The KDE project has announced that it has received a hefty donation of $200,000 from the Pineapple Fund. The donation was sent to the KDE project in the form of 27 bitcoins, as is the usual way for Pineapple Fund to make payments. It comes mere weeks after the same fund sent 91 bitcoins to the Free Software Foundation.
In a statement, Lydia Pintscher, President of KDE e.V., said:
“KDE is immensely grateful for this donation. We would like to express our deeply felt appreciation towards the Pineapple Fund for their generosity. We will use the funds to further our cause to make Free Software accessible to everyone and on all platforms. The money will help us realize our vision of creating a world in which everyone has control over their digital life and enjoys freedom and privacy.”
An anonymous spokesperson for the Pineapple Fund said:
“KDE is a vibrant community that has been developing a number of awesome products like Plasma that empower the user’s freedom. I especially admire the UX and design of KDE’s products, as they are approachable to new audiences who are no Linux geeks. I hope this donation can power further KDE development!”
Some concrete actions which KDE says it will use the money on include organising events, sponsoring development sprints to improve existing tools, pay expenses for contributors who travel, attract more contributors, create new and safer programs, and carry out research for future generations of KDE’s environments and applications.
The Pineapple Fund is run by an anonymous person who decided to invest in bitcoin while it was still cheap to buy and easy to mine, lured in by the promise of decentralised money. Now they’ve got more money than they know what to do with and decided to donate it to various charities and groups.
Source: KDE