Organization behind Wikipedia stops accepting donations in cryptocurrencies

Wikimedia Foundation, the organization behind the web encyclopedia Wikipedia, has stopped accepting donations in cryptocurrencies. That is the outcome of a consultation of community members on the subject. The support of cryptos yielded little to Wikimedia.

The discussion lasted a total of three months, reports Web3IsGoingGreat. One of the reasons is that proof-of-work systems such as those of bitcoin and ethereum have a major impact on the climate. In addition, there is a high risk of fraud via cryptos, the organization estimates. Now Wikimedia has decided to stop donations via all cryptocurrencies.

Last year Wikimedia took in $130,000 via cryptocurrencies, which is about 0.08 percent of all the money that came in. This makes it the smallest of all channels to donate to the foundation. Wikimedia isn’t the only organization to rethink its crypto donation policy. Mozilla shut down last month donations via cryptocurrencies that work with proof-of-work.

Wikimedia has been offering the option to offer donations via bitcoin since 2014. Later, bitcoin cash and ethereum were also added. Members voted against using cryptocurrencies for donations last month.