Mozilla recently announced it will only accept donations from proof-of-stake cryptocurrencies, which means no Bitcoin payments will be accepted. Is it a good decision or a bad one?
With the popularity of blockchain and cryptocurrency, many environmentalists have criticized its high-consuming energy use to operate. Since blockchain has to run 24/7, energy consumption is considered to be harmful to the environment.
Mozilla, the company behind the Firefox browser, faced a huge backlash from the environmentally-conscious community for sabotaging the environment by working with crypto brands. It had been receiving donations through cryptocurrencies since 2014, but it was attacked for two-timing following its environmental commitments, which involved reducing its greenhouse gas footprint; announced in January 2021.
The co-founder of Mozilla said, “Everyone involved in the project should be witheringly ashamed of this decision to partner with planet-incinerating Ponzi grifters.”
Thus, Mozilla halted all projects and partnerships with cryptocurrencies in January.
However, on 7th April, Mozilla released a statement saying it will continue accepting donations, this time only through cryptocurrencies that operate on the proof-of-stake (PoS) model.
The reason they gave was that the proof-of-stake model consumes less energy than the proof-of-work (PoW); therefore, it would only take donations from crypto that operate on PoS.
Mozilla further detailed that its decision “…ensures that our fundraising activities remain aligned with our emissions commitment.”
Currently, some coins utilize PoS like Solana (SOL), Avalanche (AVAX), and BNB Chain (BNB). However, Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency in the world that operates on the PoW model.
Ethereum also works on PoW, but its ETH 2.0 version will transition to the PoS model soon, until then Mozilla will not accept donations from it.
Mozilla’s decision to not accept Bitcoin donations might sabotage its fundraising efforts because most users use this cryptocurrency. Furthermore, experts claim Bitcoin to be more environment-friendly than any other crypto.
VanEck Gabor Gurbacs, Director at a U.S. investment firm, says Mozilla’s decision to not accept Bitcoin is entirely wrong. He called Bitcoin “one of the greenest industries out there.” According to Digiconomist, Bitcoin consumes about 204.5 Terawatt hours (TWh) of energy, which is quite less.
Despite the criticism, Mozilla stands firm on its donation policy.
Mozilla’s policy might result in receiving fewer funds, but its efforts to satisfy environmental commitments might work well. Although there is no guarantee that people might find it acceptable for the company to take crypto donations, this policy might convince people a little bit.
However, Mozilla’s decision to not accept Bitcoin can lead to a bad decision seeing how big the Bitcoin community is.
The solution to Bitcoin is to reduce carbon consumption by switching toward renewable energy consumption in Bitcoin mining, which is possible if the blockchain adopts flexible data centers.
Although excluding Bitcoin could be a bad decision for Mozilla, the future prospects will show how Mozilla’s policy will impact the overall crypto community and Mozilla’s own community.
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