Digital Currency Revolution Series: Pandemic Draws Philanthropists Through Cryptocurrencies

The non-profit crypto payment platform, ‘Giving Block’ has launched a promotion, in the recent past, raising voice for the cryptocurrency charities combating the deadly contagious coronavirus. 

After a successful fundraising programme from Italy's Red Cross who used blockchain-driven platform ‘Helperbit’ to raise funds for a pre-triage facility in record time. 

Italy's Red Cross campaign which launched on March 12th proves his thesis. This set a high benchmark for subsequent efforts by raising $10,710 (€10,000) in just three days. Now the charity is aiming to raise almost $26,000 for emergency equipment and has been joined in a similar effort by The Dutch Red Cross. 

While the COO at Helperbit, Davide Menegaldo, thinks tax havens are the prime aspect that drives the donations in the form of cryptocurrencies, especially bitcoin. He suggests that the biggest appeal is relative anonymity at this juncture, with more than 90% of Helperbit donors preferring to remain anonymous.

The Giving Block launched a fundraising campaign for non-profits on Monday under the Twitter hashtag #CryptoCovid19 alliance, and has partnered with Gitcoin to match $100,000 of donations made in ETH and DAI.

The official World Health Organization (WHO) donation platform, however, doesn't accept bitcoin. But this hasn't stopped scammers turning the situation to their advantage and impersonating the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund with phishing emails aimed at extracting bitcoin from unsuspecting holders. Courtesy: BNC