Requests for comment/Stop accepting fiat money donations
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Proposal
editThe Wikimedia Foundation currently accepts fiat money donations in currencies including USD, EUR, and GBP, as explained on the "Ways to give" page. I propose that the Wikimedia Foundation stops accepting fiat money donations.
- Accepting fiat money signals endorsement of fiat money regimes by the Wikimedia Foundation and members of the Wikimedia Movement. Fiat money is a highly depreciating asset, that has only been gaining popularity in the past 50 years, and has since almost completely debased as a currency while devaluing the living wage of every common person living under its influence, as illustrated in detail on "WTF Happened in 1971" and seen currently around the world in countries such as "Lebanon", "Zimbabwe" and "Venezuela“, as well as historically in events as the "Weimar Hyperinflation". At the same time fiat money is a highly manipulatable asset controlled and influened by the elite financial services industry without oversight or consequence, as seen in the "Japanese 1986-1991 asset price bubble", the "1997 Asian financial crisis", the "1998 Russian Financial Crisis" and the "2014-2016 Russian Financial Crisis", the "Recession of the 2000's", the "2008 financial crisis“, and the "European Debt Crisis", which has been ongoing since 2010, to name a few. All these events have substantially lowered the quality of life for the average affected person. The negative effects caused by the financial instability of fiat money on everyday people have been voiced in the following "Occupy Wall Street" protests, yet such global outcries resulted in little to no consequence for those responsible for the damage caused. Further, access to fiat money can be awarded on merit rather than necessity as just recently seen in "Afghanistan" while excluding more than "1.7 Billion adults from access to financial services". I do not think the Wikimedia Community should be endorsing their use in any way. In accepting fiat money, I believe we are propagating the usage of a technology that is not only inherently oppressive, but a net-negative for all of humanity.
- Fiat money does not align with the Wikimedia Foundation's commitment to environmental sustainability. The EUR and USD are two of the most highly-used fiat monies, and are both based on the petro dollar as well as fully reliant on the Central Banking System, using an enormous amount of energy. You can read more about fiat's environmental impact from Alex Gladstein and compare the Central Banking System's energy usage to that of a Decentralized Banking System such as Bitcoin here. In addition, you can use your search engine of choice to do your own research. Discussions of energy usage around fiat money often involve claims from proponents that they will be moving to a considerably eco-friendlier CBDC model in the near future (though this has been promised for several years now), and could bring upon a total rule of financial surveillance and technocratic authoritarianism, which should be opposed by "anyone petitioning for a free and open society". All fiat money models continue to be extremely damaging to the environment and society as a whole.
I expect that this change will cost us much in terms of lost donations. But, even if we assume that those donating using fiat would choose not to donate at all if fiat wasn't an option (rather than donating in some other currency), we are taking a stance against environmental destruction, the perpetual financing of wars and the oppression of the common individual in alignment with Wikimedia values, being guided by a vision of a better world [1].
For more information on the environmental impact of alternative payment systems such as Bitcoin please visit the following comments in the "request for comment to stop accepting cryptocurrencies for donations" as found "here", "here" and "here".