The first ever wartime government airdrop? Ukraine has confirmed through its deputy prime minister that it plans to hand out rewards to those who sent cryptocurrency donations to support the war effort. This would be a world first, and indicates a considerable paradigm shift.
Ukraine government wants to reward donors via airdrop
It will be recalled that the government of El Salvador, which has adopted Bitcoin (BTC) as its legal tender, gave out cryptocurrency to any local person setting up their digital wallet. But this was a promotion of a service, to encourage Salvadorans to use the Chivo wallet en masse.
In the case of Ukraine, this is the first time that a government has used cryptocurrencies as a wartime strategy, and especially that it wants to distribute such rewards via airdrop. The news was announced by the Ukrainian government’s Twitter account, and validated by the Deputy Prime Minister:
Airdrop confirmed. Snapshot will be taken tomorrow, on March 3rd, at 6pm Kyiv time (UTC/GMT +2 hours).
Reward to follow!
Follow subsequent news re Ukraine’s crypto donation campaign at @FedorovMykhailo— Ukraine / Україна (@Ukraine) March 2, 2022
We have no information on the nature of the rewards at this time. However, the use of the word “airdrop” indicates that they will certainly be tokens. There is some speculation that they may be non-fungible tokens (NFT), but nothing has been confirmed.
We would of course urge caution. Ukraine remains a country in wartime, using all its communication and propaganda arsenal to rally support. It would therefore be wise to wait for confirmation from experts regarding the smart contracts used for distribution.
A major change
Still, this initiative represents a major change. Unlike Russia, which so far does not seem to be relying on cryptocurrencies to counter sanctions, Ukraine is determined to make use of digital currencies.
Yesterday it expanded the list of crypto-assets accepted for donations, and this new reward system is the latest announcement. So far, the government has already collected more than $51 million in digital currency donations. So the war in Ukraine is going to be played out partly with cryptocurrencies.
