In an unprecedented form and flow of crypto based donations, Ukraine manages to raise $17 since Russia started bombarding this country nearly 10 days ago.
Donations are called for in the form of Bitcoin, ether and tether and such are made directly into the wallet set-up by the Ukrainian government for such exclusive purposes.
Ukraine made the plea through Twitter as its official account posted,”Stand with the people of Ukraine. Now accepting cryptocurrency donations. Bitcoin, ethereum, and USDT.”
Besides, the BTC address alongside ETH and USDT, also got a mention in the tweet. On the same social media platform Mykhailo Fedorov who is Ukrain’s vice PM also posted his requests on twitter.
Now, in response to Ukrain government’s solicitation of crypto donations, Elliptic, which is a leading firm that is into blockchain data analytics stated: The Ukrainian government and NGOs providing support to the military have raised $17.2 million through thousands of cryptocurrency donations since the start of the invasion.
“Twitter accounts belonging to the Ukrainian government have posted pleas for cryptocurrency donations. The addresses mentioned in the tweets have already received $10.6 million across 13,670 transactions,” Elliptic detailed. “This includes a single donation worth $1.86 million, which appears to have originated from the sale of NFTs [non-fungible tokens] originally intended to raise funds for Julian Assange.”
It further added, “The majority of donations received to date have been in bitcoin and ether, although US dollar stablecoins contribute a significant proportion.
The firm notified a warm atmosphere building in favour of Ukrain across the crypto landscape as people are doing more than just donating sums. It said, People are also sending NFTs to the Ukrainian government’s Ethereum account. One such NFT has a value of approximately $300,”
Olexander Scherba, who remained Ukraine’s ambassador to Austria from 2014 till 2021, commented on the issue, through his twitter account, “To those who want to help in bitcoin. Bitcoin is officially legit in Ukraine.
Interestingly, not only the governments but such donations are also being made to social service organizations, as one NGO reported receiving a substantial amount of crypto-centric assistance. We bring forth credible news and insights about Fintech news updates in India.
Binance, Coinbase Negate The Cryptocurrency Potency With Which Russia Could Evade Sanctions:
At two prominent cryptocurrency exchanges, i.e. Binance and Coinbase, those sitting at the top of corporate ladder, try to dispel doubts centring cryptocurrencies as effective framework that Russia has found to evade sanctions.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukrain, Cryptocurrency has dominated the nerves globally as such could be exploited by war-mongers to check economic slowdown likely to be cuased by sanctions that are even more tougher than before.
As the skepticism widened and deepened, chaos prevailed in crypto world forcing the CEOs of two major cryptocurrency exchanges to unclog their insights on the issue.
Addressing the media giant, The Guardian, Binance CEO Changpen Zhao clarified,
Currently, the media and politicians are spending a lot of effort and focus on crypto and sanctions. The truth is, crypto is too small for Russia.
“If we look at the crypto adoption today, there is probably about 3% of the global population with some kind of crypto exposure (ie, owning some crypto),” Zhao continued. “Of those, most only have a small percentage of their net worth in crypto. Less than 10% on average. So, there is probably only less than 0.3% of the global net worth in crypto today. This percentage applies equally to Russia.”
He went on to contend, “Another reason Russia would not want to use crypto is that it is too traceable. And governments around the world are already very adept at tracking it.
Likewise,, in line with his above view, Mr. Zhao also proclaimed the inefficiency of certain cryptocurrencies, such as monero, which have fixation to privacy, as the market capitalization of XMR is $3billion while Russia has worked out its GDP to $3 trillion.
Uncovering the fact that crypto-centric transactions can easily be unearthed and examined closely by anyone present on the network, the Binance CEO accentuated that crypto assets are “not an effective tool for illicit activities”.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong fanned similar sentiments, as he took to twitter, “We don’t think there’s a high risk of Russian oligarchs using crypto to avoid sanctions. Because it is an open ledger, trying to sneak lots of money through crypto would be more traceable than using U.S. dollars cash, art, gold, or other assets.
For now, in a bid to saddle/ harness Russian military frenzy, groups like G7, the European Union and many other countries have put measures to thwart attempts from Russian companies to use cryptocurrencies and to successfully evade sanctions for larger economic benefits.
Musk To Unroll Internet Service In Ukraine:
SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk made an announcement about the company’s Starlink satellite internet service widened coverage to Ukraine, which would provide an alternate and secure way of communications as Ukraine’s military defends its territory from Russian forces.
As is usual, Mr. Musk took to twitter to make the announcement following repeated requests made by Ukraine’s Vice PM Mykhailo Fedorov to let latter’s country have Starlink access. Moreover, expanding the internet infrastructure to take Ukraine into its fold, might have been an easier exercise for Starlink Inc.
For such a purpose, a network of relay towers and a constellation of low orbit satellites has been taken into use, which is considered a boon of security sophistication to Ukraine as compared to traditional internet infrastructure embedded in land, which is purposefully devasted by Russian invading forces. As for Starlink’s internet service unrolled by satellites, such would not be an easy affair and would be an expensive option for Russian.
Now, as for relay towers, we shouldn’t be worried for them as well, as such would be installed in neightbouring countries and would thus be out of target for Russians. Credible source of Fintech news updates in India.
To this effect, Mr. Musk tweeted, “Starlink service is now active in Ukraine”.
By mere announcements and relay towers installation wouldn’t be enough, as those resisting in Ukraine would need to get satellite dishes to receive signals for this service.
However, amid the devastating war, it is still hazy how such towers would be pushed into Kyiv and clarification is still sought from SpaceX.
