Wikileaks Now Accepts Donations in the Cryptocurrency Zcash

Nonprofit media organization Wikileaks recently tweeted that it has begun accepting donations of the privacy-oriented digital currency Zcash. The cryptocurrency becomes the third virtual currency accepted by the information sharing site following Bitcoin and Litecoin.

Why Zcash?

Wikileaks decided to accept Zcash as a new mode of donation despite its poor performance in a survey that was conducted by the nonprofit group in early August 2017. Of the options presented to the pollsters, Zcash only got 11 percent of the 12,204 votes that were submitted. Its rivals Ethereum and Monero, meanwhile, garnered 45 percent and 21 percent, respectively.

Wikileaks background

Wikileaks is a global nonprofit group that mainly publishes news leaks, secret information, and classified media that are supplied by anonymous sources. Australian Internet activist Julian Assange is widely considered as the founder, director, and editor-in-chief of the organization.

The organization became controversial due to its release of classified or otherwise sensitive materials. Wikileaks has published footage and classified documents from the Iraq War, diplomatic “communications” by the US State Department, and emails of 2016 US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

The group started accepting donations in cryptocurrencies in 2011 when it allowed contributions in Bitcoin. The digital currency has become a very popular medium for the group as its Bitcoin wallet has already registered over 26,000 transactions as of early August 2017.

Other uses of Bitcoin

In a Reddit interview in early 2017, Wikileaks founder Assange claimed that the group and he, himself, are also using Bitcoin for other purposes. During the interview, he used data from the Bitcoin Blockchain to prove that he is still alive, quashing rumors of his untimely demise. Assange has been living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012.