The community pushed back against the digital currency.
The Wikimedia Foundation, which owns and operates the encyclopedia, said on Sunday that it would no longer accept donations in cryptocurrencies. After a three-month discussion period, the decision was made after a request was made from the Wiki community.
The Wikimedia Foundation decided to stop accepting cryptocurrencies as a means of donating. We are making this decision based on feedback from those communities.
Wikimedia decided to close its account with Bitpay, the service provider which used to collect donations in the form of cryptocurrencies.
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I'm really happy that the Wikimedia Foundation listened to the community's wishes on this issue, and I'm proud of my community for taking a principled stand.
White runs a website called Web3 is Going Great, which tracks scam and hacks in the cryptocurrencies space. She was the first to report on the announcement from Wikimedia.
In the last four years, the internet encyclopedia has accepted the digital currency. The non-profit was willing to accept donations in popular cryptocurrencies likeUSDC.
According to Web3 is Going Great, only a small percentage of the total donations came from the internet. It might have made it easier for the Wikimedia Foundation to stop accepting coins. In the last fiscal year, only a small amount of its revenue was donated to Wikimedia.
Critics of the proposal made their case on the Wikimedia discussion page.
Critics argued that Wikimedia should stop accepting donations due to environmental concerns. One of the most popular arguments against the coin was that it was legitimizing and promoting a predatory system.
According to White, there was a strong push from the advocates.
She explained that it was ironic that so much of the crypto ethos involves individualism and individual agency, but then members of the community who are not part of the Wikimedia community try to force it on us.
The Wikimedia Foundation said it would keep an eye on the situation and possibly accept donations again in the future.
The critics ofcryptocurrencies and the broader Wiki community have won.