One of Wikipedia’s organizations, the Wikimedia Foundation, has recently concluded that they will not be accepting bitcoin. this caused various members of the foundation to debate on this topic for three months, considering the pros and cons of crypto. Any donations of bitcoin, bitcoin cash, or Ethereum is no longer accepted by Wikimedia.
These results came after a poll, with 70% voting to ban the acceptance of Bitcoin.
The Wikimedia announcement against accepting bitcoin went as follows. “The Wikimedia Foundation has decided to discontinue direct acceptance of cryptocurrency as a means of donating… we are making this decision based on recent feedback from [volunteers and donor] communities.”
Bitcoin Donations
In 2014, the foundation opened its doors to bitcoin-related donations. They believed that accepting bitcoin as one of the donation options would broaden the audience. Resulting in more options to individuals interested in donating to the Wikimedia Foundation. According to the foundation, it would make donations “as simple and inclusive as possible.”
Wikipedia has emphasized globality as they support 326 different languages and are a global platform itself. Before the ban on bitcoin, the Wikimedia Foundation was accepting close to 347 crypto donations. The Community Relations Specialist, Julia Brungs mentioned that only 0.08% were crypto donations. She also specified that the foundation never actually “held cryptocurrency.”
In Brungs words, “In the last financial year, the most used cryptocurrency was Bitcoin. We have never held cryptocurrency, and spot-convert donations daily into fiat currency (USD), which doesn’t have a significant environmental impact.”
The report that banned bitcoin acceptance focuses on the “issue of environmental sustainability.” Avoiding the fact that there are currencies that work on the proof of work network such as Avalanche.
The individuals supporting crypto donations gave the option for anonymous payments in countries where Wikipedia is illegal. It was also suggested that because Bitcoin is legal cash in El Salvador and the Central African Republic, the foundation should allow people to contribute in their countries’ official currencies.
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