He would bristle at the term, but you can describe Dylan Schultz as a crypto brother. He manages Lavender.Five, a cryptocurrency validation service that certifies blockchain transactions (imagine a deregulated branch of the Securities and Exchange Commission).
On February 25, he issued a appeal to his 1,700 Twitter followers: “We will compare any donation made to a charity in support of Ukraine to a total of $ 1,000.” The next day, Schultz publishes the fruits of its initiative; 0.028 bitcoin, equivalent to a total donation of about $ 1,100, sent to a crypto wallet run by a Ukrainian military NGO called Come Back Alive. He is a small part of a chorus of countless other cryptocurrency holders around the world who are vying to support Ukrainians in the face of invading power. Reports say more than $ 30 million in cryptocurrency has been sent to the country since the start of the war. So charity has finally become decentralized?
“I decided early on that Lavender.Five would use its platform to make a positive difference, no matter how small,” Schultz said. “Crypto is inherent in the whole world. Intermediaries are often needed to donate traditional currency. You cannot donate USD directly, you must first convert them in some way or find an intermediary. … Cryptocurrency solves this by simplifying the process. If you have the address of the charity, you can simply enter the address, enter the amount to donate and click “Submit”.
Ukraine, like many former Soviet states, is battling corruption and a severe shortage of international funding since independence in 1991. So perhaps that’s why the Ukrainian government has taken the unusual step of publishing cryptocurrency portfolios for global funding through bitcoin and Ethereum. – The two most popular digital tokens – from official accounts. “Stand with the people of Ukraine, now accepting donations of cryptocurrency,” he wrote Mikhail Fedorov, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, on February 26. Non-profit organizations and local businesses in the besieged country responded to the government’s request. Kyiv Independent, an English-language newspaper in the capital, accepts patronage through bitcoin.
Come Back Alive, the NGO Schultz contributed to, was previously active in Patreon – processing donations in traditional currency – before being suspended from the platform because it violated an existing moratorium on military fundraising. Naturally, the company found a second life thanks to a “crypto team” called UkraineDAO, which collects decentralized aid for various Ukrainian organizations. As the state gradually gets involved in a brutal city war, it may make sense for residents to petition for untraceable currency – especially since donations can be anonymous and therefore avoid any retaliation from the Russian state.
“Blockchain allows us to scale our efforts in a way that was not possible for us before,” said Nadia Tolokonnikova, a DAO spokeswoman in Ukraine, in an interview with The New York Times. “The old ways of raising money are sometimes really slow and just cumbersome.”
For the most ardent supporters of cryptocurrency, the crisis in Ukraine is an ideal encapsulation of the reasons why they believe that global economic hegemony must be broken. The Ukrainian people need help, and they argue that Bitcoin’s ability to avoid bureaucratic bureaucracy is the best way to provide immediate services to vulnerable populations. “It’s just the cheapest, fastest and safest way to make financial transactions,” said Artemis, who declined to give his real name but said he was from Canada and donated $ 280 in Bitcoins to Come Back Alive. “They can safely store it without fear of invading forces stealing it or the banking system collapsing due to war.
However, donors still need to take due care to avoid potential fraud, especially in a chaotic war zone. No one should trust a homeless crypto wallet floating through social media without confirming the details. Especially when there are organizations like The Giving Block, a charitable curator who paves the way for blockchain to non-profit organizations, which requires a verification process to be presented on the platform. Even in the wild west of cryptocurrency, patrons may know that their alms are going to the right place – although not all Ukrainian groups that currently accept cryptocurrencies have opened up to this kind of transparency.
There is also much evidence that the crypto-revolution could threaten the Ukrainian title. Foreign policy experts warn that Russia’s economy could become increasingly dependent on the blockchain as crippling sanctions wreak havoc on Moscow. The roll costs less than a cent after a 30% drop after the United States and Europe cut off Russian banks from Swift. Crypto is much more resilient to criminal financial assault, and this provides an escape route for a country that is completely isolated from civilian banking.
“It simply came to our notice then. We know that Russia is already developing its own digital currency, the digital ruble, which it will use for global trade. Sanctions aimed at hurting Putin will only harm the Russian people. “What is certain is that Putin has already thought about this before the conflict with Ukraine and has a plan that probably includes crypto,” said Mark Boza, global brand and business manager at HOKK Finance.
Military efforts on both sides can be funded in the ink black of the blockchain. Crypto is often both a force for good and a force for evil, but the stakes of this dichotomy have never been so high. For his part, Schultz intends to continue to support Ukrainians with his symbols. “Ukraine did not want that and is fighting the battle alone,” she said. “I wanted to help as much as I could, reaching as far as I could.