Chamber of Digital Commerce to be first recipient of Overstock BTC donation program

In a recent Gigaom profile of Overstock.com’s bitcoin adoption, CEO Patrick Byrne let slip an interesting detail about the company’s plan to donate 4% of BTC sales to a different bitcoin charity or foundation every month. According to the article, the first recipient of the plan will be the newly minted bitcoin political advocacy group the Chamber of Digital Commerce.

It’s not yet clear how substantial this donation will be, although given Overstock’s bitcoin-sales volume it is likely to be a humble contribution. Posting about the announcement on CoinTelegraph, writer Ian DeMartino gave a back-of-the-envelope estimate based on Overstock’s estimate of roughly $300,000 in monthly bitcoin-backed sales. “The USD $300,000 figure would put Overstock’s first month donation at around the USD $12,000 mark.”

Shortly after the announcement, the Chamber of Digital Commerce issued a press statement about the planned donation:

The Chamber of Digital Commerce is honored to be the first recipient of Overstock’s largesse. We are gratified that the work of the Chamber is being recognized and we pledge to use these funds to further promote the acceptance and use of digital currencies among government and the larger public. … We encourage all industry leaders to unite and provide resources, whether through the Chamber, its PAC, or otherwise, to support gaining appropriate recognition and appreciation by our lawmakers of Bitcoin and blockchain technology.”

Byrne has stated many times that he expects BTC-backed sales to reach $1 million per month by the end of 2014. This would mean substantial gifts of around $40,000 to bitcoin-using nonprofits and advocacy groups.