Venezuelans Receive Free Cryptocurrency In a Charity Donation Drive

By Rishma Banerjee

According to recent reports, a social health worker has been helping many Venezuelan families in the throes of economic ruin by donating free bitcoins through a crypto program called GiveCrypto. This economic rot that the country is in has been caused by hyperinflation cascaded from political decadence.

One such Venezuelan, Andreina Cordero from Barquisimeto, said:

“We finally got to eat chicken. And there were also vegetables for the kids… I’m very grateful for what they did for us. It would be a blessing if something like that were set up again.”

A cryptocurrency startup based out of Silicon Valley conducted a three-month trial in crypto transfers and involved families in the activity by making them donate around USD 7 worth of EOS tokens weekly (thought to be Venezuela’s monthly minimum wage) to over 100 families in Venezuela. This meant a great deal as they were able to trade it on exchanges for local currencies, and the funds were used to buy groceries.

Despite the harsh government policies towards cryptocurrencies – excluding its controversial oil-back crypto, the Petro; Venezuela has been a good testing ground for the viability of cryptocurrencies.

Joe Waltman, the executive director of GiveCrypto, affirms:

“Crypto has the highest likelihood of being helpful to people in places where the money is broken. And there’s probably no better example of broken money right now than Venezuela.”

The program seems to be taking up the challenge of empowering non-tech-savvy individuals to use mobile phones to access cryptocurrency and drive more utility. The pilot was also revealed to be an attempt to a larger plot to infiltrate Venezuela’s economy with what seems to be ‘stable coins,’ which is supposed to be more stable than Bitcoin.

The project’s manager Efrain Pineda said:

“We want to show that people who are not techies or investors can also benefit from this technology. Anyone can use crypto to protect themselves from inflation and make their daily life easier.”

Coinbase also donated USD 10,000 worth of ZCash (ZEC) to GiveCrypto.org.

Another initiative currently being developed by AirTm plans to pay Venezuelans a one-time payment of USD 10, which could go a long way to supplement other sources of income. So far, the company has reportedly raised over USD 300,000 through donations out of USD 1 million.