Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is collaborating with India-based crypto fund Crypto Relief and Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal to donate $100 million towards COVID-19 research and improving medical infrastructure in India.
Buterin and Nailwal will receive $90 million in USD Coin (USDC) from Crypto Relief while Buterin will contribute $10 million from his own funds for the cause, and together, they will help distribute the funds.
In a January 2022 Twitter post, Nailwal stated that Crypto Relief would transfer the funds to Buterin to maintain full compliance with local regulations.
The first installation will focus on providing emergency humanitarian aid to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in India.
Crypto Relief is a community-run fund that has provided financial relief to India during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to a Twitter post by Buterin, COVID-19, and future pandemics will continue to pose a significant risk in the 21st century, and a global solution combining frontier scientific innovation and on-the-ground implementation is needed.
Last year @CryptoRelief_ led by @sandeepnailwal allocated $100m to Covid research projects I wanted to fund
Sandeep and I discussed and jointly concluded these and other projects are high-impact and need follow-through grants. Hence we decided to put $100m more to these projects— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) June 8, 2023
Buterin emphasized that much of the COVID-19 research would focus on airborne transmission of the virus by developing better medical equipment and improving ventilation systems, HEPA filtering, and UVC irradiation technology.
The other main research area is focussing on long-term effects of COVID-19.
“The most salient risks from Covid today are the very high number of people experiencing very-long-term symptoms (aka #LongCovid), and so Long Covid research continues to be a primary focus.”
Buterin plans to disburse the $100 million to a Gnosis Safe wallet using a designated contract address. He initially contributed the first $100 million donation in late January 2022 or soon after, in the form of Shiba Inu (SHIB).
Previously, in April 2022, Buterin donated $5 million worth of Ether (ETH) to “Aid for Ukraine” to assist in its defense against Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
According to Crypto Relief’s website, as of November 26, 2023, the fund raised $473 million. Cointelegraph reached out to Crypto Relief for an update on the total, but the firm has not responded yet.
