The Wikipedia editor community has voted to stop accepting cryptocurrency donations after months of intense debate.
The vote (232 for, 94 against) makes the proposal now go to the Wikimedia Foundation for consideration, which is not bound to accept it.
The discussion was started by Wikipedia user Molly White, known as GorillaWarfare, who runs the excellent blog Web3 is going just greatwhich highlights the frequent oddities in the world of cryptocurrencies.
a huge risk
“Cryptocurrencies are extremely risky investments that have only been gaining popularity among small investors,” White wrote in January 2022. “I don’t think we should endorse their use in this way.”
One of the main reasons was that Bitcoin and Ether, the two most popular currencies, use a proof-of-work model that requires huge amounts of computing power.
One of the main debates in the Web3 space right now is Proof-of-Work versus Proof-of-Stake, a newer, less energy-intensive model that, if all goes well, Ethereum will eventually switch to.
In an email sent to Ars Technica, the Wikimedia Foundation said: “We are aware of the community request that the Foundation consider ending our acceptance of donations in cryptocurrency. Our fundraising team is reviewing the request and discussions. and we will provide additional information once they complete that process.”
above our means
And study popular (much discussed, on the other hand) points out that Bitcoin consumes about 200TWh of energy per year, the same as 70 million people in Thailand.
As the climate crisis deepens, the consumption of so much energy by an asset that is quite worthless outside of speculation is highly questionable.
Proponents of the acceptance of cryptocurrencies on Wikipedia argued that the energy use comes from mining the cryptocurrency, not from using the currency.
Similar debates have been taking place at Mozilla, another independent web darling, which came under fire after a tweet made reference to accepting donations in crypto.
The company has backed down and said it will not accept such donations in the future.
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