JAKARTA – Mozilla, the non-profit organization that makes the Firefox web browser, announced on Thursday January 6, that it will be discontinuing its feature for accepting cryptocurrency donations. This comes following a significant backlash that was prompted in part by Mozilla founder Jamie Zawinski.
Zawinski, who quit working for mozilla.org in 1999, tweeted scathing criticism of a December 31 Mozilla tweet promoting that it accepts cryptocurrency donations. Mozilla itself started accepting bitcoins for donations in 2014.
"Everyone involved in this project should be ashamed of the decision to partner with the grifter Ponzi who is setting the planet on fire," Zawinski said on Jan. 3.
Cryptocurrencies have been under significant scrutiny for a long time due to their impact on the environment and the fact that most of the supposed crypto wealth today is available to a limited number of people.
Dabble in @dogecoin? HODLing some #Bitcoin & #Ethereum?We're using @BitPay to accept donations in #cryptocurrency https://t.co/EOsLD1Z88O
— Mozilla (@mozilla) December 31, 2021
Peter Linss, who makes the Gecko engine that powers Firefox, also tweeted his disapproval of Mozilla. “What. That. Actually. Fuck it,” he said. “You're meant to be better than this.” Not just them, even multiple-tweeted excerpts from Mozilla's brutal December 31st post.
Last Thursday, Mozilla discussed the situation in a Twitter thread. “Last week, we tweeted a reminder that Mozilla is accepting cryptocurrency donations,” Mozilla said. “This leads to important discussions about the environmental impact of cryptocurrencies.”
Mozilla said it would “review whether and how our current policy on crypto donations fits our climate goals,” and while that review is ongoing, they will stop crypto donations. They also promised that the review would be a “transparent process” and would “share regular updates.”
However, Mozilla is not completely distancing itself from decentralized technologies like cryptocurrencies, saying that “decentralized web technologies continue to be an important area for us to explore.”
“I'm glad Mozilla is turning things around here,” Linss said in a Twitter DM to The Verge after this article was first published. “They play an important role in keeping the web open and free. I'm also grateful for the support from all the Mozilla fans who help them stay accountable to the ideals they are building."
Zawinski responded to Mozilla's decision in a blog posted late Thursday, in which he continued to sharply criticize. Here's an excerpt (including the link):
"I'm happy for whatever part I played in getting them to overturn that terrible decision."
Cryptocurrencies are called not only an apocalyptic ecological catastrophe, and an even dumber pyramid scheme, but also highly toxic to the open web, another ideal that Mozilla uses to support.
“So I hope that after they “do a review”, the conclusion they come to is a clear one: “Bury in the desert. Wear gloves."
Mozilla is just the latest company to take hot steps for its involvement with cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. Tesla was already under fire for its decision to accept bitcoin as payment last year, and immediately reversed that policy.
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