Crypto is saving lives in Ukraine | Hacker News Reader

Crypto is saving lives in Ukraine

bloombergquint.com

10 pointsca98am7918 comments

Nothing in this article indicates that some unique factor of crypto enables it to save lives. It does say that donations have allowed them to purchase life-protecting and life-saving supplies but how are crypto donations unique. I can speculate, but I shouldn’t have to with an article titled as such.

What about the part where it says you can get access to it within 10 minutes, while the traditional banking industry takes 3 days?

If I send/receive a bank transfer here in the UK, it's available within seconds if not minutes. International transfers from my US account to the UK or vice versa with Wise go through in a similar amount of time. If it takes 3 days for a transfer to go through somewhere, that's a specific issue with the local banking system, not a fundamental issue that only cryptocurrency can solve.

I think even crypto-skeptics can see the utility of crypto in situations where people do not have access to functioning banking system.

But I think the most useful type of crypto in such a situation would be something like a decentralized version of a "stable" coin like tether or USDC, rather than a speculative asset like more classic crypto coins. People in dire straits want to transact trustlessly or move their wealth to a safe jurisdiction, they don't want to speculate on the value of a volatile asset.

The issue is, I can't really see how a decentralized stablecoin could exist.

> I think even crypto-skeptics can see the utility of crypto in situations where people do not have access to functioning banking system.

In this case, the Ukrainian government does have access to the banking system. It sounds like this guy is just managing once channel of cryptocurrency donations, which I'm sure isn't their largest channel of financial support. The headline here is pretty misleading, because it makes it seem like cryptocurrency is doing something special.

And the problem with your general sentiment is that cryptocurrency requires access to quite advanced technical infrastructure (on a personal and civil level), which in many situations is contraindicated by "not having access to functioning banking system."

The main use of cryptocurrency is in this crisis is probably for Russian oligarchs to avoid sanctions.

> I think even crypto-skeptics can see the utility of crypto

No. Electronic payments based in a stable country, yes, but that doesn't have to be crypto blockchain speculative shit that passes as a fiat alternative today.

And the stablecoins so far aren't. If anything, they're the ripest area for corruption in the crypto network today.

Misleading title. Headline is

“Ukraine’s Crypto Banker Describes How War Is Changing His Life”

Crypto is saving zero lives in Ukraine and all this guy is doing is profiting from war and fear.

He literally says: "Now there is no skepticism because they understand that we save lives every single minute with crypto. You can try to ignore it, but you cannot ignore when their families are actually fed with crypto, or when the soldiers are dressed in bulletproof vests and helmets with crypto."

The Russian government is bypassing sanctions with crypto.

So what? Let them?

You can trace them all up on the public ledger, for everyone to see; even if they tried.

You can tumble the coin to hide the transfers. There are many services that criminals do use.

> He literally says: "Now there is no skepticism because they understand that we save lives every single minute with crypto. You can try to ignore it, but you cannot ignore when their families are actually fed with crypto, or when the soldiers are dressed in bulletproof vests and helmets with crypto."

But that has nothing to do with cryptocurrency, specifically.

If there's any truth to what he says, it's more true of National Bank of Ukraine Special Account UA843000010000000047330992708 [1]. So:

> Now there is no skepticism because they understand that we save lives every single minute with [money donated to National Bank of Ukraine Special Account UA843000010000000047330992708]. You can try to ignore it, but you cannot ignore when their families are actually fed with [money donated to National Bank of Ukraine Special Account UA843000010000000047330992708], or when the soldiers are dressed in bulletproof vests and helmets with [money donated to National Bank of Ukraine Special Account UA843000010000000047330992708].

[1] https://bank.gov.ua/en/news/all/natsionalniy-bank-vidkriv-sp...

Shall we also go to Afghanistan and talk to the hungry afghans about how they are able to receive USDC stablecoins and exchange it for their currency so they can eat and not starve to death? [0]

[0] https://theintercept.com/2022/01/19/crypto-afghanistan-sanct...

The article was not about Afghanistan.

But we can talk about how the U.S. is creating the sanctions in Afghanistan. And we can also talk about how Russia is using Crypto to get around sanctions.

All crypto does is make money for the gatekeepers of crypto and profit off of war, sanction, and fear. Crypto solves zero problems, it only profits off of the problems governments create.

I don’t understand how you can read that crypto donations are helping to feed Ukrainian refugee families and say “all crypto does is make money for the gatekeepers .. and profit off of war…”

It is literally saving lives…

> But we can talk about how the U.S. is creating the sanctions in Afghanistan. And we can also talk about how Russia is using Crypto to get around sanctions.

So should we ban it then since anyone can get around sanctions using it?

Might as well ban encryption then. /s

> All crypto does is make money for the gatekeepers of crypto and profit off of war, sanction, and fear. Crypto solves zero problems, it only profits off of the problems governments create.

Care to elaborate? What would do you suggest then for those who are in countries like Ukraine or Afghanistan then?

> So should we ban it then since anyone can get around sanctions using it? Might as well ban encryption then. /s

Encryption has no middle man and is free, and unlike cypto, you are untraceable. So no idea ho you can compare the two

> What would do you suggest then for those who are in countries like Ukraine or Afghanistan then?

A good start would be instigating peace and not war. Stop having the US fight these proxy resource wars by destabilizing them and trying to put in our puppet leaders.

> Encryption has no middle man and is free.

Exactly. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Isn't it?

Like cryptocurrencies, that is also free and there is no middle man since you can send money directly from one wallet to another. ie. peer-to-peer. It is so 'free', even terrorists, extremists, hitmen and other undesirables can use it as well as they can generally use encrypted communications.

Hence that, so should it all be banned; yes or no?

> A good start would be instigating peace and not war. Stop having the US fight these proxy resource wars by destabilizing them and trying to put in our puppet leaders.

So your answer towards those people who are affected in countries like Ukraine or Afghanistan' is basically 'nothing'. They are just pawns used in a political chess game of sanctions and everyone affected over there suffers for that. That is 'fair?' isn't it /s

Either way, it is all quite easy to say what you said at the comfort of your armchair at your computer screen right?

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