There I was, staring at my eyeball three inches from the magnifying mirror applying mascara (as is my practice, since I have 20/400 vision uncorrected) when an idea hit me. Thankfully, I didn’t jab myself in the eye with the mascara wand!

What if the solution to virtual currency philanthropic contributions is to consider them non-monetary donations, like giving a bag of clothes to Goodwill or canned veggies to a food pantry?

Although I contest that virtual currency is, in fact, monetary in nature just like traditional paper-and-coin currency, the non-monetary/in-kind tax option could be just the ticket to deal with this emerging technological issue. With other in-kind contributions like clothes, etc., the onus is on the donor to determine the value of the gift and to maintain their own financial records when a receipt is not provided.

Likewise, if the donor of virtual currency was responsible for calculating the value of the contribution, then that would alleviate a complicated reporting burden from nonprofit organizations. It would also reinforce privacy by making the donor responsible for record-keeping, rather than the recipient organization.

Hmm … this gives me much to ponder.