Mozilla: Shitstorm after a call to donate via cryptocurrencies

Mozilla needs money: This is nothing new because the Foundation has not been doing so well for many years. Or rather, you are more dependent on Google money than the foundation would like. But when looking for alternatives, you don’t have a lucky hand. Because now you have even got yourself a tangible shit storm. However, this is also a fundamental discussion about the meaning and legitimacy of crypto currencies, because a similar debate could take place anywhere.

Still, the open source nature and community focus of Mozilla complicates the possibilities and morals of those responsible. It all started with a tweet on New Year’s Eve: On the last day of the year, the Firefox maker called on Twitter to donate to the Mozilla Foundation. However, this was not a normal call of this kind: Mozilla celebrated that they now also accept crypto currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and even Dogecoin. But that was anything but well received by many Twitter users and Mozilla supporters (via the standard). After the tweet, numerous users came forward with arguments against crypto currencies, including issues such as energy consumption and environmental protection. There were of course a lot of crypto fans who defended this financial solution, but the majority of the responses were critical.

Mozilla co-founder complains

Above all, prominent voices also spoke up and these attacked Mozilla in part sharply, above all Jamie Zawinski alias @jwz. This one is nothing short of one of the co-founders of Mozilla and Zawinski didn’t spare criticism: “Hello, I’m sure the operator of this account has no idea who I am, but I founded Mozilla and I’m here to say: Fuck yourselves and fuck this. Everyone involved in the project should be deeply ashamed of this decision to work with planet-wrecking Ponzi fraudsters. ” Jannis Leidel, board member of the Python Software Foundation, did not spare criticism and said that Mozilla should delete the tweet and explain how Mozilla’s mission fits together with the current climate crisis.