Tron founder and CEO Justin Sun added 2 million in TRX to the India Covid Relief Campaign’s funds with a generous donation. India is suffering from a massive outbreak of COVID-19, and the nation’s hospitals are under strain.
Sun announced his support for the relief efforts via a Tweet:
I’m in! I have donated 2 million #TRX to the India Covid relief campaign lead by @sandeepnailwal. Join me, @VitalikButerin, @balajis by donating at the addresses below. Pease help spread the word. For every RT, I'll donate another $100 to the fund, up to 100k. #cryptovscovid https://t.co/aaHR64kiCl
— H.E. Justin Sun 孙宇晨 (@justinsuntron) April 25, 2021
Over the past few days, a number of influential tech executives have joined the relief efforts for India’s COVID-19 sufferers by offering a range of assistance to the nation, however, this aid may or may not be legal under Indian laws.
Tron Joins a Dedicated Group of Philanthropists
Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, offered $600,000 USD in crypto to a relief fund founded by Sandeep Nailwal, of Polygon.
Tanvi Ratna, the CEO of Policy 4.0, which focuses on blockchain issues, commented,
“This is a gutsy, though risky campaign,especially because under Indian law, foreign funds for charitable purposes are very closely scrutinized.”
The idea of sending these funds to the Indian relief effort is no doubt a great one.
However, given that India doesn’t allow the use of cryptos as money, the funds that both Sun and Buterin have generously given may have a hard time making an impact in the short term.
Google CEO Joins In
The CEO of Google and Alphabet, Sundar Pichai, is also helping the people in India during these trying times.
The CEO Tweeted,
“Devastated to see the worsening crisis in India. Google and Googlers are providing Rs135 crore funding to Unicef and non-profit Give India for medical supplies, supporting high-risk communities, and grants to help spread critical information.”
The money that Pichai has pledged to Unicef amounts to more than $18 million USD, and will certainly help the nation purchase supplies to treat COVID-19 sufferers.
India has a population of more than 1 billion people, and many of them are severely impoverished.
No Great Solutions
While the rate of COVID-19 infections in many developed nations has been falling, the opposite is true in India. The official statistics for COVID-19 infections in the country at more than a third of a million, which is the highest anywhere in the world.
According to Reuters, a man standing outside of a hospital in Ahmedabad, which is the largest city in Prime Minister Modi’s home state of Gujarat, was candid in his assessment of the situation.
He stated,
“People are dying in front of hospitals while they wait for a bed to become available.”
Another unidentified bystander told asked, “Is this why we voted for this government? When we need it the most, we find ourselves all alone. Where will the poor go?”
Of course, the situation is made more complex by the cryptocurrency regulations India has created, which will likely keep the money that Sun sent in crypto form from being used immediately.
In fact, Indian crypto regulations may scare the recipients into waiting for a clear signal from the Modi government, and not risk spending them on a humanitarian tragedy that just seems to be getting worse.
The Need for Direct Aid
The COVID-19 situation in India raises a number of questions, one of the being the role of government in a nation that simply can’t protect its own population.
While some amount of governance is necessary, when it keeps aid from flowing to the people who badly need it, a pause must be taken to consider what is really best for people who have almost no economic standing in the global economy.
Cryptos can create channels for aid to flow, but it is up to the people to demand the right to free global capital markets, and the ability to truly own a small amount of the global economic order.
