Wikipedia has announced that it will end cryptocurrency donations after eight years of accepting bitcoin. The choice should remove the community from any type of implied bitcoin sponsorship while also minimizing environmental impacts.
Through popular demand, the Wikimedia Foundation – a charity dedicated to sustaining Wikipedia – has made the ban. Over 300 people voted on the prohibition, with 94 opposing it and 234 in favor.
One of the most prevalent reasons for the prohibition, according to Wikipedia editor Molly White, was “environmental sustainability.” After all, cryptocurrencies have been criticized for using a lot of electricity to secure certain networks, and Bitcoin in particular.
The New York State Assembly just passed a two-year ban on mining permit renewals, according to the local media. Activist organizations complained that carbon-based mining would harm the state’s finger lakes’ health.
Some critics of the ban pointed out that there are numerous cryptocurrencies with smaller energy footprints than Bitcoin. These were proof-of-stake networks, which secured their networks using users’ existing cryptocurrency holdings instead of electricity usage.
In fact, Mozilla has arrived at a comparable decision in recent weeks, taking into account for this information. Since 2014, the foundation has been accepting crypto, and it just changed its policy to not include Bitcoin. It still receives Proof-of-Stake money though.
Nonetheless, Wikipedia appears to have taken a firm position against cryptocurrency. It was considered an “implicit endorsement” of the sector if you accepted bitcoin, which might harm its reputation.
The ecological impact of fiat, as well as crypto’s usefulness for charitable giving in dictatorial states, were two of the arguments made against the ban. However, only 0.08 percent of the foundation’s income came from cryptocurrency last year, meaning its bottom line will not be significantly affected.
Will Bitcoin Change?
In the future, some prominent figures in the crypto sector think that Bitcoin should move to proof of stake.
Second, Yakovenko said that if the network does not make the switch, it will lose users. “It is simply more effective to create a proof-of-stake system,” he noted.
Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen launched a $5 million environmental challenge last month to persuade Bitcoin to achieve that. The campaign also sought to enlist the help of prominent personalities with considerable influence over Bitcoiners, such as Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey.
The majority of the community, however, is opposed to any changes in Bitcoin’s consensus mechanism. On Monday, the Bitcoin mining council released a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency in response to an EPA request for input on whether or not bitcoin should be regulated like a commodity.
