The editors of Wikipedia voted in favor of the elimination of cryptocurrencies from the donation options of the Wikimedia Foundation. As Ars Technica reports, an editor of the online encyclopedia called GorillaWarfare has written a proposal for the foundation to stop accepting cryptocurrencies, as these are “extremely risky investments”. They also pointed out that cryptocurrencies may not be in line with the foundation’s commitment to environmental sustainability.
Wikipedia against cryptocurrencies
One of the biggest controversies about cryptocurrencies is that mining, spending, and trading use huge amounts of energy. This is the reason why Mozilla came under criticism after announcing it would start accepting cryptocurrency donations, which forced the company to retrace its steps soon.
According to a Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index, these processes consume 204.50 terawatt hours of electricity per year, comparable to that consumed by some countries, such as Thailand. Wikimedia currently accepts Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Ether.
The proposal of GorillaWarfare it was met with general favor from other editors. In all, 232 users voted in favor of the proposal, while 94 voted against. Those who have spoken out in favor of cryptocurrency donations have explained that they are a much safer way to donate.
Even though the community has voted in favor of blocking cryptocurrency donations, it’s still just a request that the Wikimedia Foundation may or may not decide to grant.