The Al Jalila Foundation – a nonprofit healthcare enterprise and member of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives – has announced it will accept donations in digital currencies such as bitcoin. Located in Dubai of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), it is the first healthcare charity in that neck of the woods to open its heart and mind to crypto. The company has also said it is partnering with a well-known crypto exchange, though at the time of writing, it’s unknown what that exchange is.
The Al Jalila Foundation Says “Yes” to Crypto
The move is pushing the goals of bitcoin and its digital counterparts closer to being achieved. What many people likely forget is that while bitcoin and many of its crypto cousins have taken on either speculative or even hedge-like statuses in recent years, many of them were initially designed to serve as payment tools. They were built to push checks, credit cards, and fiat currencies to the side, but this has been a relatively slow journey given the volatility that continues to drag them down.
It is extremely hard to understand when bitcoin and its crypto family will go up or down when it comes to their prices. Many stores and companies have been reluctant to say “yes” when it comes to accepting crypto payments for this reason, and to a degree, we can’t blame them.
Consider the following scenario: someone walks into a store and buys $50 worth of merchandise with bitcoin. For one reason or another, the store doesn’t trade the BTC into fiat right away and about 24 hours go by. From there, the price of BTC goes down and that $50 becomes $40. The customer gets to keep everything he or she bought, but the store has lost money in the end. Is this a fair situation? Not everyone thinks so.
That’s what makes enterprises like Al Jalila so important. They understand the initial purposes of bitcoin and digital currencies and are trying to transform them into usable tools that everyday people can benefit from.
Helping the Crowd Make Innovative Payments
Dr. Abdulkareem Sultan Al Olama – CEO of Al Jalila – explained in an interview:
As a philanthropic organization we rely on charitable donations, and we are always seeking innovative ways to expand our donation channels for ease of convenience for donors from all around the world to support our programs. Therefore, as an emerging source of fundraising, providing the opportunity to the growing number of crypto users around the world to donate to Al Jalila Foundation to causes that interest them is a win-win for us as a foundation and the donor community.
The Middle East appears to be one of the biggest crypto-loving regions in the world as of late. The UAE itself engages in approximately $25 billion worth of crypto transactions each year.
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