Anti-Coronavirus Foundation To Leverage Blockchain In Search Of Vaccine
- The foundation aims to raise $30 million to fund an anyone who comes up with a vaccine.
- The coronavirus has killed at least 17 people in Wuhan, China, with hundreds already diagnosed and the virus spreading to the United States.
Illustration from Freepik
The deadly coronavirus, first identified in Wuhan, China, has already killed at least 17 people and infected more than 400. While this may seem insignificant to some, it is the taking of preemptive measures that stops potential outbreaks such as this.
About the virus
The virus in question is part of the coronaviruses group, which cause diseases in mammals. In humans, this type of virus usually affects respiration. In most cases, infected individuals survive without any issues, however, more aggressive pathogens appear from time to time, causing global concerns.
A more recent example of a coronavirus outbreak is the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) which, during 2003, killed 9% of patients diagnosed with it, though weak immune systems and age played a large factor in that statistic. All in all, the SARS virus infected thousands of people and killed around 800 during its 2003 outbreak.
The search for a vaccine and the role of blockchain
Established on the third day (23 January) of the latest World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davod-Klosters in Switzerland, the Anti-Coronavirus Foundation aims to help combat the new coronavirus by providing funding for individuals or teams that come up with a vaccine.
The foundation will be governed by Yury Myshinskiy, who is also the co-founder and CEO of CryptOcean, as well as other trusted and publicly-recognizable individuals.
The goal is to raise $30,000,000 in cryptocurrency that will be paid out to fund a solution to the problem at hand. CryptOcean has already reserved 1,000,000 CRON (around $300,000 at press time) to the reward pool.
To ensure transparency, the foundation announced that all transactions that help fund this endeavor will be handled by the CRON blockchain, which is run by CryptOcean.
Currently, donations in CRON, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are supported, though fiat currency donations will also soon be available. All donations will be converted to CRON coins in order to provide unquestionable transparency, the foundation states on its official website.
It further reads:
“We truly hope that pharmacological giants participate in the action. When millions of human lives are at risk, it is time to forget about corporate competition, short-term profits and market gains — the situation calls for a mutual move to prevent irreparable damages.”
This fund is not the only call of the blockchain community to support actions helping remedy the risks and effects of the new coronavirus.
Two days ago, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, announced that Binance had pledged around $1.5 million to help victims of the ailment.
More recently, the virus seems to have spread to the United States, with at least five confirmed cases already recorded.
- The audit was carried out by independent CPA firm Linford & Co.
- BurstIQ is currently the only blockchain-enabled health data solution to have SOC 2 Type 2 certification.
Image from Shutterstock
- As several countries have already entered the second period of lockdown, many parts of the world are bracing for a long winter of isolation.
- How will this affect crypto markets this time around, and how will it differ from the first lockdown?
- Binance Charity’s “Crypto Against COVID” initiative was able to collect $4.3 million in crypto donations, which were used to purchase more than 1.5 million PPEs.
- The firm also used blockchain technology to make its process transparent, enabling donors to check up on their donations, and for what they were used.