Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin donates $1.5 billion in cryptocurrency to India COVID Relief Fund & other charities

Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Ethereum, has donated about $1.5 billion in Ether and Dogecoin knockoffs to the India COVID Relief Fund and a range of other charities (image Source: Twitter)

In one of the largest-ever individual philanthropy efforts, Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Ethereum, has donated about $1.5 billion in Ether and Dogecoin knockoffs to the India COVID Relief Fund and a range of other charities.

Buterin, who recently became the world’s youngest cryptocurrency billionaire at the age of 27, donated 500 ETH and over 50 trillion SHIB (Shiba Inu), a meme coin, worth around $1.14 billion at the time of the transaction, to India's COVID-Crypto Relief Fund, set up by Indian tech entrepreneur Sandeep Nailwal.

Following the transaction, Nailwal took to Twitter to thank Buterin and assure SHIB investors the funds will be spent responsibly. “We will not do anything which hurts any community specially the retail community involved with SHIB,” wrote Nailwal.

Thanks @VitalikButerin

One thing we have learnt from Ethereum and @VitalikButerin is importance of community

We will not do anything which hurts any community specially the retail community involved with $SHIB

COVID-19 Vaccine

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A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

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There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

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We will act responsibly!

Plz dont worry $SHIB holders. https://t.co/M4GxTR0JAn

— Sandeep - Polygon(prev Matic Network) (@sandeepnailwal) May 12, 2021

The rise in popularity of Dogecoin has led to the creation of a bunch of 'meme coins' which have managed to rake in billions (USD) worth of investment in a matter of months. However, following the transaction, SHIB dropped over 35 percent, Dogelon Mars was down 65 percent and Akita Inu fell more than 50 percent in the past 24 hours.