Wikimedia no longer accepts crypto sponsorships

Bitcoin icon – Photo: THE VERGE

According to the news site The Verge, last year WMF received $130,000 in funding in the form of cryptocurrency. The main reasons why they no longer receive funding in this money are concerns related to environmental damage from virtual currency “mining” activities, as well as possible frauds involved.

According to an update on May 1 on the Wikipedia website, in the Wikimedia Foundation section, WMF said it will close their Bitpay account to no longer receive funding in cryptocurrency in the near future.

Earlier, after a long discussion with nearly 400 members of the WMF community, the voting results showed that a majority of the members (234/94) were in favor of not receiving funding in cryptocurrencies.

In 2021, WMF received 130,100 USD in crypto funding, which is only 0.08% of the total funding this fund received. After the vote with the aforementioned community, WMF held an internal discussion and came to a final decision to no longer accept cryptocurrency funding.

WMF started accepting funding in bitcoin, bitcoin cash, and ether in 2014, but problems arose that prompted the organization to reevaluate that policy.

Notably, in January of this year, Molly White, a veteran Wikipedia editor and founder of Web3 Is Going Just Great, suggested that the WMF should stop accepting cryptocurrencies.

Ms. White said this goes against the organization’s commitment to environmental sustainability and it is also a signal that the WMF favors snappy investments.