On December 31, the software community founded in 1998, Mozilla, announced it was accepting crypto-asset donations via Bitpay. However, shortly after the announcement, a number of people complained about the decision the company made. A week later, Mozilla has announced it is backing away from digital currency acceptance for now and has “paused the ability to donate cryptocurrency.”
Mozilla revealed crypto acceptance last week and quickly backed down after the backlash
Last week Mozilla, the current owners of the Gecko layout engine, Thunderbird email client, and Firefox web browser, revealed that it accepts crypto donations through the Bitpay payment processor. “Dive into the dogecoin? Bitcoin HODLing [and] ethereum? We use Bitpay to accept cryptocurrency donations ”, Mozilla tweeted at the time.
Mozilla co-founder Jamie Zawinski criticized Mozilla’s crypto acceptance decision immediately after the tweet. “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,” Zawinski said. “Everyone involved in the project should be witheringly ashamed of this decision to partner with planet-incinerating Ponzi grifters.”
Many others shameful Mozilla due to the crypto industry’s so-called effect on climate change. “Bitcoin is so bad for the environment”, Rich Burroughs responded to Mozilla’s tweet. “You could [want to] rethink that. The planet is certainly more important than a web browser.
April King, another former Mozilla developer and the security engineer at Dropbox, responded: Hey Mozilla. You probably don’t remember me, but I created the Mozilla Observatory, the Mozilla SSL Configuration Generator, revamped the Firefox certificate viewer, and kept Mozilla safe for a half-decade. I cannot begin to express how disappointed I am in this decision.”
Mozilla Holds ‘Important Discussion on Cryptocurrency’s Environmental Impact’, Then Suspends Acceptance of Cryptocurrency Donations
It appears Mozilla did not appreciate the complaints and on January 6, 2022, the company responded to the reviews. “Last week we tweeted a reminder that Mozilla accepts donations of cryptocurrency. This has led to an important discussion about the environmental impact of cryptocurrency. We listen and act ”, Mozilla noted. The software company added:
Decentralized web technology continues to be an important area for us to explore, but a lot has changed since we started accepting crypto donations. So, starting today we are reviewing if and how our current policy on crypto donations fits with our climate goals. And as we conduct our review, we will pause the ability to donate cryptocurrency.
Crypto-skeptics have been claiming for some time that digital assets like bitcoin are bad for the environment, especially proof of work (PoW) mining linked to the Bitcoin network. The environmental complaints are said to be unfounded by a number of proponents of crypto assets who believe “bitcoin is one of the most environmentally friendly financial networks.”
In fact, many people believe governments and central banks should be blamed for hurting the environment. Crypto advocates stress that while energy concerns have increased during the last year, nobody discusses the carbon and military violence backing U.S. dollars.
