A new donation from the co-founder of Ethereum? Accompanied by Sandeep Nailwal, head of the Relief Fund and co-founder of Polygon, Vitalik Buterin is contributing to a $100 million donation aimed at improving Covid-19 research. This gift is part of a long line of grants he has made to support humanitarian causes.
Ethereum co-founder makes commitment to scientific research
Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain (ETH), recently announced his participation in a $100 million donation. The money raised will be used to fund research into Covid-19, as well as developing medical infrastructure in India.
The man behind the first infrastructure blockchain is contributing $10 million, with the remaining $90 million coming from India’s Relief Fund, currently headed by Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of scalability solution Polygon :
Last year @CryptoRelief_ led by @sandeepnailwal allocated $100m to Covid research projects I wanted to fund
Sandeep and I discussed and jointly concluded these and other projects are high-impact and need follow through grants. Hence we decided to put $100m more to these projects
– vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) June 8, 2023
Sandeep and I jointly discussed and concluded that these and other projects are high impact and require follow-on grants. We have therefore decided to invest an additional $100 million in these projects.
What are the main areas of research in these projects? According to the thread written by Vitalik Buterin on Twitter, the focus is on improving indoor air quality.
More than just funding to reduce the transmission of Covid-19, this research will benefit all airborne diseases. However, the researchers will place particular emphasis on people contaminated by Covid-19 and whose symptoms last for several months.
According to the co-founder of Ethereum, the 2020 pandemic is just the tip of the iceberg. According to him, we are far from finished with airborne viruses: the risk of another pandemic in the 21st century would remain very high.
Vitalik Buterin – Web3’s biggest donor?
While some billionaires seem to go unappreciated by the general public, the co-founder of Ethereum represents the very antithesis of this stereotype. At the age of 29, he has no qualms about using his fortune to subsidise causes close to his heart.
In April 2021, for example, he made a donation of 100 Ether (ETH) and 100 Maker (MKR) to support India in its fight against Covid-19. The following month, he repeated the operation, parting with $1.5 billion in the form of meme coins: around 75% of the assets had been distributed to the Relief Fund.
Similarly, the successful entrepreneur was quick to take a stand when the conflict between Russia and Ukraine erupted. He radically opposed the war, denouncing the Russian invasion and donating $5 million to the Ukrainian army.
More than just offerings of financial value, Vitalik Buterin has offered the Web3 community an entire technological ecosystem, giving every Internet user the possibility of protecting their personal data by disintermediating Web services.
