Red Cross to Fight Coronavirus with Bitcoin Donations

The Dutch Red Cross now accepts bitcoin and other cryptocurrency donations to combat the consequences of COVID-19. This move was probably caused by the need to increase the amounts of donated funds to boost research.

Scientists believe that life will be paralysed to greater or lesser extent until the vaccine against coronavirus is found as this is the only way to battle the disease for sure. That is why Red Cross decided to open new channels for raising funds. As of March 15, there are 159,660 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 5,960 deaths.

Cryptocurrency Community Suffers Greatly

On the other hand, the representatives of cryptocurrency community are eager to provide any help they can as the industry has also suffered greatly. The spread of COVID-19 costed the community cancellation of numerous events. At least six people with coronavirus were detected at the Ethereum Community Conference in Paris.

This has caused a great turmoil in the cryptocurrency industry and triggered the increase of interest in virtual reality instruments. Coinidol.com, a world blockchain news outlet, has reported that event organizers turn to the means of VR to make their conferences and meetups take place without inevitable physical contact between people. 

One of the contaminated people, Zhen Yu Yong, tweeted in his page that he has a confirmed COVID-19 case. However, before he realised he was sick, he attended at least two cryptocurrency events including Ethereum Community Conference and ETHLondon.

Cryptocurrency Enthusiasts Creating a Research Group

All that, with the background of overall panic, has led cryptocurrency enthusiasts to join forces and create a research group to boost the development of a vaccine. This group of anonymous people is known as CoroHope. They are crowdsourcing bitcoin donations to create the vaccine as they believe the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is delaying it too much.

The group gained much support in the community, however, there is also much scepticism and suspicions this might be another scam. As the project is fully anonymous, as of now it is difficult to confirm they are really inventing a vaccine. On the other hand, Nancy E. Kass, a professor of bioethics and public health at John Hopkins University, stated that such kind of research is not illegal and even useful for science as it allows for diversity. 

Anyway, those who are suspicious enough to refrain from donating to such kinds of projects, might still use cryptocurrency to help the Red Cross fight COVID-19. The organisation does not accept bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies directly, all donations made in digital currency are processed through BitPay.