Wikipedia, otherwise known as the free internet encyclopedia, turns 20 years old today. But what impact has the world’s most popular source of information had on the cryptocurrency industry?
Wikipedia was founded with the idea of creating a free and accurate source of information on absolutely anything. “[…] written by volunteers, for everyone in the world, it seemed impossible,” states the birthday celebration page.
Fast forward twenty years, and the website now ranks thirteenth in the world in terms of traffic. The birthday post states that Wikipedia is “celebrating the power of human collaboration, creativity, and curiosity.”
However, has the rise of Wikipedia had any real impact on the growing cryptocurrency industry?
Wikipedia – A History of Knowledge
Wikipedia now holds the largest collection of open knowledge in history. Thanks to open collaboration between internet users, it now has over 280,000 people editing every month.
As the biggest encyclopedia globally, the site should offer a large amount of information on the crypto industry. However, the history between the two has been marred with controversy.
Cardano co-founder Charles Hoskinson recently accused the project of censoring his project’s paper as a citation. Wikipedia continually removed the citation, which stirred up controversy between Hoskinson and the community who labeled the move as commercial censorship.
Bitcoin Donations If You Must
Wikipedia has however been involved with bitcoin since as early as 2014. Even back then, the website added bitcoin as a method for accepting donations.
While it did receive some BTC donations, it appears the cryptocurrency has fallen out of favor as a donation method. Wikipedia still accepts cryptocurrency transfers, however, this isn’t mentioned on the donations page.
Popular methods now include PayPal and credit cards. Crypto specific donations seem to be relegated to a separate page as a last resort. Via the use of crypto payment provider BitPay, users can donate with bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ether, or xrp.
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has previously expressed his distaste for the Bitcoin fork, Bitcoin SV. Wales commented on the embroiled project, saying:
“BSV offers nothing for Wikipedia, there is zero chance we would ever use it.”
Wales has also tweeted several times about Bitcoin. His most popular tweet relates directly to the king of crypto. He explains that he had purchased 0.1 BTC through Coinbase several months before Wikipedia added bitcoin as a donation method.
Wikipedia may be the largest available knowledge portal on the web. However, it seems to have had a slim impact on the cryptocurrency industry as a whole. Perhaps in the future this will change as the industry begins to mature, and adoption continues to grow.
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