The Wikipedia community has made public that will stop accepting cryptocurrency donations. The Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that runs the online encyclopedia, has announced that this is a decision taken after three months of discussions within the community of publishers and donors.
After a discussion that has lasted three months, the Wikipedia community has decided to stop accepting donations in cryptocurrencies
The idea came from several members of that community, who proposed that Wikipedia no longer accept donations in any cryptocurrency. The online encyclopedia began accepting cryptocurrencies in 2014“at the request of our volunteer and donor communities”. Over the years, the foundation has accepted donations in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ether, Dogecoin and Litecoin; and also in stablecoins such as USDC.
Now, also based on the request of that same community, Wikipedia reverses its decision and vetoes cryptocurrencies among its donors. Thus, Wikipedia will soon close its Bitpay accountthe crypto payment service that the foundation used to raise funds.
Molly White, one of Wikipedia’s top editors, and highly critical of cryptocurrencies, has stated she is “very happy that the Wikimedia Foundation has listened to the wishes of its community.” White is one of the driving forces behind Web3 is Going Great, a website that collects all the scams and cyber attacks related to the crypto world.
The Wikimedia Foundation has decided to stop accepting cryptocurrency donations. The decision was made based on a community request that the WMF no longer accept crypto donations, which came out of a three-month-long discussion that wrapped up earlier this month pic.twitter.com/RHAD0FRA5W
– Molly White (@molly0xFFF) May 1, 2022
According to the same website, only a small percentage of the donations received by Wikipedia are in cryptocurrencies. Throughout 2021 only $130,000, 0.08% of the foundation’s revenuecame from crypto donors.
Critics of these types of assets have argued the large environmental costs and high energy consumption of these assets. They have also pointed to the speculation and illicit activities surrounding these assets.
