Donate to Crypto Philanthropy, Not CoronaCoin

Priyeshu Garg

Mar. 23, 2020

A rogue altcoin attempted to profit from the spread of the coronavirus. Now, it looks like the community has rejected the project as it has dropped most of its value in the last month.

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Key Takeaways

CoronaCoin is an altcoin which increases in price according the number of coronavirus-related deaths.
Despite its salacious profiteering, the coin has lost almost 90% of its value in the last month.
Instead, users should funnel those funds to legitimate charities fighting the spread of the virus.

A salacious “shitcoin” has attempted to profit from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic by offering users the ability to bet on the number of deaths caused by the novel virus. However, CoronaCoin has been struggling to take off, losing almost 90% of its value in the past month.

Meet CoronaCoin, The Ultimate Shitcoin

Last month, a new cryptocurrency appeared on the market offering users the ability to bet on the outcome of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The cryptocurrency, called CoronaCoin (NCOV), is based on Ethereum’s ERC-20 protocol and could be one of the most salacious attempts to profit from the global health crisis.

First picked up by Reuters in late February, the news about CoronaCoin was largely ignored until COVID-19 began claiming a large number of victims.

CoronaCoin has a total supply of 7.6 billion coins, equivalent to the human population. The protocol follows the proof-of-death data published by the World Health Organization (WHO) and decreases the number of coins to match the number of infections and deaths from the coronavirus.

The atrocious attempt to profit from the pandemic has been widely criticized, with major media publications such as Forbes and the New York Post denouncing the “Bitcoin-like” cryptocurrency.

Skip CoronaCoin, Donate to COVID-19 Charities Instead

While the developers of CoronaCoin claim that 20% of the proceeds from coin sales will be donated to the Red Cross, users should instead put their hard-earned money to better use.

Cryptocurrency payment provider BitPay has opened up a donation channel to the Red Cross, enabling users to send cryptocurrencies to help the organization’s global relief efforts. The Italian Red Cross has also held several Bitcoin fundraisers on donation platform HelperBit, with the latest effort gathering funds to purchase medical equipment for pre-triage of COVID-19 patients in the country.

Users can also indirectly donate to the Red Cross by shopping on AmazonSmile, which donates 0.5% of purchases to charity organizations.

Cryptocurrencies can also be donated to UNICEF, which established a designated Cryptocurrency Fund last year. All information about UNICEF’s relief efforts and donations can be found on the official website.

Those that would like to support other large-scale organizations tackling the pandemic can donate to the CDC Foundation, the WHO’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, GlobalGiving’s Relief Funds, or the Gates Foundation.

CoronaCoin’s 30-day price chart, via CoinGecko

CoronaCoin has lost more than 85% of its value in the past 30 days, according to data from CoinGecko, and is down 26.8% in the last 24 hours. Instead, why not put that money to better use?

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