Mozilla Distances Itself From Crypto Donations After Intense Backlash

The Mozilla Foundation, the non-profit group behind the Firefox net browser, determined to pause cryptocurrency donations after dealing with extreme backlash from the netizens on Twitter. Several customers even went on to threaten to ax their month-to-month donations to the Mozilla Foundation. The harshest criticisms, nonetheless, got here from one among its co-founders.

Mozilla “Listening and Taking Action”

According to the Mozilla Foundation’s thread, the overwhelming response from the transfer led to an “important discussion about cryptocurrency’s environmental impact.” The staff mentioned they’re listening, and taking motion.

“Decentralized web technology continues to be an important area for us to explore, but a lot has changed since we started accepting crypto donations.”

It additionally added that beginning January sixth, the inspiration is reviewing whether or not its present coverage on crypto donations “fits with our climate goals.” To conduct the assessment, Mozilla is halting cryptocurrency donations whereas asserting that the staff will proceed to stay open-source, clear and can share updates with the neighborhood repeatedly.

Mozilla began accepting Bitcoin (BTC) donations by way of Coinbase in 2014. The newest transfer mirrors that of Tesla that backtracked its resolution to just accept Bitcoin as cost final 12 months.

The Loudest Critics

As reported by CryptoPotato, the talk blew out of proportion after Jamie Zawinski, aka JWZ, who helped construct the mission almost twenty years in the past, coined the title “Mozilla,” and likewise co-founded Netscape, accused the inspiration of partnering with “planet-Incinerating Ponzi grifters.”

The scathing criticisms didn’t cease there. Several others joined in. One such is Peter Linss, the founding father of Gecko, a browser engine developed by Mozilla, tweeted in assist of Zawinski.

Even although the resistance from the anti-crypto camp has been sturdy, proponents akin to Adam Back recommended that the previous programmer has an “offline voice brain-dump from Greg Maxwell, and “catchup before saying uninformed things.” Maxwell is a famend software program developer who additionally labored for a number of years on the Mozilla Foundation.

Ethereum developer Lefteris Karapetsas additionally chimed in and commented,

“A pity that you guys fall victim to the hysteria and hate on crypto that is seen around lately. Had just started using firefox again to allow for some diversity against chrome’s engine but am switching back after seeing this.”