On December 31, the software community founded in 1998, Mozilla, announced that it was accepting donations of crypto assets through Bitpay. However, shortly after the announcement, several people complained about the decision the company made. A week later, Mozilla announced that it is moving away from accepting digital currency for now and has “stopped the ability to donate cryptocurrencies.”
Mozilla revealed the acceptance of cryptocurrencies last week and quickly withdrew after a backlash.
Last week, Mozilla, the current owners of the Gecko layout engine, the Thunderbird email client, and the Firefox web browser revealed that it was accepting crypto donations through the Bitpay payment processor. “Incursion into Dogecoin? HODLing some bitcoin [and] ethereum? We are using Bitpay to accept donations in cryptocurrencies ”, Mozilla tweeted At the time.
Mozilla Co-Founder Jamie Zawinski criticized Mozilla’s crypto acceptance decision immediately after the tweet. “Hi, I’m sure whoever runs this account has no idea who I am, but I founded Mozilla and I’m here to tell you to screw it up,” Zawinski said. “Everyone involved in the project should be terribly ashamed of this decision to partner with Ponzi scammers who incinerate planets.”
Much others embarrassed Mozilla due to the so-called effect of the crypto industry on climate change. “Bitcoin is so bad for the environment”, Rich Burroughs answered to Mozilla’s tweet. “Could you [want to] reconsider this. Surely the planet is more important than a web browser. “
April King, another former Mozilla developer and Dropbox security engineer, answered: Hi Mozilla. You probably don’t remember me, but I created the Mozilla Observatory, Mozilla’s SSL Configuration Generator, revamped Firefox’s certificate viewer, and kept Mozilla safe for half a decade. I can’t begin to express how disappointed I am with this decision. “
Mozilla Holds ‘Major Discussion on Environmental Impact of Cryptocurrencies’, Then Stops Acceptance of Crypto Donation
It appears that Mozilla did not appreciate the complaints and on January 6, 2022, the company responded to the criticism. “Last week, we tweeted a reminder that Mozilla accepts donations in cryptocurrency. This led to a major discussion about the environmental impact of cryptocurrencies. We are listening and acting ”, Mozilla saying. The software company additional:
Decentralized web technology is still an important area for us to explore, but a lot has changed since we started accepting crypto donations. So, starting today, we are reviewing whether and how our current policy on crypto donations fits with our climate goals. And while we conduct our review, we will stop the ability to donate cryptocurrencies.
Crypto skeptics have long claimed that digital assets like bitcoin are bad for the environment, specifically proof-of-work (PoW) mining that is tied to the Bitcoin network. The environmental complaints are said to be unfounded by a number of crypto asset supporters who believe that “bitcoin is one of the most environmentally friendly financial networks.”
In fact, many people believe that governments and central banks are to be blamed for damaging the environment. Proponents of crypto emphasize that while energy concerns have risen over the past year, no one disputes the carbon and military violence behind US dollars.
What do you think of Mozilla changing its decision to accept cryptocurrencies because of the complaints the company received last week and the so-called environmental concerns? Let us know what you think on this topic in the comment section below.
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