OmiseGO and Vitalik Buterin Donate $1 Million in OMG to Impoverished Refugees

OmiseGO and Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin are donating $1 million worth of OMG tokens directly to refugees living in extreme poverty. The donation will be made to GiveDirectly, a nonprofit organization operating in East Africa which will deliver the funds.

Helping the Unbanked

OmiseGO and Vitalik Buterin’s donation comes after many individuals in the cryptocurrency space have found themselves members of the newfound ‘crypto-rich’ community — often stereotyped as Lambo-buying millennials who’ve made fast fortunes from early cryptocurrency investments. The authors of the donation hope this newly-rich community will put their riches to good use.

In the official donation announcement, the philanthropists write:

The crypto economy has grown immensely over the last year, bringing a great deal of wealth to many people and organizations within the ecosystem. In part we simply see an exciting opportunity to share that wealth. We hope the fortunes made in the crypto space will lead not to extravagant lifestyles but to extravagant generosity.

OmiseGO has partnered with GiveDirectly to facilitate the donation, claiming both companies “share the view that providing alternatives to legacy systems can enhance accountability.” The authors note:

Refugees are a perfect population to serve through this effort. The world is in the midst of a refugee crisis, with more than 65 million displaced from their homes. […] Many also find it difficult to re-enter the formal financial system as they lack appropriate local documentation. They are precisely the people we wish to see benefiting from the “unbanking” effect that OMG is designed to create. We’re excited to plug them back in, transfer funds, and let them get to work.

Giving Season

OmiseGO and Buterin’s donation also comes alongside Ripple’s significantly larger $29 million to support public schools in the United States.

Ripple’s donation also comes in the form of cryptocurrency. The company donated XRP, Ripple’s scalable digital asset which aims to enable real-time global payments from anywhere in the world, to DonorsChoose.org — a US-based 501 nonprofit organization allowing individuals to donate directly to public school classroom projects. Claimed Ripple:

Our donation fulfilled every request listed on the nonprofit’s website yesterday. Today, nearly 30,000 public school teachers in every state and approximately one million students are receiving books, school supplies, technology, field trips, and other resources vital for learning through DonorsChoose.org.

The Pineapple Fund has also notably donated large amounts of Bitcoin to charity. The philanthropic project created by an anonymous individual donated $1 million to the Open Medicine Foundation — an organization involved in research for ME/CFS (myalgic encephalomyelitis / chronic fatigue syndrome) and other related chronic complex diseases — on January 14th, 2018. The Pineapple Fund later upped their donation to $5 million following an outpouring of gratitude on social media.

What do you think about OmiseGO and Vitalik Buterin donating $1 million worth of OMG to refugees? Let us know in the comments below!

Images courtesy of Bitcoinist archives and Pixabay.