Following a proposal by users to stop accepting crypto donations to the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organization confirmed that they would continue to accept crypto donations.
Contributors rallied to urge the foundation to disable the option to donate in crypto due to environmental concerns. However, while the organization will continually monitor cryptocurrency conversations within their communities, they will not change their minds when it comes to accepting cryptocurrency donations.
Elise Flick of the Wikimedia team told Cointelegraph that Wikimedia’s fundraising approach is to meet donors where they are. Flick mentioned that the foundation aims to “provide the most desired payment options in different parts of the world.”. This includes responding to requests the foundation received from donors asking to be able to donate in cryptocurrency.
“We want to be as inclusive as possible and allow people to contribute in whatever method they feel most comfortable with.”
Julia Brungs, Senior Community Relations Specialist at the Wikimedia Foundation, also responded to questions from Molly White (GorillaWarfare) on the original submission. According to Brungs, the most used cryptocurrency for donations was Bitcoin (BTC). However, the organization immediately converts it to fiat. “We have never had cryptocurrency, and we convert donations into fiat currency (USD) on a daily basis, which has no significant environmental impact,” Brungs wrote.
The response also cited data from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index which says that there is very little evidence connecting Bitcoin directly as a contributor to climate change. The data “shows that even in the worst case scenario (i.e. mining powered exclusively by coal), Bitcoin’s environmental footprint currently remains marginal at best.”
Meanwhile, Not all organizations are willing to proceed with crypto donations after receiving feedback from the anti-crypto community. In early January, Mozilla stopped accepting crypto donations after receiving backlash from a co-founder. Due to this decision, the creator of Dogecoin criticized Mozilla saying “thank you for succumbing to a reactionary and ignorant mob of the Internet”.
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