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Crypto has become an actor and participant in the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict because, as most people reading these words know, it has no borders and it is capable of bypassing hurdles that would otherwise cripple traditional financial instruments. Crypto is amoral and apolitical, in that it doesn't have a higher purpose or a morality of its own, but people do and that's why the Ukrainian government has been on the receiving end of donations in excess of $30 million and counting - in crypto, that is.
I've been reading a lot of news articles and geopolitical analysis on the conflict, been watching the news of course, been watching old and new videos of 'experts' - some of them may as well be, and some of them aren't - about the tensions. But at the end of the day, I think we can all agree that no one, ever, for any reason, should go through what the Ukrainian people are going through at the moment. But I talk about crypto, not geopolitics, and that's what I'm going to focus on.
Like many of you, I've been receiving emails from various exchanges and platforms to keep me notified with updates regarding their compliance with the new regulations, in short: there will be service disruption in Belarus and Russia, and I've also been keeping an eye on the Bitcoin, Eth and, more recently, Polkadot. This is one of the many features that define - by design - crypto, and some non-crypto people will probably witness this for the first time. In short: transaction data is stored in the blockchain in perpetuity, and the information you do or do not have access to is part of the design.
Gavin Wood, Polkadot's founder, has pledged (and proceeded to do so) to donate $5 mln and a quick glance at the transaction history of the bitcoin that Ukraine shared you'll note it has so far received a little over 200 BTC.
People always take sides and, as ever, they will use crypto to spin their narrative, hopefully, for once, it might be for the better.
