Crypto No Longer Valid for Donations to the International Animal Rescue

While organizations are looking for ways to integrate crypto and blockchain technology into their business despite their government’s unfavorable ruling, some organizations are going the opposite route.

No More Bitcoin for Animals

The International Animal Rescue (IAR), today announced that after an internal policy review they will be putting an end to cryptocurrency-based donations.

They also added that effectively immediately along with the cryptocurrency ban they will be ending all existing relationships with NFT projects that were looking to donate to them.

The announcement further stated:

“As a conservation charity, we pride ourselves on our integrity and values. While crypto currency transactions have become more common and there has been a demand for individuals and communities to support our mission by making crypto and NFT donations, there are some underlying concerns about the environmental sustainability of these blockchain technologies. (sic)”

These ‘underlying concerns about the environment go back to the long-standing debate about cryptocurrency being an environmental hazard.

The conversation first became mainstream when Elon Musk renounced Bitcoin as a method of payment last year. Since then multiple studies have shown that while there is some environmental impact of cryptocurrency usage, it isn’t as bad as it is said to be.

Comparisons with multiple similar energy-intensive operations show that Bitcoin consumes significantly lower energy. Bitcoin uses merely 0.59% of the total energy used to produce electricity.

Crypto Donations on the Other Hand…

Have been increasing extensively. A recent report pointed out that last year one of the mediums for cryptocurrency donations received 1,558% higher donations compared to 2020.

In fact of the $69 million total donations, NFT projects contributed about 17.7% of the donations worth over 12.3 million.

Thus, the growing pace of crypto adoption might soon lead people to realize and potentially develop a more energy-efficient and acceptable blockchain.