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Crypto crowdsourced the Ukrainian war effort faster and easier than the fiat rails did. I don't even need to list a million other counter points that have been

Crypto crowdsourced the Ukrainian war effort faster and easier than the fiat rails did. I don't even need to list a million other counter points that have been posted to every HN crypto post since time immemorial, but that was a de-facto benefit of crypto over legacy finance.

dagmx 5y ago
How do you back that up? Do you exclude all the fiat currency backed resources sent to help Ukraine? Do you also exclude the crypto workarounds to sanctions on Russia that can keep the war prolonged?
- PaulHoule 5y ago
  US sent $500 million worth of actual hardware, the value of that is more than the crypto donations received so far.
  - verdverm 5y ago
    There were also a few celebrities who's contribution put together is more than the crypto donations. The Dutch raised more than $100m which is still more than the crypto total
endisneigh 5y ago
Source?
- seibelj 5y ago
  https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-cryptocurrency-technology-business-bitcoin-812902c5dd1474692be3d8d040ba7bda https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-cryptocurrency-tec... > “It’s certainly a first,” said Bennett Tomlin, who investigates cryptocurrency scams and hosts the podcast Crypto Critic’s Corner. “We’ve never seen a sovereign nation fund their defense efforts in crypto before. It does prove out a lot of the crypto argument.”
  - SketchySeaBeast 5y ago
    Tbat's $67,000,000 USD up to March 26th. Just to compare about $400,000,000 had been given via normal means by March 12th[1]. Sure every bit helps, but we're still talking different orders of magnitude. [1 ]https://bank.gov.ua/en/news/all/na-pidtrimku-armiyi-ta-gumanitarnu-dopomogu-zibrano-blizko-116-mlrd-grn https://bank.gov.ua/en/news/all/na-pidtrimku-armiyi-ta-guman...
  - endisneigh 5y ago
    This doesn’t support your claim…
shafyy 5y ago
Nonsense. Sending USD or EUR (or any other currency) to Ukraine is very simple. You can go to their funding page, enter your credit card, and you're done. Then they've got money they can actually use. What are they doing with all the crypto? Did they convert it to fiat? Is it just sitting there? The only reason so many cryptos were sent is because there a lot of people who don't know what to do with their cryptos, they can't use it for anything and liquidating large amounts of crypto is a pain in the ass.
- JumpCrisscross 5y ago
  > lot of people who don't know what to do with their cryptos, they can't use it for anything and liquidating large amounts of crypto is a pain in the ass I'm also assuming those donors will try to write off their crypto at imaginary prices and hope the IRS doesn't notice.
  - everfree 5y ago
    Why would you think that's likely?
- mprovost 5y ago
  Maybe they meant the effort on the other side of the war? The side that has been cut off from the international finance system...
dmitriid 5y ago
> Crypto crowdsourced the Ukrainian war effort faster and easier than the fiat rails did. No. Crypto sent a bunch of meaningless novelty coins to a country that has no chance in hell of converting them into food, water, transportation etc.
- everfree 5y ago
  If that's true, then why did their government solicit people to send them these "meaningless novelty coins" on social media? Just for fun?
  - dmitriid 5y ago
    No idea. Perhaps grabbing at straws.
    - everfree 5y ago
      I just looked up the donation address on the blockchain, and it looks like Ukraine sent some of it directly to a crypto exchange to cash out. Perhaps Ukraine isn't the one grasping at straws here.
      - dmitriid 5y ago
        "Some of it" is how much? Out of the "omg we sent 100 million dollars to Ukraine"? How many exchanges will actually be able to cash out that amount of money?
        everfree 5y ago
        I don't have time to do the chain analysis right now, but it looks like they cashed out the equivalent of at least mid-7-figures USD, possibly much more. Trace the transactions yourself, here's the analytics for their receiving address. https://etherscan.io/address/0x165CD37b4C644C2921454429E7F9358d18A45e14 https://etherscan.io/address/0x165CD37b4C644C2921454429E7F93... That amount of money is easy to cash out even on a relatively small exchange.

dagmx 5y ago

How do you back that up? Do you exclude all the fiat currency backed resources sent to help Ukraine? Do you also exclude the crypto workarounds to sanctions on Russia that can keep the war prolonged?

PaulHoule 5y ago
US sent $500 million worth of actual hardware, the value of that is more than the crypto donations received so far.
- verdverm 5y ago
  There were also a few celebrities who's contribution put together is more than the crypto donations. The Dutch raised more than $100m which is still more than the crypto total

endisneigh 5y ago

Source?

seibelj 5y ago
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-cryptocurrency-technology-business-bitcoin-812902c5dd1474692be3d8d040ba7bda https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-cryptocurrency-tec... > “It’s certainly a first,” said Bennett Tomlin, who investigates cryptocurrency scams and hosts the podcast Crypto Critic’s Corner. “We’ve never seen a sovereign nation fund their defense efforts in crypto before. It does prove out a lot of the crypto argument.”
- SketchySeaBeast 5y ago
  Tbat's $67,000,000 USD up to March 26th. Just to compare about $400,000,000 had been given via normal means by March 12th[1]. Sure every bit helps, but we're still talking different orders of magnitude. [1 ]https://bank.gov.ua/en/news/all/na-pidtrimku-armiyi-ta-gumanitarnu-dopomogu-zibrano-blizko-116-mlrd-grn https://bank.gov.ua/en/news/all/na-pidtrimku-armiyi-ta-guman...
- endisneigh 5y ago
  This doesn’t support your claim…

shafyy 5y ago

Nonsense. Sending USD or EUR (or any other currency) to Ukraine is very simple. You can go to their funding page, enter your credit card, and you're done. Then they've got money they can actually use. What are they doing with all the crypto? Did they convert it to fiat? Is it just sitting there? The only reason so many cryptos were sent is because there a lot of people who don't know what to do with their cryptos, they can't use it for anything and liquidating large amounts of crypto is a pain in the ass.

JumpCrisscross 5y ago
> lot of people who don't know what to do with their cryptos, they can't use it for anything and liquidating large amounts of crypto is a pain in the ass I'm also assuming those donors will try to write off their crypto at imaginary prices and hope the IRS doesn't notice.
- everfree 5y ago
  Why would you think that's likely?
mprovost 5y ago
Maybe they meant the effort on the other side of the war? The side that has been cut off from the international finance system...

dmitriid 5y ago

> Crypto crowdsourced the Ukrainian war effort faster and easier than the fiat rails did. No. Crypto sent a bunch of meaningless novelty coins to a country that has no chance in hell of converting them into food, water, transportation etc.

everfree 5y ago
If that's true, then why did their government solicit people to send them these "meaningless novelty coins" on social media? Just for fun?
- dmitriid 5y ago
  No idea. Perhaps grabbing at straws.
  - everfree 5y ago
    I just looked up the donation address on the blockchain, and it looks like Ukraine sent some of it directly to a crypto exchange to cash out. Perhaps Ukraine isn't the one grasping at straws here.
    - dmitriid 5y ago
      "Some of it" is how much? Out of the "omg we sent 100 million dollars to Ukraine"? How many exchanges will actually be able to cash out that amount of money?
      - everfree 5y ago
        I don't have time to do the chain analysis right now, but it looks like they cashed out the equivalent of at least mid-7-figures USD, possibly much more. Trace the transactions yourself, here's the analytics for their receiving address. https://etherscan.io/address/0x165CD37b4C644C2921454429E7F9358d18A45e14 https://etherscan.io/address/0x165CD37b4C644C2921454429E7F93... That amount of money is easy to cash out even on a relatively small exchange.