Many of us have long been criticizing the Mozilla Foundation for being more interested in political activism than making a good browser. So far no results. However, it is better for someone to make the slightest suggestion of political incorrectness for you to respond immediately.
A movement against cryptocurrencies
It all started when on the last day of the year the foundation tweeted:
Do you use @dogecoin? Do you have #Bitcoin and Ethereum? We're using @BitPay to accept #cryptocurrency donations.
someone answered them
Hi, I'm sure the person running this account has no idea who I am, but I founded
@mozilla and I'm here to say fuck 'em and fuck this. Everyone involved in the project should be ashamed of this decision to partner with planet-destroying Ponzi schemers.
That someone was none other than Jamie "jwz" Zawinski, one of the creators of the Netscape browser and co-founder of the Mozilla project.
Next, another historical came out to support him:
Hi @mozilla, I guess you don't know me either, but I designed Gecko, the engine your browser is built on. And I'm 100% with @jwz on this.
That. The actual. Fuck.
You were meant to be better than this.
As a result, a week later, the foundation reversed its decision:
As of today we are reviewing whether and how our current policy on cryptocurrency donations aligns with our climate goals. And while we carry out our review we will pause the ability to donate cryptocurrencies.
In May of last year, Elon Musk announced that his company Tesla would stop accepting Bitcoins as a means of payment for its environmental impact, on the same date the ecological organization Greenpeace took the same measure regarding donations.
Inspired by Mozilla's decision, Wikipedia editor GorillaWarfare opened a request for comment on the Wikimedia meta-wiki calling for the organization to stop accepting cryptocurrency donations,
Sounds good at first
At first glance one can sympathize with the critics. Zawinski he is a detractor of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies since before they were fashionable.
The ecological problem is undoubted, Bitcoin mining consumes about 0,5% of the world's energy, something like the equivalent of eight Googles. Each transaction made with Bitcoin consumes the same amount of energy as an average American home in a period of 77,8 days, that is, approximately two and a half months
The other criticism has to do with reliability.
A Ponzi scheme is a type of fraud where scammers steal money from investors and mask the theft by funneling profits to clients from funds contributed by new investors.. Some economists believe that the upward price cycle is to attract small investors who will be the ones to suffer the losses when another asset captures interest or governments step in deeming cryptocurrencies too dangerous.
A bit of conspiracy theories
Those of us who grew up in the XNUMXs and XNUMXs remember the ardent opposition of environmental groups to nuclear power. Although the Chernobyl accident occurred in a communist country with less environmental and safety requirements, it was used as an excuse to force the politicians of the time to dismantle them in the West. As a result, today much of Europe depends on gas from Russia. And, nuclear energy is considered to be “green”.
well worth wondering if the environmentalist attack on cryptocurrencies does not hide dark motives disguised as good intentions. If behind them are not the traditional politicians and financial entities
Cryptocurrencies allow individuals to make transactions easily and without bureaucracy. Its value is not subject to the whims of politicians as the issuance mechanism is controlled by an algorithm AND the blockchain technology is a safeguard of transactions.
All new technology consumes much more energy. The Internet consumes much more than the telephone network. Automobiles and railways are an economic nightmare compared to horses and oxen. It is the price of progress.
The Internet had its bubble in the late XNUMXs and millions of people lost money. However, we did not renounce the Internet and, with its defects, a freer and more participatory one was built. We should do the same with cryptocurrencies.
Two possible alternatives would be self-regulating exchange price mechanisms and a mining method that would prevent large teams from having advantages.
You might think that an organization focused on making the web better should consider contributing to making cryptocurrencies better as a goal instead of having climate goals. But, the Mozilla Foundation is in something else.
I think that in this blog of the linux world, they are better off talking about software than about politics. I think they control a lot about Linux, but little about political ecology. Cryptocurrencies are instruments of speculation and technological tools at the service of inequality and the most predatory capitalism. To this we have to add its terrible ecological impact. We have to congratulate the Mozilla Foundation for their decision. For a critical view of the relationship between society and technology, I recommend authors such as Evgeny Morozov or Marta Peirano.
political ecology?
The prosecution rests, your honor.
I say the same as your namesake, political ecology? What the hell are they inventing, there is politics and ecology, they CANNOT be mixed, but the result is the Climate Summit, garbage that is useless, nobody respects, only a small group goes to have some gala parties and promise unbelievable things You know what else
If politics paid attention to ecology, they would have shot themselves long ago for the good of the planet, please, what to read...
predatory capitalism? I want to see that Mozilla is not capitalist, if it lasts long
At least the cryptos are private trading with privates, if they lose, they will be the owners or investors, nobody else
Ecological impact, well, I hope Mozilla is as ethical as not to have an environmental impact with its servers, which I doubt.
Hahaha, how are cryptocurrencies going to be capitalist and inequality elements? First, its beginnings, from the cypherpunk and crypto-anarchist line, I hope you have read it before speaking that it is a capitalist element... Second, the history, did you not see the transfer of wealth to nerds and geeks who are looking for a different world? opportunities to fight inflation that it gives to the dispossessed. I think the anti-crypto news is eating several brains. Be free, be anarchists, create your own system, using open-source blockchain, create a new world, and stop talking nonsense against crypto. Lastly, use Algorand Blockchain which is carbon NEGATIVE, yes negative. Let's see if that changes their minds.