The Wikimedia Foundation notes the rejection by its community of cryptocurrency donations to fund Wikipedia. Donations accounted for next to nothing in the online encyclopedia’s annual budget.
The Wikimedia Foundation ends cryptocurrency donations to fund Wikipedia. The decision was announced on May 2, 2022 by Lisa Seitz-Gruwell, the platform’s promotion manager, in the discussion space which is dedicated to collecting community opinions. The volunteers who took part in the consultation mostly rejected the use of cryptos.
A frank and massive rejection of Wikipedia volunteers
” Wikimedia has decided to no longer directly accept cryptocurrencies as a means of donating. […] We are making this decision based on recent community feedback. Specifically, we will be closing our BitPay account, which will remove our ability to directly accept cryptocurrencies as a method of donation. », is it written.
The survey among volunteers yielded a large victory in favor of rejecting cryptocurrency donations, at over 70%.
The main arguments against are those related to the overall negative impact of cryptos on the energy level and a poor brand image from which the sector suffers: cryptos are accused of being too volatile, because of certain excesses, of being used for money laundering, relying solely on speculation, and so on.
The renunciation of the foundation will not fundamentally put Wikimedia’s finances in difficulty. According to the foundation’s 2021 fiscal year, total bitcoin and other donations were worth $130,100.94, or 0.08% of revenue. Even if Bitcoin took a lot of value, it would not radically transform the financial balance of Wikipedia.
Is this for all that a definitive abandonment? It’s not sure : ” We will continue to monitor this issuecomments Lisa Seitz-Gruwell. We will remain flexible and responsive to the needs of volunteers and donors. The foundation could, for example, consider coming back to it, if new, less energy-intensive operating methods are needed.