In the wake of criticism from many, including a Mozilla founder, the Mozilla Foundation halted digital currency donations last week after announcing they would accept cryptocurrency donations.

Mozilla Foundation, which develops the Firefox web browser, acknowledged Thursday that cryptocurrencies may potentially threaten the environment and said it will review its current policy on crypto donations in light of its climate goals.

According to the series of tweets by the company, "Starting today we are reviewing if and how our current policy on crypto donations fits with our climate goals,"

In the meantime, they will pause cryptocurrency donation functionality during the review process.

The backlash started after the foundation announced people could donate via cryptocurrency tokens, including bitcoin, to the American nonprofit firm.

In response to this, Mozilla co-founder Jamie Zawinski tweeted, "Everyone involved in the project should be witheringly ashamed of this decision to partner with planet-incinerating Ponzi grifters."

Other major companies have faced backlash - or distanced themselves from Bitcoin - over environmental concerns.

Tesla, which had recently introduced bitcoin as a form of payment for its vehicles, suspended accepting the cryptocurrency just months after introducing the option, following the backlash over environmental concerns.

Bitcoin's environmental footprint has been questioned due to how its tokens are produced. Bitcoin and Ethereum are powered by a mechanism called proof-of-work which mints new blocks to power their networks.

148 terawatt-hours of energy are consumed by Bitcoin mining annually, according to a study by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance. Mostly consumed by thousands of GPUs that are run round the clock to solve the puzzle.

The organization said it would continue to explore the cryptocurrency donation idea, but that it would keep the community informed through a transparent process and provide regular updates.

Pavan A

CBW - External Analyst

INDIA