Ukraine: With Cryptocurrency and NFT against the Russian invasion

The conquest of Ukraine is much more difficult for Russia's troops than Commander Putin may have suspected – also due to the digital resistance.

Alex Bornyakov is Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation in Ukraine. The invasion of Russia changed his job overnight. Before his country was put into a state of war, Bornyakov promoted the country's tech hub, built its own Silicon Valley, and worked to improve digital literacy. 

Now he is mainly focused on somehow keeping the country's telecommunications infrastructure running and protecting it in the best possible way from the bombing of Russia. At the beginning of his tenure, one of Bornyakov's main tasks was to bring cryptocurrencies closer to his nation. Efforts in this area are now proving valuable. 

Within days of the first invasion, Mykhailo Federov, the country's deputy prime minister, commissioned Bornyakov to set up a fund and publish information about it on Twitter, as the politician reveals in an interview with Cnet. The result was a flood of support from people around the world. In total, the government was able to collect cryptocurrencies worth 53 million US dollars.

By receiving large sums of money in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ether, funds could be quickly redistributed, while traditional transfers would have taken days. The funds were put directly into ammunition, helmets, night vision goggles, medical care and food rations.

NFT as a source of money and memory

While Ukraine is currently still focusing on conventional cryptocurrencies, the country also wants to distribute NFT to raise money. Bornyakov confirmed this to Cnet. The country plans to create a kind of war museum, consisting of a daily news story combined with art, videos or other media, to be sold to supporters as a unique NFT.

As an example, Bornyakov cited the bombing of a maternity ward in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol as a moment that could be remembered as an NFT. NFT is to exist from day zero until the end of the war. "So that we never forget what happened," says Bornyakov.