Earlier this week, it was revealed that popular source code and text editor Notepad++, is accepting Bitcoin donations to support its developers.
Over the past few years, active developers have requested the teams and companies behind reputable text and source code editing software to accept donations in Bitcoin.
Users of Sublime Text, another popular source code editor with a Python application programming interface (API), went as far as pursuing an actual campaign to convince the Sublime Text team to take Bitcoin donations.
One user stated that Sublime Text responded to the campaign in 2013, stating that the team had considered accepting Bitcoin but ultimately decided not to.
Sublime Text user stated:
“I emailed them a few months ago about it with a long and detailed email as to why they should accept BTC. They sent an email back saying they had thought about it but decided not to.”
Donations shouldn’t be difficult for supporters
The goto payment option for most platform operators including Sublime Text and other major platforms is PayPal, despite its significantly high transaction fees.
As an appreciation to its supporters, it is the company and the development team’s obligation to lay out the easiest and cheapest methods of funding their operations. Users and supporters shouldn’t be left to deal with the burden of high transaction fees when sending a donation.
Still, there exists a very few number of companies and open source communities that accept Bitcoin donations. The Notepad++ team is most likely the only prominent text editing software service provider that enables Bitcoin donations.
Considering the community’s enthusiastic response to Notepad++’s support for Bitcoin, other text editors and open source projects should also look into the benefits of Bitcoin payments and donations not just for themselves but for their supporters who are willing to spend their personal money to sustain the development of open source projects.