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Binance’s COVID-19 charity drive uses blockchain in the best way possible

The world is coming together in a massive way to flatten the curve and stop the spread of COVID-19.

We’ve already seen Sharp and Razer address the shortage of face masks. SpaceX is making its own hand sanitiser to give to healthcare workers on the frontlines and will host a blood drive this weekend.

There are of course several charity drives on the go, but by far the most interesting one we’ve seen is from the folks at Binance.

When COVID-19 first appeared in December 2019, Binance set up the Binance for Wuhan project and committed to donating approximately $1.4 million worth of medical supplies to fight the virus in China.

But now Binance is shifting its focus to the rest of the world with the Crypto Against COVID charity drive.

“Binance Charity will make the initial upfront donation of $1 million USD in BUSD, and set up a wallet for public donation. Binance will convert the BUSD to fiat and purchase supplies from vetted suppliers and ship the supplies to the targeted hospitals in affected countries. Binance will continue on with a second phase of donations according to how the situation evolves,” the firm explained.

For those wondering, BUSD is Binance’s stable coin pegged to the US dollar. As of time writing 1 BUSD will get you $0.99.

What is really amazing about this charity drive however is how Binance is using the blockchain for transparency.

Head over to the Binance Charity website and you’ll be able to see the donations which have been made, what amount the donation was and which currency the donation was made.

Further to that once Binance starts allocating funds you’ll be able to track those as well. As the charity drive has only recently started, there have been no allocations just yet.

There is even a section where you can track the other operations involved in taking these donations including crypto-to-crypto exchange.

For those who would like to get involved you can head to the Binance Charity website and click “Donate” on the top-right of the page.

Binance has also issued something of a challenge on Twitter.

Simply retweet the tweet above and Binance will donate $1 to the drive on your behalf. Should the tweet hit one million retweets Binance will donate an extra $1 million.

“The most important element of human life is to show compassion and help others as we can, without the limitation or restriction of borders. Blockchain technology enables this in greater capacities than ever before and Binance Charity wishes to bring this to the masses,” head of Binance Charity, Helen Hai said in a statement.

This application of blockchain is spectacular especially in a time where folks may be hesitant to make donations for fear of scams. The transparency of this charity drive however is great and we hope to see more of this in the future.

Donations can also be made directly to the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund set up by the World Health Organisation.

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