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Donate Your Cryptocurrencies To Kerala Relief, Initiative By Pocketbits

kerala relief cryptocurrencies | kerala relief camp

It is often said that the real test of humanity is how, we humans all come together forgetting our differences of caste, creed, gender, color, and nationality in the moment of calamity. A beautiful quaint state of India, Kerala has been struck with a natural disaster and the devastation caused is beyond measure. Help and support have been pouring in from all corners and this time the crypto-world joining in with full swing.

Kerala is in dire need of your support in any form. All 14 districts of the state are under red alert after witnessing prolonged rains that are up 300% from normal levels and over 30 dams in the state that were opened at the same time. Over 400 people have already lost their lives and around 14 Lakhs of individuals are being rescued and moved to 3,200 relief camps located around the state. According to initial estimates, an estimated loss of $3 Bn in damage has been incurred.

Rehabilitation of the state will require immense manpower and equally massive financial backup. Almost all the giants in the startup and tech ecosystem have been taking a lead role in helping people donate relief materials for the victims of the Kerala floods, including  Facebook, Google, Zomato, Paytm, BigBasket, Flipkart. As an effort to do their bit and to help others do theirs, Sohail Merchant, the founder of Mumbai-based cryptocurrency startup PocketBits, has created a platform where crypto users from around the world could contribute to Kerala.

PocketBits Aid to Kerala

In collaboration with Indiabits, Pocketbits is creating a channel for crypto token holders around the globe to donate to the Chief Minister’s Relief Distress Fund (CMDRF) in Kerala and transfer goods to nonprofits with on-the-ground presence in Kerala. The Crypto startup has set up a page for the same. At the time of publishing this article,the company has already received donations worth INR 1.64 Lakh.

Message from the firm:

“Although the central government has issued INR 500 Cr ($77.48 Mn) assistance to the state, damages incurred may well be in the billions. With food supply, water, and medicines seeing shortages due to disruptions in supply chains, the people are in dire need of help from around the world. If you are a retailer in Bengaluru or can help us acquire these items, drop a message to @joel_john on Telegram.” 

How does it work?
The cryptocoins received will be converted to INR at spot prices every few hours. A half of the funds received will be wired to the Chief Minister’s fund. The other half will be utilized to buy goods (sanitary napkins, medicines etc) and donates via regional NGOs – Anbodu Kochi.
Why?

It is an effort to eliminate any hesitation or hassle faced by local and international donors while converting to fiat locally. Additionally, it enables cross-border remittances of funds at a drastically accelerated pace.

Conversion of Tokens

According to the blog post by Pocketbits, the firm will be converting all tokens received to INR at spot prices every few hours. In case of a token not listed on by them, the site also states a solution for the same:

We will be converting ERC20 tokens not listed on PocketBits tokens may be moved to Binance for the purpose of conversion to BTC and sent to the BTC donation address.

The blog also mentions that the Pocketbits will be the sole custodian of the tokens recieved.

Pocketbits.in will be the sole custodian of tokens and will be responsible for conversions to INR.

Reciepts of Donations

Pocketbits regrets that it won’t be able to provide any receipts of donations as of now as the site was put up in a short period of time. Though to safeguard the donations made the firm will share invoices and receipts all the transfers, purchases and deliveries made. The website states:

Due to shortage of time and resources (site was put up in 24 hours), we will not be able to issue receipts for individual transfers made. All transactions are recorded on the blockchain and will remain verifiable. We will, however be sharing invoices and receipts for all purchases, deliveries and transfers made in batches. A google sheet accounting for all transfers will be shared soon. In the future, PocketBits may facilitate the transfer of funds to disaster relief initiatives around the globe and issue receipts for the same.

Want more information 

On behalf of PocketBits @Sohail Merchant will be leading the initiative and @joel_john on Telegram will be leading the initiative in Bangalore. One can feel free to contact them for any further queries.

Coindelta Helping Blocks

Coindelta exchange has created a smart contract for donating ETH to ensure transparency and also to distribute a non-transferrable token of appreciation called ‘Helping Blocks Token’ to everyone who contributes.

You can send ETH your personal wallet or from exchanges such as Coindelta or Binance to the following address: 0x5255fd71e5ad9be04cdd5401c14a2765a99ccaf9. Remember to use gas limit of 70000 or higher as this is a smart contract.

Moreover, for every transaction that is done on their P2P platform Flux, Coindelta will be donating Rs. 10. Coindelta’s first preference will be to contribute directly in Cryptocurrency, but if the government does not approve they will convert the received ETH to INR and transfer the same. More Information can be found here: https://coindelta.com/helping-blocks/

Instashift Kerala Relief Funds

Kalidasan, the co-founder of Instashift is in Kochi right now.  Instashift has been sending telegram messages to all the groups informing them “all fees on Instashift will be donated to Kerala Relief”.

In addition, Instashift has opened a donation page as well. Donation can be made in BTC or ETH to Instashift. All the donations will be converted to INR and be used at the relief camp where Instashift colleagues are currently working. You can donate ETH to 0x0401ca5Ffc6AE2875115892f888E24AcF522E634 and BTC to 1nsta6YQK3WJm2pB8hurHp1sGgY1QhHJW. More information can be found here: https://instashift.io/relief

Accountability

All transfer will be visible on the blockchain. The exchanges will publish the details once the donation is converted to fiat and donated. The Blockchain provides a transparent, efficient and faster way to keep track of the flow of donations. Donations now could be accepted from around the world at a fraction of the cost compared to regular donations using credit cards or wire transfers.

While we are looking at the current calamity at hand and hopes that with the help and support from around the world Kerala could come back to its original glory as soon as possible. We can’t help but think how cryptocurrency and blockchain technology could be a massive contributor to future disaster management donation as anyone can freely and anonymously send along aid. We hope governments of the nations are taking note of this development and are willing to look into their hesitations towards the world of digital currency to lend it a chance to prove its worth.

In the end, we urge people all across the globe to donate whatever they can to aid Kerala and to help set an example of how we all come together in the moment of need.

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