India Crypto Covid Relief Fund: What is it and how does it work?

With the efforts of @balajis we are trying to increase the reach of this fund

Eth Address to donate: 0x68A99f89E475a078645f4BAC491360aFe255Dff1

BTC :
bc1q220k2449fau0pxu9hfn28q3w4k99ep9hwsa5fa

DOGE :
D6fWVp613N3dyLM6Zoghj3dZaEjbGZ8gpX

Tron :
TSZMcrQzMLdKrgiMPoe2uQMHLeEpkf2j8E

Sandeep - Polygon(prev Matic Network) (@sandeepnailwal) April 25, 2021

To keep record of the contributors, Nailwal has shared a Google Form. The form has basic questions including name, contact details (email, WhatsApp, Telegram, Twitter, etc), transaction link. Nailwal feels the need to connect to the contributors can arise due to regulatory issues.

Naliwal also reached out to India's top crypto exchanges WazirX, CoinDCX and Bitbns to convert the donations to fiat money to help people on the ground.

There were also those who came forward to help Naliwal on their own. Nailwal said that multiple people offered to manage accounts, and help publish a transparency document.

"Arguably India's top CA in Crypto @Vacpad has agreed to lead the regulatory and audit part for this campaign. Support is pouring in from everywhere. Indian Crypto founders are personally reaching out to help. Next step is to deploy the funds on the group. Ppl need help RIGHT NOW," he tweeted.

As more people joined the initiative, a group on Discord app was made, workflow was organised on Airtable, and a transparency dashboard was created.

Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon

A bank account with digital bank FV Bank was also created and talks for FCRA approvals were finalised. The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) regulates acceptance and utilisation of foreign funds to prohibit activities detrimental to national interest.

Soon after regulatory clearances, funds started rolling in.

"BOOM We got money in the bank! Will be inviting reputed ppl to constantly audit the account. In 3 days we have the entity set & Crypto to Fiat conversion into the bank. Ready to roll the immense help from Crypto Community to the people on the ground. 1st Deployment incoming," announced Nailwal on Twitter on April 28, four days after the first post. The balance was $1 million. But that's increased and stands at $1,074,889,088.28 at the time of writing this piece.

The biggest contribution has come from co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, who has donated $1 billion worth of meme coin Shibtoken. Former Australian cricketer Brett Lee has also donated 1 Bitcoin, which at current value equals to a little over $50,000, to the relief fund.

On April 30, the fund transferred $999,900 or Rs 7.4 crore to ACT Grants that aims to provide oxygen for everyone with over 50,000 oxygen concentrators across the country.

The fund was also used to donate 1,000 oxygen cylinders. On May 5, the fund volunteers came to know of the Operation Samudra Setu-II, under which the Indian Navy was carrying 1,000 oxygen cylinders donated by Kuwaiti government. There was still space for 3,000 more in the ship. So, the fund donated an additional 1,000 cylinders.

This is a FASCINATING story of a group of @cryptorelief_ volunteers, who were able to find out about the vacant oxygen cylinder carrying capacity of a #IndianNavy ship under Operation Samudra Setu-II & somehow managed to fill out that 3000+ vacant cylinder capacity
Read below pic.twitter.com/JfES2YbKaR

Sandeep - Polygon(prev Matic Network) (@sandeepnailwal) May 4, 2021

Meanwhile, Naliwal has also thanked Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin for his big contribution to the relief fund.

Thanks @VitalikButerin

One thing we have learnt from Ethereum and @VitalikButerin is importance of community

We will not do anything which hurts any community specially the retail community involved with $SHIB

We will act responsibly!

Plz dont worry $SHIB holders. https://t.co/M4GxTR0JAn

Sandeep - Polygon(prev Matic Network) (@sandeepnailwal) May 12, 2021