India's Covid crypto relief campaign raised over $1 billion to date, proving how cryptocurrencies can bring transparency to philanthropy and have an immediate real-world impact on the ground.
Indian crypto entrepreneurs have come together to do their part as India struggles to contain the coronavirus. With impressive billion-dollar results.
Leading the crypto drive to help Covid-19 patients is India's Crypto Covid Relief Fund. The donations they receive are being used to provide healthcare and essential needs to those fighting Covid-19. The footwork for the fund has been laid down by some of the most trusted names in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon (formerly Matic), which aims to bring significantly improved scaling solution to Ethereum using an adapted version of Plasma with PoS-based side chains, took to Twitter on April 24 announcing that he is setting up a Crypto Covid relief fund.
Naiwal called on the global cryptocurrency community to assist while he has taken responsibility for transparency, fund usage and regulatory compliance.
The relief fund accepts donations in several different cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum and ERC20 tokens, Tron and TRC20 tokens , Binance Smart Chain (BNB), Ripple, Cosmos, Solana, Litecoin, Tezos and Doge.
To keep record of the contributors, Nailwal has shared a Google Form. The form has basic personal info such as name, contact details (email, WhatsApp, Telegram, Twitter, etc), transaction link.
Naliwal also reached out to India's top crypto exchanges WazirX, CoinDCX and Bitbns to convert the donations to fiat in order to be able to help people more efficiently on the ground. As more people joined the initiative, a group on Discord was created, workflow was organised on Airtable, and a transparency dashboard was created.
A bank account with digital bank FV Bank was also created and talks for FCRA approvals were finalised. The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) regulates acceptance and utilisation of foreign funds to prohibit activities deemed negative or detrimental to national interests.
India’s top chartered accountant in crypto DeepakV (@Vacpad) is leading the regulatory and audit part of India’s crypto covid relief campaign.
Top contributors to this campaign from the global crypto communities are Vitalik Buterin, Justin Sun and Balaji among many others, as cricket stars donating through crypto include Brett Lee and Pat Cummins.
On April 30, the fund transferred $999,900 or Rs 7.4 crore to ACT Grants that aims to provide oxygen for everyone with over 50,000 oxygen concentrators across the country.
The fund was also used to donate oxygen cylinders. On May 5, the fund volunteers came to know of the Operation Samudra Setu-II, under which the Indian Navy was carrying 1,000 oxygen cylinders donated by Kuwaiti government. There was still space for 3,000 more in the ship. So, the fund donated an additional amount to fill those cylinders and many NGO’s and foundations across different Indian states has received the grants under Crypto covid relief campaign
Indian crypto entrepreneurs and global crypto communities have shown the power of crypto philanthropy to the entire world through India’s Covid Crypto Relief fund amid India’s battle with the second wave of #COVID19 by raising $1.039 billion till date.
The development shows the true potential blockchain technology has in transforming the global charity sector and methodology, while having an immediate and real-world positive impact on the ground.
Sincerely,
Harish Kumar
Biotech Engineer & Researcher as well as Klever’s Customer Support Agent in India
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