Wikimedia Foundation volunteers vote against accepting crypto donations

Volunteers working on Wikipedia want the foundation behind it to stop accepting donations in cryptocurrencies. A large majority of volunteers fear the reputational damage is too great and oppose the environmental impact of cryptocurrencies.

326 Wikimedia Foundation volunteers voted between early January and 12 April a proposal on cryptocurrency donations. Of those 326 voters, 232 agreed to stop accepting donations in cryptocoins. 94 volunteers wanted to continue with this. Such a vote within the community is not binding, but the Wikimedia Foundation is not expected to simply ignore a majority of 71.17 percent of the vote.

Wikimedia has been offering the option to offer donations via bitcoin since 2014. Later, bitcoin cash and ethereum were also added. Cryptocurrencies have never been a goldmine for Wikimedia. In the past year, 0.08 percent of revenue came from those coins. The foundation received $130,000 in crypto, distributed among 347 donors.

Volunteers were able to provide their voices with comments. Three criticisms in particular emerged. The sustainability aspect of cryptocurrencies was mentioned most often; many volunteers find it unethical to support such coins. However, Wikimedia says it converts the coins received directly into fiat currency via spot conversion and that it “has no significant environmental impact”. Another common criticism was that cryptocurrency adoption would be “an implicit recommendation” of cryptocurrencies in general, including all the issues surrounding it. Some users also feared for Wikimedia’s reputation.

Proponents of the coins especially mentioned the possibility of accepting cryptocurrencies that run on a less environmentally harmful proof of stake protocol. They also mentioned the advantage that users in oppressed countries can also donate safely.