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Official Ukrainian BTC wallet has $2M and is growing thanks to global donations

74 points by devops000 5y ago

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
gw67 5y ago
Official tweet: https://twitter.com/Ukraine/status/1497594592438497282 https://twitter.com/Ukraine/status/1497594592438497282
qwertox 5y ago
Their ETH address has nearly $5M. https://www.blockchain.com/eth/address/0x165CD37b4C644C2921454429E7F9358d18A45e14 https://www.blockchain.com/eth/address/0x165CD37b4C644C29214...
- 0x64 5y ago
  It has $5M in ether alone, plus over $1M in USD stablecoins.
pwdisswordfish9 5y ago
Good luck trying to spend it on anything meaningful. Assuming it’s not impersonation in the first place.
- dane-pgp 5y ago
  Don't you think some fuel tankers in Poland would be happy to take that money (with permission and insurance from the government)? A tanker can carry about 8000 gallons, so that's maybe $32,000 per tanker. The driver might have to be a brave Ukrainian though, if Russia isn't worried about attacking civilian targets.
- rosndo 5y ago
  I don’t know what delusional dream world you live in, but back in the real world cash exchangers in Kyiv have been processing bigger amounts on a daily basis. Just a few months ago I was able to get 100k USD in cash a couple of hours after contacting a local exchanger. Fee was around 1%. Of course they can also sell at any regular international exchange.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- brian_cloutier 5y ago
  It still could be impersonation but a couple different people have confirmed it's real: - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-26/ukraine-soliciting-crypto-donations-after-russian-invasion https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-26/ukraine-s... - https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1497608588822466563 https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/149760858882246656...
- astrange 5y ago
  You think it's hard to sell $2M BTC for fiat? I think they could find a trading desk at a bank to take it for reasonable fees.
- EL_Loco 5y ago
  Five years ago you would have been right. Today, many corporations in neighboring countries will gladly accept a million dollars in bitcoin as payment.
nest0r 5y ago
Is it possible to send them my NFTs to boost morality? I would love to lend it out. I hope Opensea implements a feature like that in time so our NFTs can fight on our side.
- _alex_ 5y ago
  “Thank god someone sent this picture of a penguin. Now I have the will to repel the invaders”
- grey-area 5y ago
  Is this parody or sincere? You want to lend a receipt for a monkey picture? What does that even mean, why would you want that, and why would they want that?
  - throwaway4good 5y ago
    It is already happening: https://mobile.twitter.com/SilvermanJacob/status/1497782457973850118 https://mobile.twitter.com/SilvermanJacob/status/14977824579...
    - unfocussed_mike 5y ago
      I am torn between upvoting you for the timeliness of your observation, and downvoting what you observed so that I can remove it from my conception of what is going on, as a coping strategy in this, the worst of all timelines.
    - magicalhippo 5y ago
      Clearly I'm living in a different reality from those folks...
    - cinntaile 5y ago
      The owner could have exchanged it for crypto first before sending it, but maybe a buyer in the future pays more for the NFT now that it was used to support Ukraine. So it might result in them getting more money than they would have otherwise. The jury is still out on this.
hk1337 5y ago
Is crypto currency useful to them right now? Like, are they able to use it and spend it on things they need? If not, and they come out of this surviving maybe they can use it for reconstruction?
- rubyfan 5y ago
  conversely if russia flips the regime what happens to the money?
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- rosndo 5y ago
  Yes, it’s very easy to spend cryptocurrency.
  - tablespoon 5y ago
    > Yes, it’s very easy to spend cryptocurrency. Only once you convert into regular currency.
    - rosndo 5y ago
      Which is trivial. If you’re paying someone millions, the recipient can also take care of this.
noxer 5y ago
Why on earth do people think donating money for a war would help? The interest of powerful people and companies created this war because they profit from it. They used your taxes to make sure both sides have weapon so a war can happen and now people are naive enough to donate even more money so the war can go on for longer? Your donation will be used to finance destruction and death at worst and at best some random person with access to it will run away with it. And I would not even blame someone for doing that. I would chose a few BTC as a kick start for a new life somewhere else over laying dead in the street too.
- 6345dhjdsf 5y ago
  You could have replaced your two paragraphs with two words, "Ukraine, surrender". However I disagree. To broad-brush it, I think Ukraine's war is a just war (as in morally justified).
  - noxer 5y ago
    - 6345dhjdsf 5y ago
      > Surrender ...but certainly better than "losing". Ukraine thinks otherwise.
      - noxer 5y ago
        I dont care. They can think however they want. I totally understand why some want to fight. What I dont understand is how people from far away can justify financially supporting this war. "The people there really really want to fight and need the money" is a weak argument, ofc they do. Still it will inevitably increase the suffering of thousands of people if we donate money for this war. But hey its a free world (for some of us) so go ahead an donates some rounds and hope that they will be fired only at people you would shoot too and no innocent people get harmed.
- waffle_maniac 5y ago
pcdoodle 5y ago
They're sending some to themselves for optics, I guarantee it.
ct0 5y ago
Well if they didn't close down all the anonymous BTC marketplaces they would have been able to turn they cryptomoney into defense like weapons and LSD.

74 points by devops000 5y ago

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

gw67 5y ago

Official tweet: https://twitter.com/Ukraine/status/1497594592438497282 https://twitter.com/Ukraine/status/1497594592438497282

qwertox 5y ago

Their ETH address has nearly $5M. https://www.blockchain.com/eth/address/0x165CD37b4C644C2921454429E7F9358d18A45e14 https://www.blockchain.com/eth/address/0x165CD37b4C644C29214...

0x64 5y ago
It has $5M in ether alone, plus over $1M in USD stablecoins.

pwdisswordfish9 5y ago

Good luck trying to spend it on anything meaningful. Assuming it’s not impersonation in the first place.

dane-pgp 5y ago
Don't you think some fuel tankers in Poland would be happy to take that money (with permission and insurance from the government)? A tanker can carry about 8000 gallons, so that's maybe $32,000 per tanker. The driver might have to be a brave Ukrainian though, if Russia isn't worried about attacking civilian targets.
rosndo 5y ago
I don’t know what delusional dream world you live in, but back in the real world cash exchangers in Kyiv have been processing bigger amounts on a daily basis. Just a few months ago I was able to get 100k USD in cash a couple of hours after contacting a local exchanger. Fee was around 1%. Of course they can also sell at any regular international exchange.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
brian_cloutier 5y ago
It still could be impersonation but a couple different people have confirmed it's real: - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-26/ukraine-soliciting-crypto-donations-after-russian-invasion https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-26/ukraine-s... - https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1497608588822466563 https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/149760858882246656...
astrange 5y ago
You think it's hard to sell $2M BTC for fiat? I think they could find a trading desk at a bank to take it for reasonable fees.
EL_Loco 5y ago
Five years ago you would have been right. Today, many corporations in neighboring countries will gladly accept a million dollars in bitcoin as payment.

nest0r 5y ago

Is it possible to send them my NFTs to boost morality? I would love to lend it out. I hope Opensea implements a feature like that in time so our NFTs can fight on our side.

_alex_ 5y ago
“Thank god someone sent this picture of a penguin. Now I have the will to repel the invaders”
grey-area 5y ago
Is this parody or sincere? You want to lend a receipt for a monkey picture? What does that even mean, why would you want that, and why would they want that?
- throwaway4good 5y ago
  It is already happening: https://mobile.twitter.com/SilvermanJacob/status/1497782457973850118 https://mobile.twitter.com/SilvermanJacob/status/14977824579...
  - unfocussed_mike 5y ago
    I am torn between upvoting you for the timeliness of your observation, and downvoting what you observed so that I can remove it from my conception of what is going on, as a coping strategy in this, the worst of all timelines.
  - magicalhippo 5y ago
    Clearly I'm living in a different reality from those folks...
  - cinntaile 5y ago
    The owner could have exchanged it for crypto first before sending it, but maybe a buyer in the future pays more for the NFT now that it was used to support Ukraine. So it might result in them getting more money than they would have otherwise. The jury is still out on this.

hk1337 5y ago

Is crypto currency useful to them right now? Like, are they able to use it and spend it on things they need? If not, and they come out of this surviving maybe they can use it for reconstruction?

rubyfan 5y ago
conversely if russia flips the regime what happens to the money?
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
rosndo 5y ago
Yes, it’s very easy to spend cryptocurrency.
- tablespoon 5y ago
  > Yes, it’s very easy to spend cryptocurrency. Only once you convert into regular currency.
  - rosndo 5y ago
    Which is trivial. If you’re paying someone millions, the recipient can also take care of this.

noxer 5y ago

Why on earth do people think donating money for a war would help? The interest of powerful people and companies created this war because they profit from it. They used your taxes to make sure both sides have weapon so a war can happen and now people are naive enough to donate even more money so the war can go on for longer? Your donation will be used to finance destruction and death at worst and at best some random person with access to it will run away with it. And I would not even blame someone for doing that. I would chose a few BTC as a kick start for a new life somewhere else over laying dead in the street too.

6345dhjdsf 5y ago
You could have replaced your two paragraphs with two words, "Ukraine, surrender". However I disagree. To broad-brush it, I think Ukraine's war is a just war (as in morally justified).
- noxer 5y ago
  - 6345dhjdsf 5y ago
    > Surrender ...but certainly better than "losing". Ukraine thinks otherwise.
    - noxer 5y ago
      I dont care. They can think however they want. I totally understand why some want to fight. What I dont understand is how people from far away can justify financially supporting this war. "The people there really really want to fight and need the money" is a weak argument, ofc they do. Still it will inevitably increase the suffering of thousands of people if we donate money for this war. But hey its a free world (for some of us) so go ahead an donates some rounds and hope that they will be fired only at people you would shoot too and no innocent people get harmed.
waffle_maniac 5y ago

pcdoodle 5y ago

They're sending some to themselves for optics, I guarantee it.

ct0 5y ago

Well if they didn't close down all the anonymous BTC marketplaces they would have been able to turn they cryptomoney into defense like weapons and LSD.