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The Mozilla Foundation is resuming its cryptocurrency donations but is excluding several cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin ($BTC).
The Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit organization that oversees the Mozilla Corporation and is behind Firefox, a popular web browser, among other internet-related applications.
An announcement from the Mozilla Foundations says that it had started a “heated discussion about cryptocurrency” at the beginning of the year, even though it has been accepting crypto donations since 2014.
Mozilla revealed earlier this year that it was using BitPay to accept donations in cryptocurrencies, like BTC, Ethereum ($ETH), and Dogecoin ($DOGE).
Its supporters and staff opposed its accepting cryptocurrency donations over the environmental impact of some assets.
Since it published its climate commitments, Mozilla had not reassessed its decision to accept crypto and has since reviewed its move to determine “if and when Mozilla should accept cryptocurrency donations.”
Mozilla detailed in its announcement that it will no longer accept cryptocurrencies using Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus algorithms as these are more energy-intensive. The announcement adds, “Mozilla will accept ‘proof-of-stake’ cryptocurrencies, which are less energy intensive. Mozilla will develop and share a list of cryptocurrencies we accept by the end of Q2 2022.”
Bitcoin and Ethereum currently use PoW algorithms, although the latter is set to move to Proof-of-Stake soon. Cryptocurrencies like Solana (SOL), Cardano ($ADA) and Tezos ($XTZ) use PoS consensus algorithms.
Other organizations have also stopped accepting crypto assets over environmental concerns. Last year, Tesla dropped payments after investing $1.5 billion in BTC over these concerns. Tesla, later on, added DOGE as a payment method on its website.