Privacy-centric technology company The Tor Project (TTP) has begun accepting donations in cryptocurrencies to support its work “for the universal human rights to privacy and freedom and help keep Tor robust and secure”. As of March 18, it now accepts nine major cryptos from donors: Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Dash (DASH), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Monero (XMR), Stellar Lumen (XLM), Augur (REP) and Zcash (ZEC).

Apart from crypto, TTP also accepts contributions in a host of other ways – from credit cards, checks, bank transfers, and PayPal to Amazon Payments, Giving Assistant, and even stock donations.

TTP describes itself as a non-profit organization “advancing human rights and freedoms by creating and deploying free and open source anonymity and privacy technologies, supporting their unrestricted availability and use, and furthering their scientific and popular understanding”.

It is known for producing free, open-source software for anonymous information exchange. It also created two privacy-centric Internet browsers: Tor Browser and TorBro. Tor itself is an acronym for “The Onion Project”, where TTP originally has its roots in onion routing. Onion routing is a layered encryption technique developed in the 1990s by the US Navy similar to creating multiple layers like those of an onion.

TTP may promote technology for privacy and technology, but countries such as Venezuela and China, where Internet access is heavily controlled, have long banned Tor and other privacy technology such as virtual private networks.

In the wrong hands, privacy technology can also be abused. Just earlier this month, The Crypto Sight reported that a Japanese teenager had used Tor Browser in an attempt to mask his tracks while he stole JPY15 million ($134,600) worth of MonaCoin from 7,700 users of a crypto storage website.