A-7, a THON special interest organization, recently announced that it is now accepting Bitcoin donations, a payment method that has never been used in THON’s history.

Bitcoin, a decentralized digital currency that is only a few years old, has become increasingly popular among many tech-savvy entrepreneurs and investors all over the Internet, including the Winklevoss Twins from Facebook’s early days. Bitcoin has been known to come with some significant implications, such as the inability to be regulated and having nothing to back it up, which have brought a lot of skepticism. That said, many large companies, including Dell, Zynga, and Expedia, have started to accept it, so Bitcoin’s overall legitimacy could be catching on.

According to members of A-7’s Executive Board, the idea started to get traction when they found out a few A-7 alumni wanted to donate their Bitcoins to a worthy cause. After that, they realized they could crowdfund for THON through the Internet. They said they’re hoping to generate awareness and create a new donor avenue that will funnel contributions into the THON community.

This came as a surprise to the president of Penn State Bitcoin Club, Patrick Cines, who had previously attempted to implement Bitcoin donations to THON to no avail. He said that the biggest roadblock he faced was that student organizations cannot collect funds using off-campus accounts, which makes it practically impossible for THON to accept Bitcoin donations, since Penn State does not support the currency yet.

Nevertheless, A-7 is definitely taking on a new approach to fundraising by utilizing Bitcoin’s popularity all over the internet to spread THON’s mission. It will be interesting to see how much attention this new payment method will attract donors.

If you have some Bitcoins you’d like to donate, you can do so on A-7’s website.