Wikipedia No Longer Accepts Crypto Donations

This follows a three-month discussion within the Wikimedia Foundation community, which included a poll asking whether support for cryptocurrency donations should be withdrawn.

 

The Wikimedia Foundation has declared that it will no longer accept crypto donations.

 

Wikipedia’s parent company had first started accepting Bitcoin all the way back in 2014 — as well as Ether and Bitcoin Cash in later years.

 

But in a new statement, the organization said it was pulling the plug after receiving feedback from volunteers and donors… and closing its BitPay account.

 

It follows a three-month discussion within the Wikimedia Foundation’s community, which included a poll that asked whether support for crypto donations should be withdrawn.

 

Although just 326 people took part, 71% voted yes — indicating there was “strong support” to ditch crypto altogether.

 

The pressure that the Wikimedia Foundation came under is likely linked to concerns over Bitcoin‘s impact on the environment.

 

It seems that the ban is more of a symbolic gesture than one that will hit the organization in the pocket.

 

Data suggests that, over the whole of 2021, just 0.08% of the foundation’s revenues actually came from crypto donations — and in any case, the digital assets it received were immediately converted into cash.

 

Earlier this year, Mozilla also announced that it would no longer accept crypto donations after facing a backlash on Twitter.

 

Jamie Zawinski, one of the non-profit organization’s own co-founders had tweeted:

 

“Hi, I’m sure that whoever runs this account has no idea who I am, but I founded @mozilla and I’m here to say f*** you and f*** this. Everyone involved in the project should be witheringly ashamed of this decision to partner with planet-incinerating Ponzi grifters.”