It is difficult to frame the scale of the devastation and loss of life that has taken place in southern Turkey and northern Syria in the past week. The numbers alone do so much to convey the severity of the disaster; on February 6, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake It struck near the Turkish city of Gaziantep at 4:17 a.m., instantly bringing down buildings and killing thousands in dozens of townships. As people began to search through the rubble to rescue family members in the bitter Anatolian winter air, a second earthquake struck, almost as strong as the first, with a magnitude of 7.5 on the Richter scale. .
The combined earthquakes left almost 40,000 people dead. Hundreds of thousands more are homeless or injuredleft to navigate immense trauma, a lack of basic resources, slow and corrupt government institutions, and front men who, by all credible accounts, have only made the situation worse.
But in the midst of the utter calamity that has befallen Turkey and Syria, there are inspiring moments of determination and solidarity of the human spirit. Web3 has taken a huge step forward, with dozens of platforms, artists, and charities opening wallet addresses and launching open editions to raise awareness and raise crucial funds for humanitarian groups in the region. In the process, they have raised millions of dollars in a demonstration of blockchain’s ability to help people in need and be a force for good in the world.
Turkish heritage artists lead the charge
Artificial intelligence artist Refik Anadol has long been considered one of Turkey’s greatest artistic talents and a proponent of Web3. Due to earthquakes, Anadol took to Twitter to share a wallet address for those looking to donate to vetted organizations with a history of giving back. Anadol announced that the funds raised would be divided equally between BUDDYa Turkish charitable foundation that provides disaster relief, and A FAD, the Turkish government’s Ministry of the Interior for Disaster and Emergency Management. The wallet has collected almost 52 ETH ($82,000) so far.
On February 7th, Murat Pak (commonly known in Web3 circles as Pak) released an open edition NFT called Cause #1which has raised just under 40ETH ($63,000) for AHBAP. Pak has personally donated more than 100 ETH ($166,000) to the organization. The fundraising efforts have been wildly successful along with calls from others in the space (including the president of Animoca Brands yat siu) to donate to these groups, with AHBAP Wallet Addresses containing $4.5 million worth of various crypto tokens at its peak.
Web3 platforms and front men pledge and donate millions
On February 6, Jack Butcher announced the mint open edition from Humanity Check, proceeds from which will go directly to Doctors Without Borders through The Giving Block. This philanthropic platform helps charities set up the Web3 giving infrastructure. Humanity Check has raised over 82 ETH ($130,000) so far.
Cryptocurrency exchanges have responded to the crisis in a big way, with Bitfinex partners with issuer of stablecoin Tether and Keet and Synonym to commit five million Turkish lira ($265,000) to relief efforts. On February 7th, the sharing giant Web3 Binance announced he would donate $100 to each BNB user he identified as a resident of the disaster-affected regions. By using proof of address registrations completed before February 6, the exchange says it can identify users in 10 cities where the quake has had the most significant impact, with Kahramanmaraş, Diyabakır, Adana, Gaziantep, and Hatay among the most notable. and difficult. hit.
binance founder Changpeng Zhao tweeted that total donations reaching users in Turkey and Syria would amount to an estimated $5 million. The exchange has also released a public donations address which accepts BTC, ETH, BNB, BUSD, and XRP tokens and has raised just over $73,000 for the fund.
And the donations and pledges just kept coming. Smart contract platform avalanche announced on Feb. 7 that he had also donated $1 million worth of AVAX tokens via The Avalanche Foundation, and cryptocurrency mogul and Tron token and blockchain founder Justin Sun likewise. promised a million dollars in TRX from the Huobi Global exchange.
Web3 is doing well in the world
While Web3 may have a reputation damaged by frequent scams and shady deals that undermine its potential, the world of Defi, crypto and NFT can (and often does) make the world a better place. The use of blockchain for humanitarian and social causes is nothing new. Platforms like The Giving Block and embargo they have been helping organizations outside the walls of Web3 set up donation pages so that cryptocurrency enthusiasts can donate directly to the charities they know and love.
Web3’s response to this tragedy is cause for appreciation of what blockchain-based communities can be when they are at their best. Some have already expressed their pride in the way that community has responded to this crisis, with artist and former Mastercard leader Web3 sattvik sethi even saying that he had never seen fundraising for charities as direct and efficient as in the Web3 sphere. So evident was the potential of cryptocurrencies to help alleviate the suffering of people in this disaster that beloved Turkish singer Haluk Levent, the founder and director of AHBAP, was able to win approval from the typically tech-phobic Turkish government. , to circumvent the country’s ban on using cryptocurrencies for legal transactions. and open three wallet addresses for a week to help raise funds.
Even setting aside the plethora of fundraising efforts on a smaller scale which are still ongoing, the Web3 community has successfully raised over $12 million in humanitarian aid in the last week for hundreds of thousands of people in desperate need. That’s nothing, and all Web3 supporters and critics would do well to acknowledge that fact. There is merit in trying to predict the future of blockchain, but like so many things, the answer may be more obvious than it seems: the future of Web3 is whatever we decide we want it to be.
