. Set the “Receive” address to the Bitcoin address of the Namecoin Marketing and Development Fund (see above).

Warnings: Funds are handled by ShapeShift (a trusted third party). ShapeShift is a registered company under the jurisdiction of Switzerland. While some of the cryptocurrencies supported by ShapeShift are intended to provide some level of anonymity, the effectiveness of such anonymity features ranges from dubious to unproven. The cryptocurrencies supported by ShapeShift may (under some circumstances) provide pseudonymity or location-anonymity. Cloudflare (a company described by anonymity researcher Jacob Appelbaum as a global active adversary) wiretaps ShapeShift traffic, has the capability of injecting malicious changes to the ShapeShift website, and discriminates against Tor users who try to access ShapeShift. ShapeShift takes a cut of any donations made via this method, which they state “usually falls in the range of about 0.5-1% or so.”

Bountysource Donations

Bountysource can be used to donate to the Namecoin project via PayPal and credit cards (VISA, MasterCard, and American Express). Both one-time and monthly-recurring donation options are available. The Namecoin Bountysource account is operated by Jeremy Rand.

Warnings: Funds are handled by Bountysource (a trusted third party). Bountysource is a registered company under the jurisdiction of the state of California in the U.S. PayPal and credit cards do not provide anonymity for donations, nor do they provide pseudonymity or location-anonymity. Bountysource takes a 10% cut of any donations made via this method.

Bountysource Issue/Task Bounties

Bountysource can be used to place bounties on completion of specified issues or tasks listed on GitHub. The bounties can be placed via PayPal or Bitcoin. When the issue is resolved, Bountysource releases the funds to the developer who resolved it.

To place a bounty on an existing issue, click the Bountysource link in the issue description. If no issue exists for the task you want solved, create a new issue.

The following Namecoin GitHub repositories support placing Bountysource bounties:

More GitHub repositories may be added later.

Warnings: Funds are handled by Bountysource (a trusted third party). Bountysource is a registered company under the jurisdiction of the state of California in the U.S. PayPal does not provide anonymity for donations, nor does it provide pseudonymity or location-anonymity. Bitcoin donations using Bountysource are processed by Coinbase, which is not particularly anonymity-friendly. Bountysource takes a 10% cut of any donations made via this method.

Tip4Commit Bounties

We are currently looking into Tip4Commit; check back later for updates on this option.