Mozilla stopping cryptocurrency donations following criticism, pending review of its climate impact

Less than a week after announcing that it will accept donations in the form of cryptocurrency, Mozilla has backtracked and will conduct a review to see if this will work with its climate policy.

In a statement via Twitter, Mozilla provided details regarding this backtrack:

"Starting today we are reviewing if and how our current policy on crypto donations fits with our climate goals, and as we conduct our review, we will pause the ability to donate cryptocurrency."

Due to the energy consumed in the mining of cryptocurrency, the initial announcement that Mozilla made regarding accepting crypto donations was received with backlash not only from users of Mozilla products like Firefox, but by the likes of Mozilla co-founder Jamie Zawinski and the Firefox's Gecko engine designer Peter Linss.

To end their statement, Mozilla promised openness in the process:

"In the spirit of open-source, this will be a transparent process and we'll share regular updates.

We look forward to having this conversation and appreciate our community for bringing this to our attention."

Further coverage: Engadget TechCrunch