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Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and fellow cryptocurrency legend Balaji Srinivasan are pitching into a fund set up by Indian tech founder Sandeep Nailwal to help provide relief to COVID-19 ravaged India.
It all started with this tweet by Nailwal, the founder of Polygon, an Ethereum scaling platform.
- That prompted Srinivasan, a former COINBASE CTO and board partner at VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, to donate $50,000 in ETH and called on others to contribute as well.
- Buterin then answered Nailwal's call by posting a proof of transfer of 100 ether (ETH) and 100 MKR, worth more than $600,000, on his Twitter feed.
- In response to Buterin's generosity, Srinivasan then said that for those who can't afford to donate he'll contribute another $50, up to $100,000, for every retweet of his appeal.
- There's a chance, however, this generosity might not be welcome. India's government is preparing legislation that would ban private cryptocurrencies.
- "This is a gutsy, though risky campaign,especially because under Indian law, foreign funds for charitable purposes are very closely scrutinized," said Tanvi Ratna, founder and CEO of Policy 4.0, a research and advisory firm currently focused on digital currencies and blockchain.
- "That is probably the most sensitive area of foreign capital to choose to route crypto into!" said Ratna, who is working with the donation campaign to address the regulatory challenge.
- Given the current crisis, perhaps Nailwal and Ratna might find a receptive audience. Earlier Sunday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said the country had been "shaken" by a storm of COVID infections, according to a report in India Today.
- Indian authorities announced 349,691 new cases on Sunday, a record for a single country, the Guardian reported. India also reported a daily death total of 2,767 deaths, also a record, the newspaper said.
- Nations around the world are pitching in to help India deal with the latest wave. Late Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken promised in a tweet that the country would "rapidly deploy" added support to the people of India.
UPDATE (April 25, 17:11 UTC): Adds background on challenges facing crypto donations in India.
