How International Crypto Community is Helping India Fight Covid-19
The Republic of India is the second-most populous country in the world and the seventh-largest country by landmass. It is one of the countries currently suffering from a hard wave of covid-19. It reported its first case of covid-19 on the 30th of January 2020, and since then, there has been a massive increase in cases.
Over 26 million cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in India from January till the 21st of May 2021. The cases of Covid-19 keep increasing day in day out, with over 185,766,518 administered vaccine doses. And as of the 21st of May, over 291,000 death have been recorded.
The tragic event going on in India has summoned the attention of the international crypto community to provide ease of affliction for the affected individuals. This article will call our attention to how the international crypto community has been providing support in India.
State of Covid-19 in India
The second wave of Covid-19 hit India like a storm. New daily cases top 200,000 for weeks straight, causing a new death all-time high. The second wave is deadlier and fast-growing, with both young and old being affected. Breathing becomes a struggle in the patient, many patients in the hospital are lying lifeless because of the disease.
Although the second wave has more virulence than the first wave, the death rate is low. As more patients in the larger cities are taken care of, the fear is if the affected people in the rural area with absence or inadequate health facilities will get the same attention. This is where the help of the international crypto community becomes very handy and timely. The donation made by the crypto community has been used to provide ventilators to the people in the rural area so everyone can have access to health facilities.
How the international community is helping India fight Covid-19
Crypto enthusiasts in India have shown that they aim to buy Bitcoin in India and make money and use the money made to help humanity in every way they can. A group of individuals came together to initiate a Fable project which will auction up to 22 digital artworks as non-fungible tokens.
The money that will be gotten will be directed to provide oxygen and ventilators to people that can’t afford one. Non-fungible tokens are digital assets with their ownership traceable on the Ethereum network. The artworks are created by volunteers on the NFTs marketplace. The auction started on the 28th of April for the first eight artworks and was opened for five days.
The concept of Fable is initiated by Arjun Malhotra, and the design of the NFTs is coordinated by Kavan Antani. The latter being the founder of IndieFolio Network, and the Former is the founder of VC firm Good.
Sandeep Nainwal, the founder of Polygon, initiated a Crypto Relief fund for India which entices the international crypto community to donate. Balaji Srinivasan, the former Chief Technology Officer at Coinbase, one of the exchanges to trade BTC to INR, donated $100,000 worth of crypto. Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, also donated $606,110 worth of crypto towards the goodwill.
Many others donated generously to the Crypto Relief fund that we won’t be opportune to mention here, or else the list will keep going on and on and might take much of our time. However, with this piece, we have established how the international Crypto community is helping India fight Covid-19, sighting few examples.
What implication will these have on the number of people that’ll buy Bitcoin in India?
With the generous step taken by the international community, Bitcoin and other Altcoin and digital assets will increase in India. People will feel more comfortable buying Bitcoin in India. Also, if we look closely, most of the donations are made in digital currency, which means that the fund’s value is not constant and is controlled by the forces of demand and supply. The more people buy and use it, the more the price goes up, which can make the value of the donations increase, and it can be used to get more oxygen and ventilators to the distressed.
In summary, the generous act of the international crypto community will increase the adoption and increase the number of people who will feel comfortable using it.
The Covid-19 has dealt a huge blow on the nation, and it is the duty of every international organization to render assistance. The crypto community has been actively involved in supporting India in this trying time.
However, it is unfortunate that some Indian banks are at war with cryptocurrency traders and limiting the accounts of customers involved in cryptocurrency trading or investment. This development has made it almost impossible for people to buy cryptocurrency in India and benefit from the appreciation of the bitcoin to INR rate.
Indian banks have restricted the automation banking systems that allow crypto traders to buy bitcoin from their bank account, thus making it nearly impossible to buy or sell bitcoin through these exchanges. The only legitimate way to buy bitcoin in India is through Remitano P2P exchange, thanks to their unique and secure fiat wallet feature.
Covid-19 is real and shouldn’t be taken with levity, and it has claimed so many lives all over the world, with India not being an exception. So let’s try as much as possible always to mask up and follow the guidelines given by the WHO for ourselves and also for our loved ones.
