“LOL,” The Pirate Bay Adds Donation Options, Mocks Bitcoin Cash?

The Pirate Bay has been both an early adopter and a pioneer when it comes to cryptocurrencies.

Earlier this year the site made headlines when it started to mine cryptocurrency through its visitors, which proved to be a controversial move. Still, many sites followed Pirate Bay’s example.

Pirate Bay’s interest in cryptocurrency wasn’t new though.

The torrent site first allowed people to donate Bitcoin five years ago, which paid off right away. In little more than a day, 73 transactions were sent to Pirate Bay’s address, adding up to a healthy 5.56 BTC, roughly $700 at the time.

Today, the site still accepts Bitcoin donations. While it doesn’t bring in enough to pay all the bills, it doesn’t hurt either.

Around Christmas, The Pirate Bay decided to expand its cryptocurrency donation options. In addition to the traditional Bitcoin address, the torrent site added a Bitcoin Segwit Bech32 option, plus Litecoin and Monero addresses.

While the new donation options show that The Pirate Bay has faith in multiple currencies, the site doesn’t appear to be a fan of them all. The Bitcoin fork “Bitcoin Cash” is also listed, for example, but in a rather unusual way.

“BCH: Bcash. LOL,” reads a mention posted on the site.

BCH: Bcash. LOL

Those who are following the cryptocurrency scene will know that there has been quite a bit of infighting between some supporters of the Bitcoin Cash project and those of the original Bitcoin in recent weeks.

Several high-profile individuals have criticized Bitcoin’s high transaction fees and limitations, while others have very little faith in the future of the Bitcoin Cash alternative.

Although there are not a lot of details available, the “LOL” mention suggests that the TPB team is in the latter camp.

In recent years The Pirate Bay has received a steady but very modest flow of Bitcoin donations. Lasy year we calculated that it ‘raked’ in roughly $9 per day.

However, with the exponential price increase recently, the modest donations now look pretty healthy. Since 2013 The Pirate Bay received well over 135 BTC in donations, which is good for $2 million today. LOL.

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