I’m in the habit of donating $1 a month to everything I come across that seems useful to me and that accepts recurring monthly donations , Patreon style. But I had to donate a minimum of $5 for my donation to be accepted. I wonder why they set a minimum amount. Confusion? Greed? Regulatory or practicality issues?
After clicking through four pages and being told my home phone number was required (‽), I found that they don't take Bitcoin donations, only credit-card donations. ArXiv does really good and important work, but I'm going to donate to Sci-Hub instead, because it's so much easier. It takes three minutes and doesn't put me at any risk of identity theft, getting carded, getting spearphished, or getting telemarketing calls.<p>(There are still "middlemen merchants skimming money", though, despite what another commenter implies about cryptocurrencies. You pay a transaction fee, and coin/fiat exchanges have a spread. The amounts are often lower, especially for small transactions, but they're often close to the 3% cost of a credit-card transaction.)