Wikimedia Foundation Stops Accepting Cryptocurrency Donations

Wikimedia Foundation that runs Wikipedia has pushed back against cryptocurrency and has said it will not accept cryptocurrency donations after a three-month-long debate.

Initially, the Wikimedia Foundation worked with Coinbase to accept Bitcoin donations. Image: Getty

New Delhi: San Fransisco, California-headquartered Wikimedia Foundation that runs Wikipedia has pushed back against cryptocurrency and has said it will not accept cryptocurrency donations after a three-month-long debate post a request was made to stop accepting crypto donations. According to the poll conducted, 70 per cent of people who responded said they did not want any cryptocurrency donations.

"The Wikimedia Foundation has decided to discontinue direct acceptance of cryptocurrency as a means of donating," read an update from the organisation.

"We began our direct acceptance of cryptocurrency in 2014 based on requests from our volunteers and donor communities. We are making this decision based on recent feedback from those same communities," Wikimedia Foundation added.

Initially, the Wikimedia Foundation worked with Coinbase to accept Bitcoin donations before it moved to BitPay to facilitate donations in additional cryptocurrencies. The organisation said that it will "continue to monitor this issue, and appreciate the feedback and consideration given to this evolving matter by people across the Wikimedia movement".

"The Wikimedia Foundation has decided to stop accepting cryptocurrency donations. The decision was made based on a community request that the WMF no longer accept crypto donations, which came out of a three-month-long discussion that wrapped up earlier this month (April)," tweeted Molly White, a Wikipedia editor.

This means the organisation will not accept donations in Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash or Ethereum, almost eight years after it decided to take crypto donations. Excluding new accounts and unregistered users, of the fewer than 400 users who voted, 232 to 94, or 71.17%, supported no longer accepting crypto donations on environmental and other grounds, the media has reported.

Wikimedia left the door open to possibly resuming accepting crypto, saying it will continue to monitor the situation, according to a report published in Coin Desk.