The wiki community has voted in favor of halting cryptocurrency donations.
Wikimedia, the nonprofit behind Wikipedia, started the process of reevaluating its cryptocurrency policy earlier this year.
A proposal to stop accepting crypto was created by contributor Molly White back in January. She argued that cryptocurrencies are "extremely risky" investments, and Wikipedia was contributing to their mainstream acceptance. Being associated with crypto presents a reputational risk for the Wikimedia Foundation, according to the proposal.
Of course, the contributor also mentioned that the proof-of-work consensus algorithm is highly damaging to the environment.
Finally, banning crypto donations will not hurt Wikimedia nonprofit financially since they accounted for only a minuscule 0.08% of all the contributions that the organization received last year.
Seventy-one percent of community members voted in favor of the proposal.
Even some of those who voted against the proposal did not necessarily express pro-crypto sentiment. One user commented that cryptocurrencies are "stupid" and "malicious" but opined that accepting them as donations was not an endorsement per se.
Alex DovbnyaIt is not clear whether the foundation will stop accepting cryptocurrencies since the results of the vote are non-binding.
The Wikimedia Foundation started accepting Bitcoin donations back in 2014 via Coinbase. Later, it also added support for Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash.
The nonprofit does not store any cryptocurrency: it gets automatically converted into U.S. dollars via the BitPay payment processor.
As reported by U.Today, the Mozilla Foundation announced that it would resume accepting cryptocurrency donations after initially halting them in January due to backlash. However, energy-intensive proof-of-work cryptocurrencies will not be allowed.
Vladislav Sopov
Dan Burgin