By James Davis
Last February, when Russia invaded Ukraine, the crypto community donated funds to the government of Ukraine and non-governmental organizations operating in the country. The millions of dollars contributed proved vital to facilitating the Ukranian military.
But as the mainstream media focuses on Ukraine, many crypto projects and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) have turned their attention to offering aid to Turkey and Syria, which were recently hit by earthquakes.
One of the projects is Endaoment. It is a non-profit organization launched in 2019 to encourage and manage crypto donations. The Endaoment founder and CEO Robbie Heeger says the organization has seen great donation activity since the tragedy struck the two countries.
The Turkey Relief DAO
Meanwhile, a Turkey Relief DAO has been launched to raise funds and channel them to government agencies and non-governmental organizations operating in the disaster area. This DAO aims to create awareness of the organizations that are helping the victims of earthquakes.
However, the founding member of the Turkey Relief DAO, Erbil Karaman, says fundraising efforts have been difficult because media outlets have turned their attention to other events.
Karaman is now calling on the crypto community to continue pouring in their donations to help those affected by earthquakes rebuild their lives. He reveals that they have set up wallets on 20 blockchains to collect funds and send them where they are needed.
Karaman’s Other Project
Karaman is also the co-founder of Huma Finance, a company that won an award at last year’s ETH Denver event for being the most promising decentralized finance (DeFi) project.
A few weeks after receiving the award, Huma Finance announced that it had raised $8.4 million in a funding round led by Robot ventures. Other companies that participated in the raise include Race Capital, Superfluid, Circle Ventures, and Request Network.
Crypto Community Express Concerns Over Scam DAOs
As several DAOs crop up every day, claiming to offer support to the victims of earthquakes, there have been concerns that some might be making attempts to scam well-meaning donors. Therefore, the crypto community is advised to vet those DAOs before sending donations.