After a 3-month-long debate among its community members, the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), the non-profit organization behind the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, has decided to no longer accept crypto donations. -cash. Prior to this decision, WMF accepted contributions in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Bitcoin Cash.
A Wikimedia editor, Molly White, began a discussion in the Wikimedia community to reconsider its decision to accept cryptocurrency as a means of donation. This led to an online discussion among members from 10 January 2022 to 12 April 2022. Finally, voting was conducted where a majority of the community participants favored White’s proposal.
Arguments made against crypto donations included environmental unsustainability and reputational damage to Wikimedia, since accepting donations meant endorsing everything digital assets represented.
About 400 community members participated in the debate, and new and unregistered ones were excluded from the voting. The Wikimedia community voted for the discontinuation of crypto donations by 232 to 94, or 71.17%. Subsequently, they requested Wikipedia’s parent organization to discontinue cryptocurrency donations.
Wikimedia stops crypto donations
May Day, Molly White broken the news on Twitter that Wikimedia has accepted the community’s request and has stopped accepting crypto donations.
“The Wikimedia Foundation has decided to stop accepting cryptocurrency donations. The decision was made based on a community request that the WMF no longer accepts crypto donations, which came out of a three-month-long discussion that wrapped up earlier this month,” she tweeted, along with a Wikipedia statement purportedly to the community members.
The document added that the Wikimedia Foundation began accepting cryptocurrency in 2014 in accordance with requests from “volunteer and donor communities”. The Wikimedia Foundation will close its Bitpay account, which will remove its ability to directly accept cryptocurrency as a donation method, the statement explains. However, the organization also said this was an “evolving issue”.
WMF Received $130,000 in Crypto Donations in 2021
The debate began with Molly White asking how much money Wikimedia has received in crypto donations. WMF replied that the donations it received last year in digital assets amounted to a little over $130,000, or 0.08% of its revenue. The most used cryptocurrency was bitcoin, and all donations were spot converted into fiat USD.
Some members also discussed the advantages of “proof of stake” over “proof of work,” with the former being considered less energy-intensive. The debate which exceeded 60,000 words touched on many other issues such as money laundering, use of cryptocurrency in crime and scams, pseudonym giving, prohibition of exploitation mining in Russia, the central bank fiat money system and its flaws.
Crypto Donations: A Topic of Growing Importance
Wikimedia’s latest decision has once again brought a spotlight on the growing importance of crypto donations.
In the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, the latter has received over $100 million in crypto donations so far. And, fearing Russian interference, Ireland recently banned crypto donations for political parties.
Last month, a Republican member of Louisiana, Mark Right, introduced a bill in the state legislature that sought to lay down rules for crypto donations for political campaigns.
