The Bitcoin Mining Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit. We accept tax-deductible donations of dollars, hardware and bitcoin to support our work in 4 key areas of focus:
1. Education
We partner with schools, universities, and curriculum providers to inspire curiosity and build the digital workforce of tomorrow. The foundation of bitcoin mining is cryptography (mathematics). Therefore, as part of a broader societal effort to promote STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math), we believe every institution dedicated to education should be mining bitcoin, even if on a very small scale, and providing its students with an opportunity to learn about this innovation combining cryptography, proof-of-work, and a distributed ledger. The Bitcoin Mining Foundation supports this education through the donation of hardware, grants for specialized programming, and establishment of scholarships, among other efforts and programs. As a part of this broader education effort, the Bitcoin Mining Foundation establishes mining operations that are open to the public and include informational material and presentations similar to a museum.
2. Scientific and Academic Research
The Bitcoin Mining Foundation promotes and supports research to improve efficiency and accelerate innovation in the bitcoin mining industry. Furthermore, the growth of the bitcoin mining industry has profound implications for the energy industry and the design and management of energy grids. Continuous research is needed to support the evolution of energy grids to effectively incorporate bitcoin mining as an inherently flexible load that can be used to improve reliability and support increased investment and adoption of intermittent renewable energy sources such as solar and wind. Research is also needed to demonstrate and explore the implications of using bitcoin mining to reduce vented and flared methane in oil and gas operations as well as other industrial applications. The Bitcoin Mining Foundation serves as a valuable partner to universities working on research focused on bitcoin mining and its benefits.
3. Collaboration
In order to realize the full potential of bitcoin mining for socio-economic development, new structures for cross-industry collaboration and public-private partnership will be needed. The Bitcoin Mining Foundation serves as a network for key stakeholders to explore these new partnerships, while providing education to maintain a focus on how this collaboration will ultimately serve to improve economic opportunity and strengthen energy reliability and availability for all people. Any government entity with underutilized or wasted energy resources can improve its services to the community through bitcoin mining. The Bitcoin Mining Foundation, through education and operational support, seeks partnerships with any government entity with a legitimate opportunity to launch pilot projects to explore how to improve government services and resources through bitcoin mining. These public-private partnerships may include using the access to relatively inexpensive power sources from some governments to generate revenue through bitcoin mining into a specialized non-profit fund to be used to reinvest in the community through grants and programming to support entrepreneurship and small business.
4. Workforce Development
The bitcoin mining industry is a new source of skills-based employment within the broader shift in technology focused manufacturing. The Bitcoin Mining Foundation works with industry participants on workforce development programs to make training opportunities available to the public at a cost that is lower than programs available at traditional postsecondary universities.
Core Values:
1. Bitcoin is for everyone:
Bitcoin is a permissionless peer-to-peer network. Access is granted equally to all. The Bitcoin Mining Foundation will work to promote this inherently inclusive nature of the network with a focus on its benefits to the most vulnerable and historically underserved or excluded communities. Bitcoin mining secures the network, providing benefits to anyone that freely chooses to use it.
2. Decentralization:
There is no CEO of Bitcoin or any centralized governing body. This decentralization is fundamental to its value proposition and the confidence in securing and enforcing the fixed supply of 21 Million. Bitcoin mining, and specifically the energy required by proof-of-work, differentiates bitcoin from all other assets for its decentralized and censorship-resistant validation of transactions.
3. We are proof-of-work:
Proof-of-work is what secures the bitcoin network. Just as bitcoin mining is all about proof-of-work, the Bitcoin Mining Foundation is an action-oriented organization that will value highlighting and celebrating actual implementation of the benefits of bitcoin mining in the real world.
4. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness:
The Bitcoin Mining Foundation is rooted in the values espoused in the American Declaration of Independence and enshrined in the Constitution of the United States of America. It is the strong conviction of the Bitcoin Mining Foundation that, in an increasingly digital world, bitcoin is the most powerful tool to, as the preamble to the Constitution states, “promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”
5. Bitcoin only:
The Bitcoin Mining Foundation is not focused on advocating against any other protocol or technology. However, in order to be effective, a narrow focus specifically on bitcoin as the largest and most secure proof-of-work network is at the center of everything the Bitcoin Mining Foundation does. Protocols and assets outside of the bitcoin network (broadly referred to as “crypto” or “blockchain”), are outside the scope of the Bitcoin Mining Foundation. This is not a statement against any other technology or industry, but rather an important clarification and limitation to the work of the Bitcoin Mining Foundation. The Bitcoin Mining Foundation is open to collaboration with entities or events active in the broader “crypto” or “blockchain” industries, but only to the extent that there is a clear opportunity to advance education and research focused exclusively on bitcoin mining and bitcoin.