

Ask HN: Bitcoin vs USD - which is better to drive donations to a site? - refrigerator

I&#x27;m building a site, and I&#x27;d like to maybe get some money out of it without resorting to ads - is it more effective to have a bitcoin donation address or just a regular donation system? Are either of these effective at all?&lt;p&gt;Thanks
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ScottWhigham
There is no one that can answer this question for you. If I said, "I tried
both and, in six months, I had $1,043,434 in USD donations and 1 Bitcoin",
does that help? No, because it's "general information", not specific
advice/data from the same audience as yours. If you're building a blog for
people over 80 years old who want to check out their health insurance options
in the US, obviously USD. If you're designing a tech review site for bleeding
edge folks, maybe then BC. But unless you know your target audience's
desires/comfort level, there's no way to answer this.

As others have said, offering both is a good idea. Unless you scare people by
offering them choices they don't understand (many 80yo people don't understand
BC and you might risk losing any donation from them if you paralyze them at
the donation level).

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mattwritescode
Well if you are after regular Joe to donate then USD. Most people outside of
tech still don't know about or understand bitcoins.

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yourmailman
A/B test it and let the data decide

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lcasela
How about both?

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refrigerator
I want to keep it classy and thought that having multiple ways of donating
would seem a bit desperate, no?

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ced83fra
A/B test, as previously said. But you may not have enough visitors at this
stage. So put the 2 buttons, and in 3 months, remove on of them. Then you will
have the best solution for your very site, and you will have a slick design.

I am exactly at the same stage of you for one of my site... I'll have a clear
answer for you in 2 to 4 months :)

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refrigerator
That sounds like a good plan :)

