A Swiss foundation has been issuing non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as incentives to attract donations to a Taiwanese account established by the government to help refugees forced to flee the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Humanity Token, produced by the Swiss nonprofit foundation DECENT, had as of Friday issued up to 100 NFTs of digital art by Ukrainian artist Maria Moroz.
Moroz’s collection of eight works touch on the recent outpouring of support from Taiwan and Slovakia to Ukrainians during their plight.
Donors to the Relieve Disaster Foundation account can apply for a regular NFT with a minimum donation of NT$250 (US$8.71) or one of two special-edition animated NFTs for a donation of NT$500, DECENT partnerships director Ashley Reeves said.
Donors should take a screenshot of their donation and complete an online form to be eligible for an NFT, Reeves said, adding that the first NFT was issued on March 20.
DECENT issued eight NFTs as a special thank-you to one donor who contributed NT$30,000, said Reeves, who is based in Taipei.
DECENT will issue 250 NFTs, each of six regular designs, and 200 of two special animated designs, he said.
Issuing NFTs is a way to reflect a spirit of unity with Ukraine and to say “thank you” to the people who donated, he said.
“We are of course always open to branding opportunities, but for the Ukraine crisis we wanted to utilize technology that we are involved in, to provide a small incentive to Taiwanese donors to help the Ukraine crisis in any way possible,” Reeves said.
Although the donation drive ended on April 1, Reeves said that the foundation would continue to accept online applications for NFTs over the coming days.
“The Web site itself we will probably leave up, and will look for other charity portals in the interim,” Reeves said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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