Wiki continues to accept crypto donations despite pressure to stop

Following a proposal from users to stop accepting crypto donations to Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit confirmed that it would proceed with crypto donations.

Contributors banded together to urge the foundation to disable the option to donate in crypto because of environmental concerns. However, while the organization will continuously monitor the conversations around crypto within its communities, it will not budge on accepting crypto donations.

Elise Flick from the Wikimedia team told Cointelegraph that Wikimedia’s fundraising approach is meeting 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 catering to the requests that the foundation received from donors requesting to be able to donate in cryptocurrency.

"We want to be as inclusive as possible, and allow people to contribute with the method they feel most comfortable with."

Julia Brungs, the Senior Community Relations Specialist from Wikimedia Foundation, also responded to Molly White’s (GorillaWarfare) questions in the original proposal. According to Brungs, the most used crypto for donations was Bitcoin (BTC). However, the organization immediately converts it into fiat. “We have never held cryptocurrency, and spot-convert donations daily into fiat currency (USD), which doesn’t have a significant environmental impact,” wrote Brungs.

The response also cited data from Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index that says that there is very little evidence that connects Bitcoin directly as a contributor to climate change. The data “shows that even in the worst-case (i.e., mining powered exclusively by coal), Bitcoin’s environmental footprint currently remains marginal at best.”

Related: ‘Emergency’: Wikipedia editors vote against classifying NFTs as art

Meanwhile, not all organizations are willing to continue crypto donations after receiving anti-crypto community feedback. Earlier this January, Mozilla paused its acceptance of crypto donations after receiving a reaction from a co-founder. Because of this decision, the creator of Dogecoin slammed Mozilla saying “thank you for succumbing to an ignorant, reactionary internet mob.”