Over the last year or so we have seen several amazing examples of blockchain and crypto helping people across the world and providing to those who are in need. During the surges in COVID crypto was used to provide relief to different areas suffering from surges at different times. This allowed Non-Governmental Organizations or NGOs and other organizations to have access to rapid funding and for this funding to be from the masses.
In 2021 I covered the coup that occurred in Myanmar after the military suffered a political defeat and thus overthrew the government in a move decried across the globe. Members of the overthrown government quickly went into hiding and a shadow government called the National Unity Government was set up. This issue with this government though was that they did not want to be associated with the current Junta and needed a currency that they would be able to get from people across the globe. Their solution was to adopt Tether or USDT as their currency which was a first in the world. Since this adoption, the resistance has used Tether to fund regular government things that the Junta is not funding.
As 2022 rolled in and the situation between Russia and Ukraine continued to deteriorate Ukrainian organizations tapped into Ukraine's crypto prominence and began to accept different cryptos as donations to help fund both the upcoming war effort and the humanitarian side as well. While hundreds of thousands of dollars ended up following through some of these organizations they really did not get the attention that they probably should have. Sadly it has taken a war for them to get this attention but these organizations have not disappointed. What is crazy is that the country of Ukraine is now accepting crypto and has made its wallet addresses public on Twitter that different cryptos can be sent to!
Since the NGOs and the Government of Ukraine have been accepting crypto over $17 million has been raised! When Ukraine's official Twitter added wallet addresses for Bitcoin and Ethereum there was a slight hiccup as Vitalik Buterin warned users to make sure it wasn't a hack and was a legit way to help the Ukrainian people. He has since deleted and informed his followers it is legit his residency though was smart and made a good point. It wouldn't be surprising to see Russia attempt to hack Ukraine's Twitter and get people to donate to Russia instead of Ukraine. Luckily that was not the case.
An NFT collection was donated/sold to raise funds and this NFT collection alone raised over $1.86 million! This collection appears to be from the sale of the NFT collection Censored created by digital artist Pak and Julian Assange the Wikileaks founder and is the largest single donation. Cryptocurrency is shining as it allows for regular people to directly participate in helping out another country something that otherwise would be very difficult if not impossible to do. Thousands of donations around the world have poured in and interesting at least in my opinion was that the Ethereum wallet had roughly 4 times the amount that the Bitcoin wallet did at least dollar value wise ($4.1 million vs $1.1 million). You have even seen US companies like FTX gift $25 to every Ukrainian that was signed up on the platform to do whatever they wanted with it.
Due to the amount of money being raised this conflict has been nicknamed the world's first crypto war even though it isn't a war it is just an invasion with the Ukrainians fighting back against the invaders. The different places you can donate like Ukraine's country wallet or UkraineDAO, which is certified by Buterin as legitimate, will help different things. The Ukrainian wallet is going to support the war effort and bring in more support whether it is arms or other goods needed. The UkrainianDAO is currently working to help the civilians who are suffering from the war. This has opened up a whole new front in regular people wanting to help out those in need and now with crypto becoming more and more widespread more regular people are able to directly help those that they wish to.
Please know I am not a financial advisor I am just someone who picked up on a trend and wanted to express it! Makes sure you always do your own research and never invest money you cannot afford to lose! If you enjoyed this article and would like to further support me below are a couple of referral links that if you used when signing up I would appreciate it! Also, follow me on Twitter @Cje95_
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