Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn holds most of his personal wealth in bitcoin and ethereum and has made multiple crypto-based donations to A.I. companies.
In an article published by Fortune, the Estonian-based computer engineer, who gained fame as one of the original creators of Skype revealed that he keeps most of his personal investments in cryptoassets and has been investing for some time.
According to filings with the U.K. business registry Companies House, Tallinn made a gift donation of 350 ether–worth $434,000 at the time–to Faculty AI, a London-based company that helps create machine-learning systems for businesses and governments. The Skype co-founder made an additional donation in March 2020 of 50 BTC, worth $316,000.
The Fortune article reads,
The reason for donating the money to Faculty in cryptocurrency, Tallinn says, is that he keeps most of his personal wealth in that form, and converting it into cash would have resulted in an unnecessary capital gains tax bill, reducing the amount he could give.
Faculty AI CEO Marc Warner said the company was initially at a loss for how to handle the donation.
He told Fortune,
Our accountants had to go and find someone else who was working on crypto and how to do accounting for crypto.
Featured Image Credit: Photo via Pixabay.com
