- A declaration from the Mozilla Foundation said that they have started accepting cryptocurrency donations via Bitpay.
- A quick community backlash was observed, including critics from the co-founder of Mozilla itself, who tagged cryptocurrencies as planet incinerating Ponzi grifters.
- The fact was missed out by many that the foundation has been accepting cryptocurrency donations since 2014, and introducing payments through BitPay will allow them to accept payments in different cryptocurrencies.
The non-profit organization behind the Firefox browser, the Mozilla Foundation, made an announcement on Saturday that it has initiated accepting cryptocurrency donations in Dogecoin ($DOGE) through BitPay. However, the open-source community seemed disappointed. A quick backlash was observed from the community, where some also threatened to terminate their donations for the foundation. Some of the critics’ community failed to acknowledge that Mozilla has been accepting cryptocurrency donations since 2014 and is nothing new. Also, one of the most thunderous critics about the foundation being involved in crypto was observed from Mozilla’s co-founder itself.
The backlash from the Co-Founder
The co-founder of Mozilla, Jamie Zawinski, said to the foundation that whoever is currently the account might not have an idea of who he is, but he expressed that he is the founder of Mozilla and that he is there to mistreat them verbally. He further said that every individual who is related to the project must be guilty of taking this decision of adopting “planet-incinerating Ponzi grifters.”
Mozilla was co-founded by Zawinski in 1998 and left it in 1999 to run other ventures. In 2002, the Mozilla project released the first variant of its browser, and Firefox was finally launched later in 2004. Firefox is and has been one of the most famous open-source browsers. As of December 2021, the browser had more than 211 million active users.
Mozilla Won’t Deal In Crypto
Around November 2014, Mozilla started accepting cryptocurrency and Bitcoin donations through coinbase. Now that it has started the support of Bitpay, it can accept cryptocurrency donations in several cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Shiba Inu, USD Coin, and Litecoin. Via Bitpay, when a cryptocurrency donation is received, it is transferred to a payment service and is converted in the currency of recipient choice before transferring it to the foundation. This explains that Mozilla won’t receive crypto, and neither will it hold, it will only manage the fiat currency. Despite the fact, it might have made some difference for crypto critics.
Cryptocurrencies Affect Environment
Still, the fact cannot be suppressed that the impact the environment is receiving due to cryptocurrencies is now a hot topic and a critical charge against the crypto industry. The majority also realizes that blockchain like Bitcoin and Ethereum that work on Proof-of-Work do use intense energy, and the carbon footprints of respective cryptocurrencies are big rivals of a few countries. A few days ago, Bitcoin mining was banned in Kosovo following a recommendation from a committee about banning the mining activities after the declaration of a 60-day energy state of emergency.