Ukraine Receives $42M in Cryptocurrency Donations - Plus 180 NFTs They Didn't Ask For (msn.com) 39
Thursday the Washington Post reported the Ukrainian government had already received more than $42 million in cryptocurrency donations since last Saturday — "plus digital artwork including a limited edition worth roughly $200,000," according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic.
Some of the crypto donations have already been converted into traditional currency, primarily euros, according to Kuna.io, the Kyiv-based cryptocurrency exchange that helped the government set up and manage its crypto wallets for donations. The money was then used to buy critical supplies like drones, bulletproof vests, heat-sensitive goggles and gasoline, from both state actors and the private sector.
None of the more than 180 donated digital artworks — known as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs — have been sold, according to data from blockchains, which store information in an immutable, public digital ledger.... Ukraine, which hadn't asked for NFTs, received a map of the Donetsk area of eastern Ukraine, parts of which have been controlled by Russian-backed separatists, in the colors of the Ukrainian flag, plus photos of blue-and-yellow peace signs and an animated "fire dragon." NFT donations also included images from the Shibelon collection, which is "based on a mythology in which Elon Musk was granted genius powers by an alien, who also created bitcoin," wrote journalist
In addition to well-established cryptocurrencies, Ukraine received donations denominated in almost 100 obscure digital currencies, according to a Post analysis of data from Etherscan. They included a new one named Save Ukraine, another with a racially abusive name, and several themed after crypto community in-jokes focused on dogs and Musk, the Tesla CEO. The government's strategy has been to convert less popular cryptocurrencies into traditional money first and hold bitcoin and ether in reserves because they are more stable and liquid, Chobanian said. Donations were still streaming in as new efforts to raise crypto for the Ukrainian government cropped up.
Early Tuesday morning Ukraine time, Ukraine's 31-year-old deputy prime minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, announced AidForUkraine, a joint effort of his Digital Ministry, developers behind the Solana blockchain and Everstake. So far, AidForUkraine has raised $1.4 million, according to its website.... The speed with which the AidForUkraine fundraising effort came together was "magic," said Everstake's Vasylchuk, who fled Kyiv days before the invasion thanks to his pilot's license and is in temporary housing in Florida.... Beyond the official government-led effort, Come Back Alive, an NGO benefiting Ukraine's army, has also received millions in cryptocurrency donations — and is getting millions more from UkraineDAO, a group organized on the blockchain that held an auction to raise funds, according to blockchain data. The NGO organizers pivoted to crypto after their campaign was suspended from Patreon. But UkraineDAO is limiting spending to helping the victims of war, the New York Times reported. Patreon spokesperson Ellen Satterwhite said that would "absolutely be allowable under our guidelines."
Elsewhere On GoFundMe, Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher have already raised over $15 million for refugee and humanitarian aid — in just one day.
None of the more than 180 donated digital artworks — known as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs — have been sold, according to data from blockchains, which store information in an immutable, public digital ledger.... Ukraine, which hadn't asked for NFTs, received a map of the Donetsk area of eastern Ukraine, parts of which have been controlled by Russian-backed separatists, in the colors of the Ukrainian flag, plus photos of blue-and-yellow peace signs and an animated "fire dragon." NFT donations also included images from the Shibelon collection, which is "based on a mythology in which Elon Musk was granted genius powers by an alien, who also created bitcoin," wrote journalist
In addition to well-established cryptocurrencies, Ukraine received donations denominated in almost 100 obscure digital currencies, according to a Post analysis of data from Etherscan. They included a new one named Save Ukraine, another with a racially abusive name, and several themed after crypto community in-jokes focused on dogs and Musk, the Tesla CEO. The government's strategy has been to convert less popular cryptocurrencies into traditional money first and hold bitcoin and ether in reserves because they are more stable and liquid, Chobanian said. Donations were still streaming in as new efforts to raise crypto for the Ukrainian government cropped up.
Early Tuesday morning Ukraine time, Ukraine's 31-year-old deputy prime minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, announced AidForUkraine, a joint effort of his Digital Ministry, developers behind the Solana blockchain and Everstake. So far, AidForUkraine has raised $1.4 million, according to its website.... The speed with which the AidForUkraine fundraising effort came together was "magic," said Everstake's Vasylchuk, who fled Kyiv days before the invasion thanks to his pilot's license and is in temporary housing in Florida.... Beyond the official government-led effort, Come Back Alive, an NGO benefiting Ukraine's army, has also received millions in cryptocurrency donations — and is getting millions more from UkraineDAO, a group organized on the blockchain that held an auction to raise funds, according to blockchain data. The NGO organizers pivoted to crypto after their campaign was suspended from Patreon. But UkraineDAO is limiting spending to helping the victims of war, the New York Times reported. Patreon spokesperson Ellen Satterwhite said that would "absolutely be allowable under our guidelines."
Elsewhere On GoFundMe, Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher have already raised over $15 million for refugee and humanitarian aid — in just one day.
Gift Horse... (Score:2)
Don't look a Gift Horse in the mouth. Even if it's a worthless picture of someone actually looking a Gift Horse in the mouth...
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Even if it's a worthless picture of someone actually looking a Gift Horse in the mouth...
Actually, it's a link to a worthless picture of someone looking a gift horse in the mouth. NFTs are essentially a blockchain-based method for proving you own a bookmark.
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No, the neo-nazi government is in Moscow, try to keep up.
There is a regiment that used to be neo-nazi related back in 2014, formed to fight off Russian invasion then. They have been incorporated in main army, but are small and it is uncertain if they're still related ideologically to the older members. But in any case, far too small and insignificant to invade an entire country for, too irrelevant to demolish civilian apartment blocks. At the same time, Russia has it's own neo-nazi groups that Putin has
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so what happens when the link it points to is no longer hosted?
It's worthless.
I thought the point of NFTs were that you bought
something that is made tangible because you can store it
yourself and it won't go away.
Nope.
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Sorry to hear about your russian invasion :(
here's some bitcoins and an NTF of pepe the frog. Our thoughts and prayers are with you
The sanctions are a step beyond "thoughts and prayers", but not a big enough step. If the West is serious about a) helping Ukraine and b) stopping Putin's megalomania, they need to send soldiers and armaments to Ukraine and turf out the Russian forces.
Doing that shouldn't be too difficult, as a lot of the Russian troops don't want to be there anyway. And Putin can hardly make claims of "aggression" against Western forces, if they limit themselves to warfare directly on Ukrainian soil and don't stray into Ru
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This is the snag. Intervening by NATO nations, or non-NATO western nations, will most likely result in WWIII. There's a high chance it could result in nukes being used since Putin is no longer behaving in a rational manner. The only viable weapon available is to either supply arms or aid to Ukraine, or to apply sanctions and hope the oligarchs have had enough and put pressure on Putin.
There is no "unfair" happening here as some have implied. Innocent people who are not soldiers are dying in this war; is i
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And Putin can hardly make claims of "aggression" against Western forces, if they limit themselves to warfare directly on Ukrainian soil and don't stray into Russian territory as it was defined before Putin tried to redraw the maps to Cold War era standards.
Sorry but that is incredibly naive.
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Ukraine doesn't have rubles as a currency (anymore/yet).
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"Help, we're under attack and running out of food!"
"No problem, let me send you some collectible NFTs! You can thank me later!" *walks off patting self on back*
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Either way, the weapons manufacturers get paid and the working class dies.
A tale as old as time itself
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The EU and US taxpayer already paid the weapons manufacturers for this already. Ironically the EU and US are also paying Putin since they refuse to stop Importing Russian energy. Either way, the weapons manufacturers get paid and the working class dies.
No idea why this has been downvoted. It is quite true and it is outrageous.
The first cyberwar (Score:2)
Or should that be metawar, since Metasomething is in-thing now? I nominate this as the first true cyberwar, if such a thing has ever existed, since this is the first war where virtual assets have been used both for destructive and "creative" purposes on a wide scale.
There's first of all the usual cyber-attacks. But then there's also the threats of network shutdowns, which in the past was limited to the suppression of a country's internal opposition using an all-or-nothing kill-switch aproach, but now used t
Russia won't fight like the West (Score:4, Insightful)
So in the 1970s, the Soviet Union thought it would be fun to go hang out in Kabul. As I understand it, they spent all their money on poppies and kabobs. Eventually, they ran out of cash (opium was by no means cheap back then) and the whole Soviet Union broke up. The goal in Afghanistan was to pretend to be noble and to prop up the government.
But Ukraine is not about that. They are in Ukraine because they want to destroy it to protect Donbas. They think Ukraine will be a permanent threat to their fellow Russians in Donbas. The Russian public thinks this is a defensive war. Because of that, they can bomb the shit out of Ukraine, and don't care if the ruble turns to rubble.
We had to ditch Afghanistan because we didn't go there to subjugate/genocide the people and take over the land. Russia is doing the equivalent of Europe "discovering" America. That is, just taking it. They have no interest in even pretending to give a shit about Ukrainians. They can fight as exterminators with one rule of engagement -- if it is alive, shoot it. You know like just bombard with no regard for human life. They can win that way, the same way Europeans took over the Americas. They have no interest in looking good. They have no interest in pretending to care about human rights. I remember there was a spider in my dorm in college and my roommates were shrieking "Kill it! Kill it!" They wanted the spider dead, they didn't give a shit the spider was alive and had life goals. That is Ukraine to Russians.
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Spiders eat things that might bite you. Leave the spiders alone. Some of them will not just sit in a web, but go after crawly things. I've seen one hunt down a silverfish and subdue it right there on the ground.
Also, you're confusing the Russian public with a mad Russian leader. I'm pretty sure the majority of the Russian public isn't okay with this war.
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You are right I should have said many Russians, not implied all Russians. About spiders .. yeah I actually like spiders. Anyway, my point was that Russia won't fight this war the same way western countries fight wars. They won't care about collateral damage. They'll be fighting with the evil attitude of eliminating something they fear, not winning hearts and minds.
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The majority might not even know it's a war and instead think it's a "special military operation". There is a blackout on factual news in Russia, with 15 years jail time for spreading truth in the media.
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Most of the residents in Donbass are not fellow Russian citizens. Most do not want to be a part of Russia. In the Russian speaking parts of Ukraine they are still sabotaging and delaying the Russian soldiers. Being ethnic Russian and speaking Russian does not make one desire to have Putinism as their form of government. The minority who are separatists should either just admit that they're not in the right and not the majority, or else cross the border to the east and beg Putin for sanctuary.
But Putin i
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... the map of Russian advances really does look like they don't care much about Donbass overall.
Looks, to my admittedly amateur eye, like they're aiming to annex (well, quite possibly ethnically cleanse if I'm not mincing words) everything east of the major lake / river system (Kakhovs'ke / Kremenchuts'ke / Kanivs'ke / Kyivs'ke). I suspect the only reason they're devoting so much materiel to Kyiv right now is that they believe that removing the legitimate government, and its attendant organisational capabilities, will make 'defeating' the Ukrainian army that much easier. Puppet installation can then c
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I am not sure most Russians are hostile to Ukraine. Vladimir Putin and his cronies are not Russia. There seems to be a problem that Putin would rather be surrounded by enemies than friends. That looks pretty stupid to me, but I am just a friendly chap, who would rather have a chat over a pint or two of beer, than rain explosive destruction on my neighbours.
Dear Chinese (Score:2)
Whatever your take on Ponzi schemes and bubbles (Score:3)
You'll have to admit that Bitcoin (et al) are currently the only reliable way to transfer money to a Ukrainian stuck in Kiev or a Russian stuck in Russia if you want to support them.
That's pretty amazing.
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I hope somebody is auditing those NFTs (Score:2)
Maybe one contains the complete Russian invasion plan docs. It's not like the Russian intelligence is likely to comb through them.