Wikipedia has decided to stop accepting cryptocurrency donations after eight years of doing so. The decision is based on a request from the Wikimedia community, citing “environmental sustainability issues” as a major reason.
Wikipedia Stops Accepting Bitcoin, Crypto Donations
The Wikimedia Foundation has announced its decision to “stop direct acceptance of cryptocurrencies as a means of charity”. The foundation began accepting bitcoin in July 2014.
“The Wikimedia Foundation is a non-profit organization that hosts Wikipedia and our other free knowledge projects,” its website details. According to the Foundation, Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia with over 200K volunteer contributors.
The organization posted an update on its Wikipedia page on May 1, stating:
We began our direct acceptance of cryptocurrency in 2014 based on requests from our volunteer and donor communities. We are taking this decision on the basis of recent feedback from the same communities.
“Specifically, we will be closing our BitPay account, which will remove our ability to accept cryptocurrency directly as a method of donation,” the update continues.
Wikipedia editor Molly White said on Sunday that the decision stemmed from a three-month-long discussion they began on January 10. The discussion ended on 12 April. A total of 400 users participated, although some were single-purpose accounts created for discussion only (mostly to try to influence the RfC) [Request for Comments] against requesting it),” she said.
The Wikimedia community’s request for comment page states that common arguments in support of preventing crypto donations from accepting include “environmental sustainability issues, that accepting cryptocurrencies implicitly support the issues surrounding cryptocurrencies, and The community’s issue lies with the risk to the reputation of the movement to accept cryptocurrencies.”
On the other hand, common arguments opposed to preventing crypto donations from being accepted include “the existence of less energy-intensive cryptocurrencies (proof-of-stake), that cryptocurrencies allow people in repressive countries to donate and engage in finance.” and fiat currencies also have environmental sustainability issues.”
According to the results:
Excluding new accounts and unregistered users, the tally in support of the proposal is 232 to 94 or 71.17%… Thus, the Wikimedia community requests that the Wikimedia Foundation stop accepting cryptocurrency donations.
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image credit: Shutterstock, Pixabay, WikiCommons
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