Despite several improvisations, cryptocurrency is still being severely criticized. In fact, the acceptability of digital coins is always viewed with skepticism, with many people suspecting the majority of investors to have purely selfish motivations.
People think that the crypto world is all about making and conserving money. However, a recent happening has jolted up the news world and crypto haters. A popular charity, GiveDirectly, set up for aiding the extreme poor via ‘no-strings-attached’ grants, has received a $1 million donation from Ethereum’s founder and OmiseGo.
Though such charity donations are worth highlighting, using cryptocurrency for this noble purpose is indeed something worth noting. Perhaps this initiative might compel the haters to rethink their beliefs about crypto.
In a recent blogpost on its website, it reveals the details about this donation by Vitalik Buterin, and OmiseGo. OmiseGo is a FinTech startup that held an ICO which raised $25 million last year, allegedly for developing a decentralized payment network.
The company has received this sizable donation in its OMG tokens, and has intentions to distribute it to refugees living below the poverty line.
Based in Uganda, GiveDirectly takes care of more than 12,000 refugee households in managing their livelihoods. The campaign aims at providing funds to these vulnerable people to help them grow their businesses, or in any other steps requiring investments.
GiveDirectly ventures supported by tech giants
Receiving donation from popular sources is not something new for GiveDirectly. It is already backed by some tech giants, such as Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes (Facebook co-founders), Google, and Pierre Omidyar (eBay founder).
After opening its donation drive in 2013, the company since then has raised more than $200 million. With the recent crypto donation, it seems they are now looking at opportunities for a secure future.
Donations to be distributed among refugees directly
GiveDirectly, as the name suggests, distributes the donations directly among the refugees. This new initiative of receiving crypto donations will further aid in their work.
Catherine Diao, Head of Communications at GiveDirectly, says,
“This is a major new chapter for us, entering the humanitarian space with a service to give money directly to refugees. We are really excited to be working with the leaders in the crypto community to translate some of the recent boons to impact for some of the poorest people in the world.”
It doesn’t mean that the refugees will be burdened with crypto in its actual form, as the money will be handed over to them after being converted to local currency. According to Diao,
“While cash transfers have been used in humanitarian contexts before, this initiative is a significant departure from the status quo because we’re giving families transformative amounts of money versus small, subsistence amounts.”
OmiseGo’s support for GiveDirectly
OmiseGo seems to have been excited about this collaboration. It shows immense interest in leveraging crypto for charity. The OmiseGo CEO, Jun Hasegawa, says in an official OmiseGo blog post:
“The crypto economy has grown immensely over the last year, bringing a great deal of wealth to many people and organizations within the ecosystem. In part, we simply see an exciting opportunity to share that wealth. We hope the fortunes made in the crypto space will lead not to extravagant lifestyles, but to extravagant generosity.”
The company is also making room for GiveDirectly on its decentralized payment network that is currently under development. This will help users make instant transactions without any managing fees. Althea Allen, OmiseGo’s ecosystem growth lead, says,
“We have a strong desire to support GiveDirectly’s unconditional cash transfers on the OMG Network in the future when it becomes possible.”
