This Is Why Wikipedia No Longer Accepts Crypto Donations.

2022-05-02 | Selina Mathew

This Is Why Wikipedia No Longer Accepts Crypto Donations.

The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organization that operates Wikipedia, has chosen to cease collecting cryptocurrency payments, citing the environmental effect of cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and Ethereum. "The Wikimedia Foundation has chosen to suspend direct bitcoin acceptance as a way of donation... "We are adopting this choice in response to recent input from the [volunteer and donor] communities," the foundation stated in a statement.

As per a Wikipedian who goes by the handle Molly While on Twitter, the choice to discontinue accepting cryptocurrency as a gift was taken in response to a community demand that resulted from a three-month-long discussion that concluded in April.

The pitfalls and promises of cryptocurrencies were discussed in the three-month-long discussions, and voting was organised in which 400 Wikipedia editors participated, of which 232 users—71.7 percent—supported the proposal against crypto donations and 94 editors voted for crypto donations, while others (75 users) were excluded from voting.

The plan to initially halt crypto was made public in January. The request was sent out by a Wikipedia editor known as Vermont.

Vermont chose to write in a Wikipedia post that common assertions in support of the plan to ban cryptocurrency included "environmental sustainability, that embracing cryptocurrencies defines an implicit endorsement of the problems surrounding cryptos, as well as community issues with the danger to the movement's notoriety for accepting cryptocurrencies."

Nevertheless, the opposition contended that there are less energy-intensive crypto (proof-of-stake), that cryptocurrencies give safer means for individuals in repressive nations to donate as well as participate in finance, and that fiat currencies have environmental sustainability difficulties.

Embracing cryptocurrency, as per Vermont, means risking our image by engaging in this. The Wikipedian also mentioned Mozilla, a major web browser that is reconsidering its decision to accept bitcoin payments after receiving a significant reaction from its fans.

Nevertheless, as of a few days earlier, Mozilla was still accepting bitcoin payments. In a blog article, the firm stated that it will only allow Proof of Stake cryptocurrencies, as opposed to Proof of Work cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, and others.

According to Vermont, the Wikimedia Foundation earned $130,000 in bitcoin donations in the most latest financial year, which is clearly less than 0.1 percent of the foundation's income, which reached $150 million the year before. Wikipedia had 347 donors who utilized the cryptocurrency choice in the previous fiscal year, with Bitcoin being the most often used means of payment via cryptocurrency.

 

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