Mozilla and Wikipedia say goodbye to cryptocurrency donations

Based on the environmental impact attributed to mining Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies using Proof of Work (PoW), the non-profit organization and developer of the web browser Mozilla Firefox, and the Wikimedia Foundation have decided not to accept cryptocurrency donations. . 

Mozilla was the first to make its decision known

In this sense, they approved that they will not accept cryptocurrencies from Proof of Work, because they "consume more energy", but will accept those that come from Proof of Stake, because they consider that they "consume less energy", as explained by the Mozilla Foundation in a statement. .  

The Foundation said it will release a list of cryptocurrencies that will be accepted by the end of the second quarter of 2022.  

According to Mark Surman, executive director of the Mozilla Foundation, in 2021 they decided to adopt a greenhouse gas footprint reduction policy year after year, with the aim of joining the Paris climate agreement. 

Both Mozilla and Wikimedia opened discussions, lasting months, in which each of their members could express their opinion on receiving funds from bitcoin (quotation BTC) and other cryptocurrencies.

One of Mozilla's founders went so far as to say that "everyone involved in the project should be terribly ashamed of this decision to partner with the Ponzi scammers who are incinerating the planet."  

Wikipedia has decided to take a similar path with bitcoin  

The Wikimedia Foundation, creator of the free internet encyclopedia Wikipedia, was the other non-profit organization that sparked debate among its members on whether or not they could continue to accept bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as donations. 

The discussion, which began earlier this year, was solicited by Molly White, one of the editors of Wikipedia. You made a proposal to remove the bitcoin donation option that had been in place since 2014. 

In addition to BTC, they also accepted bitcoin cash (BCH) and Ethereum's native cryptocurrency, ether (ETH). 

While the debate was ongoing, a vote was opened and the results announced on 10 April. White's proposal received 232 votes in favor and 94 votes against. These findings indicate clear general community support for the move to not accept cryptocurrencies, with a significant minority opposing.  

The move is more radical than Mozilla's as it won't give room for any cryptocurrency even if they come from Proofs of Stake. Based on the results of the vote, they indicated that the community is demanding that the Wikimedia Foundation stop accepting cryptocurrency donations. 

Environmental sustainability issues

The justification for no longer allowing donations centered on "environmental sustainability issues, that accepting cryptocurrencies constitutes an implicit endorsement of the problems surrounding cryptocurrencies, and community issues with the reputational risk for the cryptocurrency accepting movement." 

It is undeniable that the energy consumption by the cryptocurrency industry is high, but there are several studies and reports which claim that more than half of the miners use renewable energy sources. 

In 2020, one of the studies showed that Bitcoin's carbon emission was 33 tons of CO2, which represents 0,1% of total global emissions for that year, which was 36.000 tons of CO2. He concludes that since the creation of the cryptocurrency in 2008, world energy consumption and carbon footprint have not increased dramatically due to Bitcoin mining.