The distant Mozilla founder vehemently lashed out at the move in a tweeted response to the tweet announcing the decision.
The Mozilla Foundation announced yesterday that it would suspend crypto donations following a discussion with the parties involved and the community at large. On New Year’s Eve, the foundation revealed that it had associated with the crypto payment service BitPay to present support for crypto donations.
The announcement was followed with strong backlash and scathing criticism, as many users voiced disapproval of the decision. Some uncovered a company blog from January last year in which CEO Mitchell Baker claimed the organization was dedicated to positive climate efforts. Others even pointed out that they would stop donating entirely to the development company that runs, among other products, the Firefox browser.
Mozilla founder gives his opinion on the decision
Mozilla creator Jamie Zawinski also disagrees with the decision for a full boiling response despite his uninvolvement with the company for the past two decades.
“Everyone involved in the project should be ashamed of this decision to partner with Ponzi scammers who incinerate planets,” Zawinski said.
Zawinski further noted in a Blog posted Wednesday that the cryptocurrency industry had fallen.
“The crypto industry, whose business model would seem unrealistic and clumsy if you were a villain in Captain Planet: They only manufacture POLLUTION, nothing else, and they turn it into money “, wrote.
Peter Linss, one of the first Mozilla-er involved in the development of the Gecko browser engine used by Firefox, also censored the basis for taking the lead.
Cancellation of the decision
The responses seemed to provoke the upset that made Mozilla back down on the decision. The Mozilla Foundation noted that it had decided to pause crypto donations due to environmental concerns at the publication shared.
“Last week, we tweeted a reminder that Mozilla accepts donations in cryptocurrency. This led to a major discussion about the environmental impact of cryptocurrencies. […]. So, starting today, we are reviewing whether and how our current policy on crypto donations fits with our climate goals. And while we conduct our review, we will stop the ability to donate cryptocurrencies. “
The nonprofit also pledged to continue exploring decentralized web technology, noting that it would resume supporting crypto donations once climate goals are aligned. The foundation added that it will remain committed to regularly updating the community and adopting greater transparency in the review processes.
There is no exact figure for the energy consumption of Bitcoin mining, but estimates put it between 90 and 150 terawatt-hours. According to reports, The mining process consumes more than 91 terawatt-hours of electricity per year, which translates to about 0.5% of the world’s annual electricity consumption, according to the New York Times. Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance, on the other hand, approximates this figure to 148 terawatt-hours.
Mozilla is the latest company to criticize its community for a cryptocurrency decision. Outside of crypto, other organizations have also faced retaliation and counterattacks after making NFT-related moves. Some of the biggest brands to suffer from this fate in recent months include Tesla, Ubisoft, Square Enix, Kickstarter, and Discord. In most of these cases, the bone of contention has been the impact of crypto mining on the environment.
