Wikipedia Community Votes Against Crypto Donations

71% of Wikipedia Editors are Against Crypto Donations

From Jan. 10 to April 12, the Wikimedia Foundation ran a community poll on whether the organization should accept donations in the form of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), and Ethereum (ETH), among others.

With the participation of about 326 voters, a whopping 71% voted against accepting cryptocurrencies while 29% wanted the organization to continue accepting them. At the time of writing, the Wikimedia Foundation accepts donations in Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Ether (ETH), among other payment methods in fiat currencies.

The Foundation initially started accepting Bitcoin (BTC) back in 2014, receiving about $140,000 in the first week itself. In its recent fiscal year, the origination received just about $130,000 in crypto donations, which is less than 1% of its 2021 revenue.

Bitcoin Under Fire from Climate Activists

The poll on whether to accept or not to accept crypto donations was created after Molly White, a longtime Wikipedia editor under the username GorillaWarfare, submitted a proposal to end crypto donations.

A similar kind of anti-crypto stance was also taken up against Mozilla, the company behind Firefox browser when it announced at the end of last year that it would accept donations in the form of Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Dogecoin (DOGE).

Following community backlash, the company, a week later, announced that donations in crypto are now on hold concerning its environmental impact and that they will be 'reviewing if and how our current policy on crypto donations fits with our climate goals'

However, earlier this week, Mozilla officially announced that the company will no longer accept ‘proof-of-work’ cryptocurrencies, which are more energy-intensive, and instead will accept only the ‘proof-of-stake’ cryptocurrencies in line with its “climate commitments.”