Ukraine post DOT address, hence Polkadot’s Gavin Wood donates $5.7M 🚨 This article is 3 years old...
Ukraine post DOT address, hence Polkadot’s Gavin Wood donates $5.7M
Yesterday, after the official Ukrainian Twitter account posted BTC and ETH addresses for donations, Polkadot founder Gavin Wood tweeted he’ll donate $5 million if Ukraine posted a DOT address. In a remarkable turn, this is exactly what happened.
2 min read
Updated: Nov. 18, 2023 at 1:06 pm UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
As the war in Ukraine continues and unfolds, with terrible consequences for the country’s population, people and organizations around the world line up to donate to the Ukrainian war effort and its military force’s defense of the country against their Russian adversary.
People in the crypto space want to be no less generous with their donations, and tens of millions of dollars have been sent to different crypto addresses held by charities and official Ukrainian organizations. To that end, the official Ukrainian Twitter account posted yesterday both Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) addresses to which donors can send crypto.
As reported by CryptoSlate yesterday, in a response to the Ukrainian tweet, Dr. Gavin Wood, co-founder of Ethereum and founder of Polkadot, tweeted that he would send $5 million if Ukraine posted a DOT address, DOT being the native token of the Polkadot ecosystem.
If you post a DOT address I'll personally contribute $5m.
— Gavin Wood (@gavofyork) February 27, 2022
“We are now accepting Polkadot donations too”
Wood’s reply raised some criticism since it could be interpreted as Wood conditioned his donation, and that he would not donate if he couldn’t send DOT. However, some also pointed out that Wood’s response could come out of tax concerns, as converting from DOT to, say ETH, could be a taxable event.
people responding to those criticizing this tweet because he is “donating” 5M
It’s not a donation if it has conditions
It’s a product placement leveraging major global conflict with a 5M price tag
I’m sorry but he should just convert to ETH if he really want to donate
— Pedro Gomes (@pedrouid) February 27, 2022
In any case, the Ukrainian Twitter account has now posted a DOT address, and Dr. Wood has consequently donated no less than 298,367.2269896686 DOT, the equivalent of around $5.7 million.
“The people of Ukraine are grateful for the support and donations from the global crypto community as we protect our freedom. We are now accepting Polkadot donations too: $DOT: 1x8aa2N2Ar9SQweJv9vsuZn3WYDHu7gMQu1RePjZuBe33Hv. More cryptocurrencies to be accepted soon,” the account tweets.
— Gavin Wood (@gavofyork) March 1, 2022
To put some proof behind his donation, Wood published the transaction involved.
Disclaimer: CryptoSlate has received a grant from the Polkadot Foundation to produce content about the Polkadot ecosystem. While the Foundation supports our coverage, we maintain full editorial independence and control over the content we publish.
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Author 
Laszlo Dobos
Educated in computer engineering, Laszlo began developing an interest in crypto and blockchain technology back in 2013.
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Gavin Wood is the former Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of the Ethereum Project.