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May 1, 2014

Atilus Bitcoin Scholarship

Author: Harry Casimir

Back in mid-December we started accepting bitcoin. It’s been an interesting journey so far. We’ve had a couple clients pay in bitcoin, and a ton of contacts have been made because of our listing on CoinMap (an opensource map with bitcoin retailers around the globe).

It’s amazing how this community has grown, the changes that have cropped up here in only 4 months and we truly believe that Bitcoin is going to revolutionize the business and consumer worlds in relation to finance and value.

Today I’m excited to announce a small blip on the laundry list of amazing things that have been happening recently with Bitcoin. We’ve combined our commitment to the Southwest Florida community, our alma mater and local University (FGCU) and our desire to give back when it comes to education.

The Atilus Bitcoin Scholarship Endowment 

Atilus made a gift of $25,000 and $12,500 of that gift established the endowment. The endowment was finalized on April 11, 2014 and will provide a scholarship for a future FGCU student for many years to come. The coolest part? We organized and paid the initial deposit using bitcoin. This endowment marks the single largest donation to a University in bitcoin and the first time a public University in the United States has ever accepted bitcoin. Cool stuff!

Here are all of the details of the endowment and our initial donation:

  • The scholarship is to be awarded to a Junior or Senior at FGCU who has a GPA of over 2.75, is involved at a leadership level in student clubs or organizations, is enrolled in or completed an internship, and demonstrates financial need to the scholarship committee
  • Our initial deposit included $2500 worth of bitcoin (roughly 5.9 coins)  on April 11th
  • The entire endowment will be funded over the next 5 years (although we plan to pay into it much faster if possible)
  • The University will hold an additional single bitcoin in perpetuity
  • In addition to the above I personally donated an additional 1.5 bitcoins (a value of roughly $750 at time of transfer)  in order to immediately provide the scholarship to a student this next school year (late 2014)

I’m personally proud of this scholarship. My family didn’t have enough money for me to go to school.

Paying for school rested on my shoulders. I relied on good grades, scholarships, and most importantly the Florida Bright Futures program which provided in-state tuition funding for students who met certain criteria. I worked hard to get it and had the opportunity to go to a great school – FGCU. Now I feel it’s important to provide these same kinds of opportunities – outside of loans – to deserving students.

What is an Endowment?

For those unfamiliar (I know I was unfamiliar with the process when we first started on this journey) an endowment is a set amount of money, held by the University Foundation and invested. The proceeds of the investments are what are then distributed in accordance with the endowments wishes – in our case the funds are dispersed to future students in the form of a scholarship (see details above) – allowing them to put the money towards tuition.

How You Can Help

Atilus is trying to grow the endowment in order to provide our future community leaders an even grander source of funds outside of taking on student loan debt all the while increasing awareness of  FGCU (the fastest growing University in the country!) and show some of the benefits of bitcoin.

So what can you do?

  • Share this Post – You can help by simply spreading this post – share it on Facebook, tweet about it.
  • Like us on Facebook – We’ll be posting additional details as we work with the University to spread the word about the endowment.
  • Donate – If you’d like to go a step further – make a donation. We worked hard with the University to dedicate a bitcoin address for the endowment. All proceeds sent to that address are directed to this endowment. In the future we can see the University accepting donations for all kinds of programs, colleges, etc. through the use of these addresses. You can either donate in bitcoin or donate conventionally.

How to Donate:

Atilus Bitcoin Scholarship Endowment:

1N1MyaFn7Zz5Ta9XLjfUyVH9fhVywf4aoY

The above image & bitcoin addresses use the Bitcoin URI – if you have a bitcoin wallet on your computer or use a web wallet – you can simply click the link to donate direct to the address.

If you do not yet have a bitcoin wallet we recommend the following services:

  1. Coinbase – https://coinbase.com/ – One of the simplest online wallets.
  2. GreenAddress – https://greenaddress.it/en/ – Another web based wallet. A little more complex but great security. 
  3. Blockchain – https://blockchain.info/wallet – A web based wallet.
  4. Bitcoin-QT – https://bitcoin.org/en/download – The defacto downloadable wallet.

If you’d like to donate more conventionally you can do so simply by contacting Altony (Tony) Lee: 

Tony Lee
alee@fgcu.edu
Phone: 239-590-1068

For more information on Bitcoin:

Harry Casimir

Harry Casimir is our CEO and co-founder. He specializes in all aspects of technology from hosting to server maintenance and provides overall strategic direction for our team.

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