What a week! Just when we think things are settling down (***coughcough*** Covid) in the world…Russia starts acting up. SMDH…
I’m not gonna lie - I could never have imagined crypto coming through in a clutch to this degree.
During the first week of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Ukrainian government reached out to the cryptocurrency community on Twitter to raise funds to support its civilians and troops. Ukraine has begun accepting donations in the form of Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Tether (USDT).
According to Elliptic, more than $9.9 million in crypto has been donated to Ukrainian groups since Russia attacked them on February 24th. To help the Ukrainians in need, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) have been formed.
NFTs were sold in order to raise funds for the Ukrainian people and military. The official Twitter account of the country has stated that it accepts Bitcoin, Ether, and Tether.
In the face of military threats throughout Ukraine, the Ukrainian government sought assistance from a number of international organizations but because time is of the essence, Ukraine's official Twitter account extended its call for assistance to Crypto Twitter.
Ukraine's Vice Prime Minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, shared three crypto wallet addresses, urging the crypto community to donate and assist Ukraine in its fight against Russian troops. While the BTC and ETH addresses remain unchanged, Fedorov's USDT wallet address is TRC20-based (as opposed to the address shared by Ukraine's official Twitter handle).
Prominent crypto entrepreneurs, including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, suspected that the accounts requesting crypto donations had been hacked at first. However, Ukrainian Ambassador Olexander Scherba later confirmed its legitimacy to American diplomat Tomicah Tillemann.
Ukrainian civilians who have become refugees have reported losing access to their fiat savings and credit cards. As of Feb. 26, the United Nations reported that over 150,000 people had been displaced from Ukraine.
Originally there was some confusion and outright apprehension about the intended use of the crypto donations because, let’s face it, hackers DO NOT give a shit about the world and always try to take advantage of situations like this one but Mr Eth himself (i.e Vitalik) shared another decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) initiative that is solely focused on Ukrainian citizens.
UkraineDAO, led by Nadya Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot, launched with the release of a 1/1 non fungible token (NFT) of the Ukrainian flag to raise funds for Ukrainian civilian organizations to assist those suffering from Putin's war.
Cointelegraph reported on February 24 that Ukraine's Ministry of Defense had received numerous requests for crypto donations from foreigners.
It’s actually wild to see this type of real world use case in a situation like this.
Donations like this are usually made the old-fashioned way: through traditional banks.
Cryptocurrency has emerged as a quick and easy way to handle this money in tech-savvy Ukraine and almost at the speed of light.
We’re rooting for you Ukraine!!! We’re excited to be able to be a part of freeing you from your abusive relationship with Russia.
-Chavah
P.S. You can actually use Snapchat to see what other people are posting in different parts of the world, like Ukraine. Check video below
Comments