'You don’t trust the local currency and on top of that, you don’t trust banks.'
“The missing link is trying to figure out what people on the ground need,” Muchnik says. She thinks that blockchain technology will make it easier to make sure that funds that are raised for Ukrainians actually go where they’re supposed to. Her understanding now from people on the ground in Ukraine is that people are withdrawing money from their bank accounts and trying to find alternative ways to transact.
The collective coordination effort demonstrates how crypto can be used as a public good, Muchnik says. She’s coordinating with people in Ukraine and Poland to verify and authenticate the organizations that spring up. The blockchain also means that the flow of funds is traceable; anything unused can be returned.Oleksii Stoiko runs a popular Telegram channel in Ukraine about cryptocurrency, which he created after being inspired by, a media organization focused on crypto.
On February 24th, Stoiko felt too frightened to leave his house, even though there were no Russian troops nearby. “It’s pretty, pretty scary, actually,” he says. Right before he and I spoke, he was reinforcing the windows in his apartment with duct tape. When we spoke on the 25th, things in Stoiko’s area were mundane, except for the empty shelves in big supermarkets — the most popular foods are all gone — and a lot of people running around with suitcases. But the outreach from the cryptocurrency community has helped him feel less alone. “It really warms my heart to read all these kind words and support for me personally and for all Ukrainian people,” he says.
Polosukhin’s focus right now is on making sure that those in need are taken care of — whether that’s in cryptocurrency or not. It’s easy to send crypto, he notes, but it’s not necessarily easy for people to receive it if the internet or power is cut off. When we spoke, the only thing working in Kharkiv were mobile providers, and Polosukhin wasn’t sure when they’d fail too. For those who had it, cash was still the best strategy.
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