Following a flurry of criticism from the open source public this week, Mozilla announced Thursday that it has stopped accepting cryptocurrency donations, citing ” important discussion on the impact of digital assets on the environment.
” Last week we tweeted that Mozilla is accepting cryptocurrency donations“, Mozilla tweeted. ” This has led to significant discussions about the environmental impact of cryptocurrencies. We are listening, and we are acting. »
Now the organization says it is reviewing how its current cryptocurrency subscription policy is in line with its broader climate goals, and is pausing the ability to donate cryptocurrency to its 211 active users.
Last week, we tweeted a reminder that Mozilla accepts cryptocurrency subscriptions. This led to an important discussion about the environmental impact of cryptocurrency. We are listening, and acting. 1/4
– Mozilla (@mozilla) January 6, 2022
The outcry began on December 31, when Mozilla posted a short tweet reminding its fans that they can use cryptocurrencies to donate to the Mozilla Foundation. A Mozilla tweet specifically mentioned Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin.
Mozilla co – founder Jamie Zawinski did not swear words to express his disagreement.
” Hello, I’m sure the person running this account has no idea who I am, but I set up @mozilla and I’m here to tell you shit“, Zawinski tweeted. ” Everyone involved in the scheme should be ashamed of this decision to partner with Ponzi scammers who are burning the planet.“.
Hello, I’m sure the person who runs this account has no idea who I am, but I’m the founder @mozilla and I’m here to say you fuck and fuck this. Everyone involved in the project should be ashamed of this decision to partner with Ponzi gritters who will burn a planet.
– j͕̠̦̪͕̓͛̊̾̄ͅw̧̧̳̪̘͊̋͗̾͢͠z̢̘̞͈̺̞̩̓̽̐̋͗̆̋̚͟͜ (@jwz) January 3, 2022
Blockstream CEO Adam Back was one of many Bitcoiners to oppose Zawinski, while tweeting“ Turns out some of the early coders live under a rock under #bitcoin. Someone’s brain dump @jwz, it’s already bothered me and I just suggested talking to old mozilas for brain dumping. It’s a weak sauce for the famous hacker @jwz. »
But Zawinski was not the only one complaining. Peadar Lins designed by the Gecko browser engine used in the Firefox browser and Thunderbird email client.
” Hey @mozilla, I think you don’t know me either, but I designed Gecko, the engine on which your browser is built“, Tweeted lines. ” And I’m 100% with @jwz on this. What. The IS. True. whore. You thought you were better than that. »
Hey @mozilla, I hope you do not know me either, but I designed Gecko, the engine on which your browser is built. And I am 100% with it @jwz ar.
What. Tae. Actually. Fuck.
You were meant to be better than this.
– Peter Linss (@plinss) January 3, 2022
Mozilla says that while decentralized web technologies continue to be an important area for exploration, they say that much has changed since they began accepting encrypted subscriptions in 2014.
” In an open source spirit, it will be a transparent process and we will share regular updates“, Says Mozilla. ” We look forward to having this conversation and appreciate our community for bringing this to our attention. »
Meanwhile, unlike Firefox’s flip-flop, the privacy-oriented browser Brave crypto was fully adopted and its user base exceeded 50 million active users in 2021.
