Wikipedia, the largest online encyclopedia and a not-for-profit organization, has stopped accepting donations in cryptocurrencies. Wikipedia runs through a massive number of volunteers, and open collaboration is majorly dependent upon the donations to sustain this massive project.
However, after 8 long years, the Wikimedia Foundation, the parent organization of Wikipedia, decided to remove crypto as a mode of payment for donations. The organization cited the ongoing concerns over the wastage of electricity during cryptocurrency transactions.
Environmental Impact of Crypto
The decision came after a proposal to withdraw crypto was backed by 70% of the participants. A proposal was staged by Wikipedia Editor who goes by name Molly White on Twitter early this year. The proposal highlighted the drawbacks and ongoing outrage over massive energy consumption during the transaction of cryptocurrencies. Furthermore, the use of crypto undermines the reputation of this open-source project.
In a statement, the Wikimedia foundation said:
“The Wikimedia Foundation has decided to discontinue direct acceptance of cryptocurrency as a means of donating. We began our direct acceptance of cryptocurrency in 2014 based on requests from our volunteers and donor communities. We are making this decision based on recent feedback from those same communities.”
Molly White also highlighted the small donation received in crypto and the technical complexity in incorporating ‘niche currency’ referring to crypto.
Wikipedia was accepting the below cryptocurrency for donation through Bitpay.
- Bitcoin (BTC)
- Binance USD (BUSD)
- Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
- USD Coin (USDC)
- DAI
- Dogecoin (DOGE)
- Ether (ETH)
- Gemini USD (GUSD)
- Litecoin (LTC)
- Paxos Standard USD (PAX)
While the world is embracing crypto as a medium of payment and getting rid of hefty fees charged by the banks, the open-source projects are backing off seemingly due to energy wastage in cryptocurrency mining. Lately, Mozilla, a popular open-source browser, announced to exclude crypto as a mode of donation for Ukraine.
Cryptocurrencies are not negatively impacting the environment, at least not all. Proof of stake coins such as ADA, AVAX, SOL, and many more pretty less energy to keep up the network as they utilize an environment-friendly POS mechanism to secure their network.