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Wikipedia RFC to stop accepting cryptocurrencies passes by majority vote

meta.wikimedia.org

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Re: Wikipedia RFC to stop accepting cryptocurrencies passes by majority vote

#141

Post by mcherm »

ithinkso wrote: post #119
mardifoufs wrote: post #37

Honestly the reasoning is weird. Don't get me wrong, I think crypto currencies are for the most part a scam, a ponzi scheme or a platform for pump and dumps. Yet the whole thing just does not make sense imo. It's one thing to be against crypto, but refusing it when you are a charity for the most asinine moral purity tests is absurd. This 100% reminds me of the almost cultist like extremely negative reaction to anythi…

There was a vote, the majority (70%+) of those that voted voted to stop. I don't know why other arguments would matter

Because I didn't participate in that vote, along with huge numbers of people who are similarly situated.

I am a user of Wikipedia and a regular donor, but I do not follow whatever list there is of issues to be voted on.

This was not a vote of Wikipedia donors, it was a vote of politically active Wikipedia authors on the subject of which donations should be accepted.

Re: Wikipedia RFC to stop accepting cryptocurrencies passes by majority vote

#142

Post by marginalia_nu »

jimmydorry wrote: post #135
marginalia_nu wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a case for considering crypto de facto blood money. I wouldn't accept crypto on the basis that I can't interact with it without contributing to its ecosystem. What sort of a terrible person would I be if I considered crypto to be a force for evil, but greased its machinery just because there was money in it for me? It's not about signalling moral purity, it's about holding myself to my own standards. How coul…

By that token, shouldn't wikimedia be engaging in thorough KYC to ensure none of the money they accept is tainted or as you referred to it: "blood money"?

That's up to them. I do accept donations on good faith, but I can't in good faith accept crypto donations as there is no uncertainty about where they come from.

I can't in good conscience ignore what I know because there are other things I don't.

Re: Wikipedia RFC to stop accepting cryptocurrencies passes by majority vote

#143

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

denkmoon wrote: post #125
SideburnsOfDoom wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think crypto currencies are for the most part a scam > Man, there's a baby in that bathwater It takes a special kind of thinking to insist "yeah, crypto currencies are about 98% scammy, but there must be good in the last 2%!, I've just seen 98 scams in a row, this _increases_ the odds that the next 2 that I see are legit!" Well, * no it does not increase the odds, this is desperate wishful thinking clinging to a…

Crypto can overall be a scam (or not, pick your poison), but if it's helping wikimedia get funding then that 'baby' is worth saving. I think we can all agree that wikimedia is a net positive in the world.

> I think we can all agree that wikimedia is a net positive in the world.

Should Wikimedia take funds from the Kremlin, North Korea and Drug cartels, or should they have limits on ethical sources of funding?

You don't have to answer what you would do, but it is 100% legitimate for them to choose to have clear, written guidelines on what funds they ethically agree to accept.

Re: Wikipedia RFC to stop accepting cryptocurrencies passes by majority vote

#144

Post by namdnay »

AlexAltea wrote: post #103
colesantiago wrote: post #2

This is great news, it is pretty pointless to use cryptocurrencies at all anyway since for Wikipedia: > Crypto was around 0.08% of our revenue last year, and it remains one of our smallest revenue channels. Remember that Wikipedia is one of the top 10 websites on the planet, I'm also assuming that other websites trying to accept crypto have even smaller percentages rendering cryptocurrencies as payment useless, not t…

> What is really happening is that nobody is using it for payments at all [Citation needed] Over the past years I've been able to book flights, shop hardware, get hotels and rental cars, renew my domain, pay for my server with cryptocurrencies.

book flights with crypto? which airline or travel agency accepts crypto? I don't see how it could work with so much volatility.

You could buy fully modifiable/refundable first class tickets and use them as free options to bet on the crypto in question

Re: Wikipedia RFC to stop accepting cryptocurrencies passes by majority vote

#145

Post by GoblinSlayer »

KptMarchewa wrote: post #81
Mindwipe wrote: post #52

Ah, another Wikipedia policy designed to exclude sex workers from financial services. I notice this wasn't even raised in the RFC.

The way to include them is to make it legal and forbid the banks to not accept money from them, not to create alternative lawless universe.

Lacking petulant restrictions isn't equivalent to lawlessness.

Re: Wikipedia RFC to stop accepting cryptocurrencies passes by majority vote

#146

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

preisschild wrote: post #133
iso1631 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are projects that are fair, were fairly distributed, that work and are secure, that are feeless and instant, all while being truly decentralized Name two?

Monero and Monero related projects, like Haveno. Its probably one of the most used cryptocurrencies for normal transactions, as most darkweb marketplaces use it.

> normal transactions ... darkweb marketplaces

For some abnormal definition of "normal", ok.

Re: Wikipedia RFC to stop accepting cryptocurrencies passes by majority vote

#148

Post by Anthony-G »

jimmydorry wrote: post #135
marginalia_nu wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a case for considering crypto de facto blood money. I wouldn't accept crypto on the basis that I can't interact with it without contributing to its ecosystem. What sort of a terrible person would I be if I considered crypto to be a force for evil, but greased its machinery just because there was money in it for me? It's not about signalling moral purity, it's about holding myself to my own standards. How coul…

By that token, shouldn't wikimedia be engaging in thorough KYC to ensure none of the money they accept is tainted or as you referred to it: "blood money"?

I guess the Wikimedia community is going for the low-hanging fruit. Don't Let “Perfect” Be the Enemy of “Good”.

Re: Wikipedia RFC to stop accepting cryptocurrencies passes by majority vote

#149

Post by GoblinSlayer »

KptMarchewa wrote: post #82
sennight wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ...vested interest in it succeeding. That has led to a lot of people who have annoyingly strong opinions about it. Cryptobro-splainer here. Having been involved from the beginning, I can tell you that detractors (especially vocal ones) are far more invested than proponents. Imagine declaring bitcoin dead in 2014, and then again the next year, and then the next... and while this is going on you can't help but calcul…

I don't see any detractors claiming that cryptocurrencies will be dead in any timeframe. They are arguing that they are useless and ponzi schemes, but it's very well known that market and people can stay irrational way longer than any bet.

Google "crypto bubble".

Re: Wikipedia RFC to stop accepting cryptocurrencies passes by majority vote

#150

Post by throwaway290 »

namdnay wrote: post #144
AlexAltea wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What is really happening is that nobody is using it for payments at all [Citation needed] Over the past years I've been able to book flights, shop hardware, get hotels and rental cars, renew my domain, pay for my server with cryptocurrencies.

book flights with crypto? which airline or travel agency accepts crypto? I don't see how it could work with so much volatility. You could buy fully modifiable/refundable first class tickets and use them as free options to bet on the crypto in question

My theory it's a payment processor that converts to %LOCAL_CURRENCY% (if necessary, with an additional conversion through USD/EUR) at the time of purchase and thus would never refund anything in croins at original rate (am open to be proven wrong).
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