Armory to Match 10 BTC in Donations to Hal Finney Bitcoin Fund

Armory Technologies has extended its ongoing donation drive in honor of late bitcoin developer Hal Finney.

Finney, a pioneer in the field of cryptography and the first person to receive a bitcoin transaction, passed away last Tuesday at the age of 58 after a long battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

The open-source bitcoin wallet management platform announced today that it would match up to 10 BTC in donations made to the Hal Finney Bitcoin Fund for ALS Research through its 'simulfunding' (simultaneous funding) platform.

Originally scheduled to end 1st September, the donation drive is also aimed to highlight the bitcoin contract capabilities of its version 0.92 Armory client.

Armory laudedFinney and his contributions to the wider bitcoin ecosystem in its blog post announcing the expansion of its funding drive, saying:

"[Finney] was a true crypto pioneer whose ideals were completely in line with Armory's and we're happy to do anything we can to support ALS research."

Launched on 30th August, the fund is accepting donations through to Thanksgiving (27th November) in the US with the goal of contributing the final total to the ALS Association, a US-based non-profit that raises money for research and patient services.

At press time, 7.5 BTC (or roughly $3,352) has been raised through contributions made to Armory's bitcoin donation matching initiative, meaning 15 BTC in total has been collected for its original recipient projects.

Simulfunding in action

The donation drive provides Armory with its latest opportunity to showcase its simulfunding interface, a feature of its latest client that allows users to create a simple bitcoin contract for use in crowdfunding, donation drives and personal agreements.

Armory's platform allows users to create or claim promissory notes and add them to their wallet management system. The promissory note, in turn, provides the conditions under which both parties will make a certain transaction – in this case, a contribution to a funding effort.

When the specified amount of funds is raised, the contract executes and all funds are transferred as described in the contract. However, contracts with terms that are not met are not executed.

The news also follows the formal unveiling of the Hal Finney Bitcoin Fund for ALS Research last weekend. The fund was created through a joint effort by Coinapult co-founder Erik Voorhees, Sean's Outpost founder Jason King, venture capitalist Roger Ver, BitPay, and the Bitcoin Foundation

Armory's drive continues

Launched on 29th July, Armory's simulfunding demo aimed to highlight one of the platform's newest capabilities. Armory also recently released Lockbox, a multi-signature interface for bitcoin, in the same update.

At the outset, the initiative offered up to 20 BTC to a list of charities selected for promoting "open-source and digital freedoms", including the Free Software Foundation; Electronic Frontier Foundation; College Cryptocurrency Network; OpenSSL; the Chamber of Digital Commerce; and the Bitcoin Foundation.

There, users can find a list of the available promissory notes being offered by Amory users, along with those that have been matched by the community.

To access simulfunding, users need to install Armory version 0.92. More detailed instructions on signing up for the service or updating an existing Armory wallet can be found on Armory's donation matching page.

Image via Fran's Fragments and WNYC.org