Bitcoin address

The Bottom section is one of the four main sections of the xkcd.com website.

Randall added many Bitcoin addresses to his website's frontpage and to xkcd.com/bitcoin. He updated the addresses frequently, using them as a modern tip jar for high-tech users. Here's a list of the six addresses mentioned in this article that have appeared on xkcd.com/bitcoin and in the footnote on xkcd.com, along with the earliest web archive available:

1. 1Lg2rvxbBPC8jp2YJoV5xL7sdyTjueMUot on April 14th, 2011
2. 14FHqYSgAi39CEJksUJJsK8JzJzyqFpLVk on January 15th, 2012
3. 1NEPgrUmed3VyXpqbYZom7YVJ8MozYrNWx on April 28th, 2013
4. 14Tr4HaKkKuC1Lmpr2YMAuYVZRWqAdRTcr on May 5th, 2013
5. 1NfBXWqseXc9rCBc3Cbbu6HjxYssFUgkH6 on June 4th, 2013
6. 1FhCLQK2ZXtCUQDtG98p6fVH7S6mxAsEey on June 27th, 2014

History

xkcd.com/bitcoin

The first address was added to xkcd.com/bitcoin, which today returns a 404 error. The first web archive of the page is dated April 14th, 2011, and its contents have been changed four times. On the #xkcd-bitcoin channel on irc.foonetic.net, he explained why he created it:

<Randall> We don't have donations of any kind, actually. I mean, there are prints you can buy, and you can pay more if you want.
<Randall> I only learned about bitcoins a month or so ago.
<Randall> I don't solicit donations on my website, and I have avoided soliciting donations through various systems where I hadn't decided to actively promote those systems (i.e. flattr and bitcoin).
<Randall> Like, a lot of people contact me and are like "can you sign up for $PROJECT and we'll get a button on your page and people can donate to you!" and I feel like the main effect of my doing that would be promoting $PROJECT.
<Randall> Which isn't really something I do on solicitation, if only because the moment I did, I'd be flooded with more solicitations.
<Randall> And email is hard :(
<Randall> here's how far I'll go: if anyone types this URL, they can see a black hole into which they can deposit bitcoins: http://xkcd.com/bitcoin/
<Randall> it'll be interesting to see if anyone stumbles on it.
<Randall> I am probably legally obligated to let you know that I am not a charity and will probably be spending the money on extremely unwise things (i.e. gin)
<Randall> Hooray! I have some bitcoins now.
<ThomasV_> if you can convince some gin seller to accept bitcoins without converting them to usd, you'll be a hero
<Randall> and then the bitcoin community will collapse into drunken brawls

—Randall Munroe, Source

The original address was 1Lg2rvxbBPC8jp2YJoV5xL7sdyTjueMUot, but between April 14th, 2011 and June 1st, 2011, Randall replaced it with a message explaining why he decided to remove it:

Thank you for all the kind donations!

I took down my address because I would prefer to experiment with Bitcoin as a regular, anonymous user.

I put up an address here because someone on IRC asked, but I don't want an xkcd.com donation address to be seen as an endorsement of Bitcoin to xkcd readers.

As a bitcoin user, I stand to profit from encouraging waves of new adopters who drive up bitcoin prices. I'm uneasy about this conflict of interest; for the moment, I'd rather stay a normal user.

Again, thank you to everyone who sent me bitcoins before I took this down! I'll try to use them for something fun and geeky.

<3 Randall''

—Randall Munroe, Source

The message was then removed before August 12th, 2011 and the page remained empty until a new address was added between August 12th, 2011 and January 15th, 2012: 14FHqYSgAi39CEJksUJJsK8JzJzyqFpLVk. It was then replaced by the last address to be shown on the page, 14Tr4HaKkKuC1Lmpr2YMAuYVZRWqAdRTcr, between March 16th, 2013 and May 5th, 2013. It remained there until the page was shut down after November 24th, 2017.

Footnote

Between February 18th, 2013 and February 24, 2013, Randall edited the footnote on xkcd.com and added a Bitcoin address. Over time, he changed the address four times, before eventually removing the first line altogether. They were always displayed in this format:

BTC 1FhCLQK2ZXtCUQDtG98p6fVH7S6mxAsEey

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Here is a zoomed-in version:

BTC 1FhCLQK2ZXtCUQDtG98p6fVH7S6mxAsEey

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The first address to be added to the footnote was 14FHqYSgAi39CEJksUJJsK8JzJzyqFpLVk, which was also the second address to appear on xkcd.com/bitcoin. It was added between February 18th, 2013 and February 24th, 2013, months after it was initially introduced on the Bitcoin page.

The three addresses that followed were all never present on the Bitcoin page and only appeared on xkcd.com. First, it was replaced by 1NEPgrUmed3VyXpqbYZom7YVJ8MozYrNWx between April 23rd, 2013 and April 28th, 2013, which was then changed into 1NfBXWqseXc9rCBc3Cbbu6HjxYssFUgkH6 between June 1st, 2013 and June 4th, 2013. Finally, either on June 26th, 2014 or June 27th, 2014, it would be changed for the last time into 1FhCLQK2ZXtCUQDtG98p6fVH7S6mxAsEey.

The footnote containing the Bitcoin address would be removed entirely, along with the warning above it, on September 12th, 2016, when 1732: Earth Temperature Timeline was the frontpage comic. They were probably removed to not scare potential new fans away, given the popularity of the comic. For 22 days, from September 12th, 2016 until October 4th, 2016, there was no footnote on xkcd.com, and thus no Bitcoin address. The most recent footnote, added either on October 4th, 2016 or on October 5th, 2016, doesn't include any Bitcoin addresses and has remained on the site ever since.