Within 48 hours of the Russia-Ukraine conflict starting in February 2022, the Open Dialogue Foundation, along with Ukraine’s Minister of Defense, was able to fundraise and deliver humanitarian aid with the help of the crypto community.
“We would not be able to do it with the traditional financial system,” said Lyudmyla Kozlovska, president of the Open Dialogue Foundation, a non-government organization (NGO) founded in Poland. “We were capable to do it with transacting bitcoin and stablecoin. We are end users and your impact saved our lives.”
Kozlovska was among the speakers at the March 21 D.C. Blockchain Summit on the 'Impact by innovation: How Blockchain impacts humanitarian aid and charitable giving’ panel.
The D.C. Blockchain Summit is organized annually by the Digital Chamber of Commerce.
“If we don't work with regulators and we don't explain that crypto assets shouldn't be regulated in the same way or that the traditional financial system has to allow such people like us to fundraise, and not be deprived the right to have a crypto exchange account, then long term we see huge troubles because of regulation,” Kozlovska told the summit audience.
Other speakers included Care senior director Christian Pennotti, Kevin Peach, chief operating officer at Disaster Services Corporation (DSC) St. Vincent de Paul (SVDP)-USA, Roya Mahboob, co-founder of Digital Citizen Fund, and Candace Kelly, Stellar Development Fund chief legal officer.
In response to the Russia-Ukraine war, Stellar Development Fund worked with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to create a bulk disbursement tool for the crypto asset Circle USDC, which is the second largest stablecoin.
“The UN is able to disperse, almost instantaneously, aid to folks in Ukraine who have been displaced anywhere where they are, where they have their phone,” Kelly told the audience. “Through this pilot, there were people who were literally sitting in a bunker and they received their USDC on their phone.”
The pilot program includes a partnership with MoneyGram, but as Bloomberg previously reported, the issuer of Circle USDC had $3.3 billion of its reserves parked at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which reportedly collapsed because its customers rushed to make withdrawals after a call to raise $2 billion in capital was announced.
“If they eventually leave Ukraine and end up in any other country where there's a MoneyGram agent, they can cash out in that local currency,” Kelly added.
SVB’s failures represent one of the largest among U.S. financial institutions since the 2008 financial crisis. Among national asset seizures, it is second only to Washington Mutual in 2008.
Sena Loyd, president of Web3 ID Coalition, moderated the afternoon panel.