Famous Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin said via a tweet that Crypto Relief will donate $100 million back to him in the form of USDC to invest in research and development of solutions to the Covid-19 epidemic. Vitalik Buterin had made an initial donation of over $1.2 billion in the form of SHIB and ETH.
Vitalik Buterin will get back some of his donations made to Crypto Relief
Vitalik Buterin, one of the co-founders of the Ethereum blockchain (ETH), said that the Crypto Relief Foundation will return $100 million to him in the form of USDC.
In May 2021, Vitalik Buterin had donated SHIB and ETH tokens equivalent to $1.2 billion to the Crypto Relief foundation, which is steered by Sandeep Nailwal, who is none other than one of the co-founders of the Polygon sidechain (MATIC).
Crypto Relief aims to support the research and development of solutions to the Covid-19 epidemic in India, and also helps to purchase medical equipment. In August 2021, it had signed a partnership with UNICEF India to purchase 160 million doses of vaccine for redistribution to Indian citizens.
At the time of writing, more than 98% of the association’s funds come from various donations from Vitalik Buterin.
Vitalik Buterin’s initial donation included more than 50 billion SHIB tokens, which had shaken the meme-coin market badly, causing its value to drop by 33%.
A new investment in scientific research
Sandeep Nailwal would have decided to donate a part of the donations to Vitalik Buterin in order to speed up the research related to Covid-19.
Indeed, Sandeep being an Indian citizen, the funds passing through the hands of the association are subject to regular and thorough controls by the authorities, which would seem to be a brake on its development.
Thus, the 100 million dollars given to Vitalik Buterin will be dedicated to research and development of vaccines against Covid-19, air filtration solutions and also tests. As he is not an Indian citizen, he will be able to invest in different projects in a much simpler way.
He has also decided to co-found an association especially dedicated to this project, already named “Balvi”, which will be in charge of redistributing the funds.
Vitalik Buterin has made the wish to make the transactions transparent, so it is possible to view them in real time directly on Etherscan.
Although it seems that more details are yet to come, Vitalik Buterin still announced that his new organization could have an impact beyond India.
The downside of cryptocurrency donations
While cryptocurrency donations are a great solution for those who wish to remain anonymous or simply for those who do not have access to a bank account, they also have several flaws.
Proof of this is with the Crypto Relief association, which will only have $302 million left in the form of SHIB tokens after having paid the 100 million USDC to Vitalik Buterin.
Why such a decrease from the original billion? Simply because of the volatility of the cryptocurrency market. As it happens, the value of SHIB has been steadily decreasing since the end of October 2021, and thus the value of Vitalik Buterin’s donation as well.
The Indian regulatory authorities also require the association to convert its donations into rupees, the Indian currency, which complicates matters even further. This transfer of funds could therefore be the right solution.
