BREAKDOWN: Ukraine and the War Airdrop That Didn’t Come
CoinDesk Podcast Network
CoinDesk
4.8 • 689 Ratings
🗓️ 3 March 2022
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What the country’s crypto fundraising tells us about the future.
This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io, Arculus, FTX US and Cointelli.
Over the last week, the government of Ukraine has held one of the most successful fundraising efforts of all time. It has raised over $50 million in crypto from over 100,000 donation transactions. On today’s episode, NLW tells the story of how the donation campaign started, how the promise of an airdrop super-charged the effort and the fallout from the country’s decision not to go through with the airdrop. Moreover, he discusses the new ethical considerations of donating directly to war efforts.
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“The Breakdown” is written, produced by and features Nathaniel Whittemore aka NLW, with editing by Rob Mitchell, research by Scott Hill and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Adam B. Levine is our executive producer and our theme music is “Countdown” by Neon Beach. The music you heard today behind our sponsor is “Obligated” by Daniele Musto. Image credit: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images News, modified by CoinDesk. Join the discussion at discord.gg/VrKRrfKCz8.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I started this discussion the other day, but I think it bears repeating and probably a lot more discussion in the days, weeks, months, and years to come. |
| 0:07.1 | I believe quite strongly that this is the first time in modern history that individual citizens have been able to en masse donate money to directly support a war effort in a country that they are not in, a country that is in fact very far away. |
| 0:21.5 | Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW. |
| 0:25.7 | It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world. |
| 0:31.5 | The breakdown is sponsored by nexo.io, Arculus, and FTX, and produced and distributed by CoinDesk. |
| 0:39.3 | What's going on, guys? It is Thursday, March 3rd, and man, do we have a wild discussion for you today around the Ukraine AirDrop? |
| 0:48.8 | First, however, if you are enjoying the breakdown, please go subscribe, give it a rating, give it a review, or if you want to get deeper into the conversation, come join us over on the breakers discord. |
| 0:59.4 | You can find that at the link in the show notes or go to bit.lee slash breakdown pod. |
| 1:04.5 | Also, disclosure, as always, in addition to them being a sponsor of the show, I also work with FTX. And one final thing, |
| 1:13.3 | this week I am excited to have an additional sponsor just in time for tax time, CoinTeli. |
| 1:21.1 | Cointelli is here to make crypto tax reporting stress-free for both individuals and accountants. |
| 1:26.3 | Designed by CPAs, CoinTellie supports hundreds |
| 1:28.8 | of crypto platforms and provides accurate calculations so you don't pay any extra on your taxes. |
| 1:34.7 | Cointelli also charges no added fees for up to 100,000 transactions and offers 24-7 customer |
| 1:40.7 | support from tax advisors. Check them out at cointeli.com. |
| 1:44.6 | That's coin t-e-l-l-I.com. |
| 1:48.0 | Thanks to Cointelli for joining as a sponsor of the breakdown this week. |
| 1:51.7 | Now, let's come back to Ukraine. |
| 1:55.4 | I've obviously been covering this situation pretty closely, but to recap, last week, two big things happened. |
| 2:02.0 | Last week on Thursday, Russia invaded Ukraine. The world very quickly had to come to grips with an |
| 2:08.4 | invasion happening in Europe. The markets instantly tanked, and over the weekend, the West's |
| 2:13.6 | economic response became a lot clearer. Sanctions were ratcheted up, Russian banks were to be |
... |
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