India continued to reel under the severe second wave of COVID-19 that has crippled the already crumbling health sector of the country. In the wake of massive resource-starved conditions brought upon by public laxity and government negligence, social media platforms have become helplines and saviors to the ones in need.
The cryptocurrency community is doing its bit to provide necessary aid to the country. Sandeep Nailwal, the Co-founder and Chief Operations Officer of Polygon had announced a COVID-19 relief fund and asked the global crypto community to help. Nailwal asserted that he would take full responsibility for transparency, funds usage, and regulatory compliance.
Nailwal plans to pour the funds collected to purchase oxygen, food, and even cover the cost of vaccines for poor people in the country.
The multisig address to donate in ETH/ERC20 to this address: 0x68A99f89E475a078645f4BAC491360aFe255Dff1
At press time, around $154 ETH has been deposited to the address.
Weighing down upon the lack of regulatory clarity around the space in India, the exec noted,
“I already got a few people pinging me that Regulatory things would be tough on this, it’s not easy to give money, even for social causes. My Answer “Our Hows should not affect our Why”. Whatever happens we will handle it, lets not let it stop us from doing what is right.”
Indian crypto market scene is worth billions of dollars, but these digital assets cannot be used to directly fund relief efforts as they’re not widely accepted as fiat. To overcome this barrier, the Polygon COO urged Indian crypto exchanges such as WazirXIndia, CoinDCX, and Bitbns to help convert the COVID donations into fiat currency.
COVID Donations From Ethereum Community
One of the many to donate was Ethereum Co-founder Vitalik Buterin who reportedly donated more than $600k India Covid Relief Campaign. Buterin posted the transfer receipts of 100 ETH and 100 MKR, worth roughly $606,110 for use in relief in the country.
Ethereum Foundation’s Hudson James also donated 138,000 MATIC [approximately $49K]. Indian-origin technology investor and entrepreneur Balaji Srinivasan vouched for the Polygon exec and revealed his intentions to donate.