After a campaign by the Italian Red Cross (ITR) was able to achieve its fundraising goal within three days, the organization is now asking for further donations in the form of bitcoin.
The campaign, which was launched on March 12, is intended to enable the Italian Red Cross to purchase medical equipment for the preliminary examination of corona patients. The target, which was initially fixed at 10,000 euros, has now been raised to 25,000 euros. The ITR has already ordered clinical materials after having achieved the 10,000 euro target. Currently, the fundraising campaign has achieved around 80 percent of the hoped-for goal.
The Italian Red Cross is not the only organization that accepts bitcoin donations in the fight against Corona. The Red Cross in the Netherlands now also accepts donations in crypto-currency.
Several community projects against the virus
In the fight against the virus, which has been omnipresent for weeks, there are also repeated actions from the crypto-community, which take up the problem. The Folding@Home platform, for example, wants to release donated computing power for medical research purposes. The Tezos project has also announced several hundred XTZ tokens for the user who supports Folding@Home the most.
Ethereum’s crowdfunding platform Gitcoin had announced that it would distribute more than $50,000 to healthcare organizations. Overall, the platform hopes to gradually increase the volume of donations to $100,000.
Italian bank expands offer through Bitcoin trading
The Italian Banca Sella has also set up a service for trading bitcoin in recent days. The bank is using the ‘hype platform’ for this purpose and wants to use bitcoin as a secure way to transfer money internationally during the crisis.
Fraudsters hope for advantages from the crisis
Unfortunately, fraudsters are also trying to make money from the crisis, as cybersecurity expert Chester Wisniewski confirmed. In fraudulent e-mails that appear to be from the World Health Organization (WHO), the fraudsters ask for donations in the form of bitcoin. Internet sites that claim to provide information about the corona virus can also be dangerous and infect visitors’ computers and terminals with malware.
