Codeberg Bans Cryptocurrency Projects

Gusted commented 2026-07-07 21:19:17 +02:00

The text is now as-is because it was send out for votes. Small clarifications can be made afterwards by Presidium or Board. The whole spirit of the vote makes it clear this is a "not limited to" case.

The text is now as-is because it was send out for votes. Small clarifications can be made afterwards by Presidium or Board. The whole spirit of the vote makes it clear this is a "not limited to" case.

johnnyjayjay commented 2026-07-09 10:40:14 +02:00

Is there a definition of "cryptocurrency-related" somewhere?

Is there a definition of "cryptocurrency-related" somewhere?

Gusted commented 2026-07-22 02:00:37 +02:00

This has passed.

This has passed. 

charlesrocket commented 2026-07-22 18:46:40 +02:00

Fk hell I just moved to a forge that banned bitcoin! Is this a joke??? https://blog.codeberg.org/we-stay-strong-against-hate-and-hatred.html

Fk hell I just moved to a forge that banned bitcoin! Is this a joke??? https://blog.codeberg.org/we-stay-strong-against-hate-and-hatred.html

nekogirl commented 2026-07-23 03:19:02 +02:00

Please explain how do cryptocurrency projects harm codeberg's reputation

https://forum.codeberg.org/d/82-taking-a-stance-against-cryptocurrency
"The page you requested could not be found."

Codeberg/Community#794
Codeberg/Community#2184
These domains are strongly associated with fraudulent activities and high-risk investments

Not all of them are about it. First of all, in context of so called code forges, this is a tech. What kind of headache do you have, that you judge the whole group by isolated cases, and block ANY such projects, even those that have real technical value?

Please explain how do cryptocurrency projects harm codeberg's reputation > https://forum.codeberg.org/d/82-taking-a-stance-against-cryptocurrency "The page you requested could not be found." > Codeberg/Community#794 > Codeberg/Community#2184 > These domains are strongly associated with fraudulent activities and high-risk investments Not all of them are about it. First of all, in context of so called code forges, this is a tech. What kind of headache do you have, that you judge the whole group by isolated cases, and block ANY such projects, even those that have real technical value?

exidot commented 2026-07-23 03:22:44 +02:00

When some projects were transferred over, you started behaving strangely.

When some projects were transferred over, you started behaving strangely.

johnoestmannmusic commented 2026-07-23 04:31:24 +02:00

While I respect this seems to have been a community decision (I also despise the amount of fraud coming from the crypto space), this does set quite a concerning precedent, and makes me a little nervous to continue recommending Codeberg.

Banning an entire category of software based on bad actors within that category is extreme, and prevents any healthy crypto projects from emerging here.

While I respect this seems to have been a community decision (I also despise the amount of fraud coming from the crypto space), this does set quite a concerning precedent, and makes me a little nervous to continue recommending Codeberg. Banning an entire category of software based on bad actors within that category is extreme, and prevents any healthy crypto projects from emerging here.

jmgilman commented 2026-07-23 06:45:04 +02:00

I'm working on a project aimed at bringing privacy, security, and autonomy to at risk people groups. The language in this motion means I can no longer host it here. Is this what the Codeberg community voted for? The short-sightedness and incompetency is mind blowing. What do you call it when a group of people come together to weaponize their hate against a whole category of developers? Anyone?

I'm working on a project aimed at bringing privacy, security, and autonomy to at risk people groups. The language in this motion means I can no longer host it here. Is this what the Codeberg community voted for? The short-sightedness and incompetency is mind blowing. What do you call it when a group of people come together to weaponize their hate against a whole category of developers? Anyone?

glass_of_water commented 2026-07-23 06:59:03 +02:00

I don't even understand the logic behind this? Because some cryptocurrencies are shady and bad, every single crypto project should not be allowed onto Codeberg? What if someone is studying blockchains and want to implement their own crypto? This is extremely insane to me.

I don't even understand the logic behind this? Because some cryptocurrencies are shady and bad, every single crypto project should not be allowed onto Codeberg? What if someone is studying blockchains and want to implement their own crypto? This is extremely insane to me.

rudzik8 commented 2026-07-23 06:59:46 +02:00

I'm sure you have some morally high reasons to stand against cryptocurrency, but the "illicit trade" and "evasion of sanctions" cited by sourcehut (since you seem to base your decision on it) are also what allows regular people, including LGBTQ+ people, living in sanctioned countries (which also, what a surprise, turn out to be unsafe for LGBTQ+ folk a lot of the time), to buy goods and send/receive money from abroad without being prosecuted by their governments (hi foreign agent laws! hi "extremism" and "terrorism" laws!).

I'm sorry, anti-war transgender person stuck in Russia, but from our moral stance, you shouldn't be able to purchase HRT from a lab using your XMR wallet. nor should your friend be able to pay for their foreign VPN VDS that they use to bypass the internet restrictions in USDT. the projects you used for this were hosted on Codeberg and not some other platform? well, too bad, they'll have to go someplace else that minds your existence or is welcoming to cryptocurrency as a whole, and you will wait. you and the tools you use will move to a greedy corporate hosting that is likely to impose its own restrictions on you in the future, or, even better, move to a less reliable self-hosted option, one per each tool to make it less maintainable and less accessible.

by taking this stance, at least from my perspective, you're just projecting your morally high delusion of dirty illicit 3rd world crypto scammers that are damaging the moral purity of Codeberg by... hosting code for their projects here?! which, mind you, almost all the time will just contain tools, tools to do good or bad. do you want to ban BitTorrent-related projects from Codeberg next because they are "mostly used to get illegal access to unlicensed digital goods and services (piracy)" and also take up world bandwidth and compute? how about banning YouTube downloaders after those? hey, let's make it clear that Codeberg will not stand a single repo on its platform that involves encrypted messaging: you know only criminals use Matrix, right?

I'm sure you have some morally high reasons to stand against cryptocurrency, but the "illicit trade" and "evasion of sanctions" cited by sourcehut (since you seem to base your decision on it) are also what allows regular people, including LGBTQ+ people, living in sanctioned countries (which also, what a surprise, turn out to be unsafe for LGBTQ+ folk a lot of the time), to buy goods and send/receive money from abroad without being prosecuted by their governments (hi foreign agent laws! hi "extremism" and "terrorism" laws!). I'm sorry, anti-war transgender person stuck in Russia, but from our moral stance, you shouldn't be able to purchase HRT from a lab using your XMR wallet. nor should your friend be able to pay for their foreign VPN VDS that they use to bypass the internet restrictions in USDT. the projects you used for this were hosted on Codeberg and not some other platform? well, too bad, they'll have to go someplace else that minds your existence or is welcoming to cryptocurrency as a whole, and you will wait. you and the tools you use will move to a greedy corporate hosting that is likely to impose its own restrictions on you in the future, or, even better, move to a less reliable self-hosted option, one per each tool to make it less maintainable and less accessible. by taking this stance, at least from my perspective, you're just projecting your morally high delusion of dirty illicit 3rd world crypto scammers that are damaging the moral purity of Codeberg by... hosting code for their projects here?! which, mind you, almost all the time will just contain tools, *tools* to do good or bad. do you want to ban BitTorrent-related projects from Codeberg next because they are "mostly used to get illegal access to unlicensed digital goods and services (piracy)" and also take up world bandwidth and compute? how about banning YouTube downloaders after those? hey, let's make it clear that Codeberg will not stand a single repo on its platform that involves encrypted messaging: you know only criminals use Matrix, right?

stevenj commented 2026-07-23 06:59:48 +02:00

The vagueness of the term "such as cryptocurrency related projects." has materially damaged Codebergs reputation in my eyes, and given the comments above, I am not alone. Therefore under its own construction that "Content that harms the reputation of Codeberg" should have been self defeating and not allowed under its own policy.

Examples of POTENTIAL "crytpocurrency related projects":

• ZK Proof Libraries.
• Blake and SHA HASH Libraries.
• PQ Crypto, ED25519 or ECDSA (secp256k1)
• ANYTHING to do with LibP2P or similar libraries.
• ANYTHING to do with BFT Consensus or other consensus algorithms.

So The only safe policy is to assume that Codeberg is basically anti-cryptography. Because most all cryptography at some level of relationship becomes a "cryptocurrency related project".

And in who's view is the reputational damage judged? An opaque select committee? Corporate sponsors? The rule is simply political cover for Codeberg to say "We don't like you even though your code is legal, see our TermsOfUse which says, politically acceptable projects are OK, and we define what is politically acceptable, and whatever 'cryptocurrency related projects' mean are not politically acceptable, and so might other undefined stuff we haven't decided on yet."

Needless to say, I wont be adding any more projects to Codeberg and I will move away from it as a platform. To be clear none of them are "Cryptocurrency related" by my interpretation, but hey, I did make a CBOR toolkit, and Cardano, a cryptocurrency project, uses a lot of CBOR, so maybe that is "Cryptocurrency related"... Who's to know?

The vagueness of the term "such as cryptocurrency related projects." has materially damaged Codebergs reputation in my eyes, and given the comments above, I am not alone. Therefore under its own construction that "Content that harms the reputation of Codeberg" should have been self defeating and not allowed under its own policy. Examples of POTENTIAL "crytpocurrency related projects": * ZK Proof Libraries. * Blake and SHA HASH Libraries. * PQ Crypto, ED25519 or ECDSA (secp256k1) * ANYTHING to do with LibP2P or similar libraries. * ANYTHING to do with BFT Consensus or other consensus algorithms. So The only safe policy is to assume that Codeberg is basically anti-cryptography. Because most all cryptography at some level of relationship becomes a "cryptocurrency related project". And in who's view is the reputational damage judged? An opaque select committee? Corporate sponsors? The rule is simply political cover for Codeberg to say "We don't like you even though your code is legal, see our TermsOfUse which says, politically acceptable projects are OK, and we define what is politically acceptable, and whatever 'cryptocurrency related projects' mean are not politically acceptable, and so might other undefined stuff we haven't decided on yet." Needless to say, I wont be adding any more projects to Codeberg and I will move away from it as a platform. To be clear none of them are "Cryptocurrency related" by my interpretation, but hey, I did make a CBOR toolkit, and Cardano, a cryptocurrency project, uses a lot of CBOR, so maybe that is "Cryptocurrency related"... Who's to know?

nekogirl commented 2026-07-23 07:08:42 +02:00

@stevenj wrote in #1254 (comment):

And in who's view is the reputational damage judged?

community, lol. AFAIK, anyone could participate in that poll. so some random people that think "crypto is bad blah blah blah" can really ruin Codeberg's reputation by voting for banning crypto-related projects

@stevenj wrote in https://codeberg.org/Codeberg/org/pulls/1254#issuecomment-19918582: > And in who's view is the reputational damage judged? community, lol. AFAIK, anyone could participate in that poll. so some random people that think "crypto is bad blah blah blah" can _really_ ruin Codeberg's reputation by voting for banning crypto-related projects

nekogirl commented 2026-07-23 07:12:10 +02:00

@stevenj wrote in #1254 (comment):

I did make a CBOR toolkit, and Cardano, a cryptocurrency project, uses a lot of CBOR, so maybe that is "Cryptocurrency related"... Who's to know?

to really push this joke further, let's go ban Zig as it is used by Solana validator software (the source of most rugpull memecoins)!

@stevenj wrote in https://codeberg.org/Codeberg/org/pulls/1254#issuecomment-19918582: > I did make a CBOR toolkit, and Cardano, a cryptocurrency project, uses a lot of CBOR, so maybe that is "Cryptocurrency related"... Who's to know? to really push this joke further, let's go ban Zig as it is used by [Solana validator software](https://github.com/Syndica/sig) (the source of most rugpull memecoins)!

jaredwhite commented 2026-07-23 07:24:19 +02:00

This is a fantastic improvement! Well done, Codeberg. I'm excited to participate in a platform that is willing to take an ethical stance, rather than succumb to a technolibertarian dystopia like we've been suffering through in other spaces for far too long.

This is a fantastic improvement! Well done, Codeberg. I'm excited to participate in a platform that is willing to take an ethical stance, rather than succumb to a technolibertarian dystopia like we've been suffering through in other spaces for far too long.

tomodachi94 commented 2026-07-23 07:39:18 +02:00

This got posted to Hacker News, might be worth locking this thread to avoid off-topic discussion.

This got [posted to Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49015588), might be worth locking this thread to avoid off-topic discussion.

jmgilman commented 2026-07-23 07:44:02 +02:00

@tomodachi94 wrote in #1254 (comment):

This got posted to Hacker News, might be worth locking this thread to avoid off-topic discussion.

Ah yes, the elites have spoken, and debate must not be allowed to continue by the plebians. Free speech and open debate are where bad ideas go to die. Clearly there's a thought bubble being protected here.

@tomodachi94 wrote in https://codeberg.org/Codeberg/org/pulls/1254#issuecomment-19919563: > This got [posted to Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49015588), might be worth locking this thread to avoid off-topic discussion. Ah yes, the elites have spoken, and debate must not be allowed to continue by the plebians. Free speech and open debate are where bad ideas go to die. Clearly there's a thought bubble being protected here.

tomodachi94 commented 2026-07-23 08:00:51 +02:00

To be clear: I don't necessarily think this proposal was a good idea, I just don't think a flamewar is the best course of action here.

(To be super duper clear, for @jmgilman's benefit: I am not a member of Codeberg e.V. and did not take part in this vote. I am not affiliated with Codeberg.)

To be clear: I don't necessarily think this proposal was a good idea, I just don't think a flamewar is the best course of action here. (To be super duper clear, for @jmgilman's benefit: I am not a member of Codeberg e.V. and did not take part in this vote. I am not affiliated with Codeberg.)

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