Mozilla hits pause on crypto donations following backlash
- BySaksham Daga | January 7, 2022
The Mozilla Foundation is pausing the cappotential to just accept donations in cryptocurrencies following a backlash from ratings of human beings, consisting of a founding father of the Mozilla Project.
The basis, which oversees the improvement of the Firefox browser, on Thursday recounted conversations across the environmental effect that cryptocurrencies probably pose and stated it’s far reviewing whether or not its cutting-edge coverage on crypto donations “suits with our weather goals.”
“Decentralized net generation is still an critical vicinity for us to explore, however lots has modified seeing that we commenced accepting crypto donations,” the muse stated in a tweet thread, pledging to be drawing close approximately the updates of its review.
The basis commenced to stand backlash after it invited human beings to donate to the American nonprofit organization thru the use of a whole lot of crypto tokens, consisting of bitcoin.
In reaction to its tweet, Jamie Zawinski (a founding father of Mozilla) expressed dismay at the muse`s move. “Everyone worried withinside the task need to be witheringly ashamed of this selection to accomplice with planet-incinerating Ponzi grifters,” he stated, including an expletive.
Peter Linss, the founding father of Gecko, the engine that powered the browser, joined the communication in telling Mozilla that it was “intended to be higher than this.”
This isn`t the primary time a main organization has confronted backlash — or distanced itself from Bitcoin — due to environmental concerns. In May final year, Tesla suspended accepting bitcoin as charge for its vehicles, simply months after introducing the option.

Musk stated the organization was “involved approximately hastily growing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, in particular coal.” Weeks later, he stated the organisation will “maximum likely” take delivery of bitcoin once more as soon as the mining fee for the cryptocurrency reaches 50% renewables.
Questions across the environmental footprint of Bitcoin had been connected to how diverse tokens are created. Bitcoin and Ethereum use a mechanism referred to as proof-of-paintings to strength their networks and mint new blocks of every currency. This calculation, through design, has come to be extra complicated over time because the networks grew and gave delivery to an enterprise of corporations that run lots of GPUs across the clock to take part in fixing the puzzle.
Bitcoin mining consumes approximately 148 terawatt-hours of power annually, the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance estimates. Many cryptocurrency proponents have, however, both disputed such findings or have made a case for why it’s far really well worth it.






