Binance will partner with local organizations to create thousands of jobs for Ugandan youth. Announcing the initiative through his Twitter page, Binance’s founder and CEO, Changpeng Zhao, said Binance hoped to help youth in Uganda take advantage of emerging opportunities in the blockchain industry, which he referred to as the fourth industrial revolution. Binance will partner with, among others, the Made In Africa Initiative and Msingi, organizations that promote industrialization in Africa.
The Industry’s Growing Charitable Nature
This is just the latest act of charity from a cryptocurrency-related firm. Binance is the world’s largest crypto exchange, with a daily transaction volume of more than $2 billion. Zhao, who toured the East African country, also held meetings with stakeholders in the country to discuss opportunities in the blockchain industry.
A month ago, San Francisco-based Ripple made headlines when it donated $29 million worth of XRP to support schools all over the United States. Ripple made the donation through DonorsChoose.org, a non-profit organization that gives individuals and corporates the opportunity to support school projects posted on its portal. Through the donation, Ripple was able to meet the needs of over one million students across over 16,500 schools, with the donation being the biggest ever made through the DonorsChoose portal.
Ethereum’s founder, Vitalik Buterin, has not been left behind. He and OmiseGo donated $1 million to the East Africa-based charity Give Directly. The money was meant to support the tens of thousands of refugee families in East Africa that lack basic needs. The funds were delivered through blockchain channels, which made the process even faster, more transparent, and more cost-efficient. Africa has the highest remittance costs in the world, and this marked an important milestone for not just Give Directly but for charitable organizations across the continent.
At The Heart Of Blockchain
These are just a few of the instances that prove that at the heart of the blockchain community lies, well, a heart. The industry’s growing charitable nature hasn’t been left only to the major companies and corporates. Fidelity Charitable, the charity arm of the global investment giant, announced in February of this year that it had received $69 million worth of donations in cryptocurrencies in the year 2017. The donations had been made mainly through Bitcoin and Ether, and represented a 1,000% increase since the organization began accepting crypto in 2015.
The charitable nature of the blockchain and crypto community didn’t just start in the last year. It dates back to as early as 2013 when the world’s first nonprofit Bitcoin organization was formed. BitGive was founded with the sole purpose of raising money for charitable causes, especially in healthcare and environmental conservation, with the prominent crypto figure Roger Ver among its founding donors. A year later, Coinbase, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the US, announced that it would eliminate all charges and fees for any registered non-profit organization that used its merchant services henceforth.
Other companies that are dedicated to charitable deeds have sprouted since then, and the blockchain community continues to lend a hand to the less fortunate. One of them is the Pineapple Fund, an organization that was founded by a mystery person who goes by the name of Pine. Pine stated that the goal of the organization was to donate $86 million worth of Bitcoin to charitable causes, and according to the organization’s website, it has already donated $20 million so far. Interestingly, Pine describes himself as one of the 250 largest Bitcoin holders in the world.
However one does it, lending a hand to those in need is always a noble thing to do. The blockchain community has shown its readiness to use some of the proceeds from its ventures to help others. One can only hope that others will follow suit.
