While the rest of the world panics about the Covid-19 coronavirus, a group of crypto developers on 4Chan have built a coin that tracks infections and deaths from the deadly illness. The team insists that the CoronaCoin is designed to help raise awareness, but they’re profiting from the deaths and infections associated with the virus. So, what’s up with the CoronaCoin?
What is the CoronaCoin?
According to a Reddit post, the token is built on the Ethereum network. It’s value increases, the more people that the virus infects or kills. According to Sunny Kemp, an admin on the CoronaCoin Telegram group, the project was formed by “programmers and activists on 4Chan.”
“We developed the world’s first blockchain that tracks the spread of the virus based on it’s [sic] token supply. The token supply started at 7.6 billion and is burned every two days to keep up with official WHO statistics,” he said.
The coin’s website promises to donate the funds to the Red Cross to help in efforts to stop the spread of the virus, however on a moral level this is somewhat questionable.
A coin that tracks the deaths of the Coronavirus?
The coronavirus has killed more than 3,000 people and infected close to 90,000 – according to the latest reports from the WHO. The rapid spread of the virus has caused a major selloff in the global markets, with three major US stock indexes reportedly on track for their worst week since the 2008 recession.
The total supply for the coin is based on the world population, and tokens will be burned every 48 hours – based on the number of people who have died or been infected.
According to Kemp, “Some people speculate a large portion of the supply will be burned due to the spread of the virus, so they invest.” Kemp also said that the current team is made up of seven developers, predominantly located in Europe, with more developers coming on board.
The CoronaCoin blockchain documents the spread of the virus, as the token is bought and sold on online exchanges like Saturn.Network. Around 20% of the supply will be allocated to the Red Cross. So, it seems that they will still be profiting from the project – or people’s deaths. Interesting.
Depressing to say the least…
One can’t really expect the best moral standing from 4Chan enthusiasts, but this is still a pretty interesting one – even for them. Aside from the fact that only 20% of the supply will go to fundraising, it seems a bit flippant to create a token based on the number of infections and deaths. It’s also not a particularly good business model – Covid-19 will eventually come under control, as all global pandemics have in the past – and their entire concept will essentially be obsolete. That is unless authorities can’t control it, in which case the creators will make a killing, but we’ll all be dead anyway.
So, what’s up with the CoronaCoin? To be honest – I’m still not sure if they’re trying to do something good or if they’re just creating another shitcoin to profit off an increasingly tragic situation.
Just like Bitcoin, the Coronavirus shows no signs of slowing down.
What’s up with the CoronaCoin? For now, Covid-19 shows no sign of slowing down, so they may very well have a profitable coin for now. With that being said, profiting off of people’s illnesses and deaths is so 4Chan I could scream. Here’s to another shitcoin that will inevitably flop – hopefully it won’t take us down with it.
