During the first week of January, the software community Mozilla revealed it was pausing cryptocurrency donations after citing environmental concerns. 14 weeks later, Mozilla decided last week it will accept crypto donations again, but only from digital assets that leverage a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus model.
Mozilla plans to only accept PoS crypto assets
On April 7, Mark Surman, Executive Director of the Mozilla Foundation, released an update on the software community suspending crypto donations. Surman said it was after Mozilla released its climate pledges, and after Mozilla staff and supporters complained, that the foundation decided to suspend crypto donations. Mozilla decided to take a closer look at the environmental impact of cryptocurrencies, and Surman’s blog post reports on the results of Mozilla’s review.
“Starting today, we are updating our donation policy,” Surman’s update explains. “Mozilla will no longer accept ‘proof-of-work’ cryptocurrencies, which are more energy-intensive. Mozilla will accept ‘proof-of-stake’ cryptocurrencies, which are less energy-intensive. Mozilla will develop and share a list of cryptocurrencies we accept by the end of Q2 2022,” the Mozilla Foundation executive director added.
Surman clarified that the decision is primarily based on the organization’s climate commitments which aim to “exceed the net zero emissions commitment of the Paris Climate Agreement”. The Mozilla Foundation believes that proof-of-work (PoW) digital assets “significantly increase our GHG footprint.” By stopping the acceptance of PoW cryptos, Surman stressed that the decision remains “in line” with Mozilla’s emissions commitment.
“In our climate commitments, we also promised to help develop, design, and improve products from a sustainability perspective,” Mozilla’s executive director concluded. “We believe that Mozilla can play a positive role in the industry by encouraging those cryptocurrencies that we do accept to be transparent about their energy consumption patterns.”
