For the first time in my life, I transferred out the ether (ETH) and dedicated it to Ukraine 🇺🇦

Start the first bag of ether (ETH) in your life

At the end of last year, because of my work, I often encountered topics related to cryptocurrency and NFT for a while (just when NFT was very popular in Taiwan), I felt that I should still have to actually operate it once and understand the entire operation process of cryptocurrency before writing a manuscript. (I am now a text worker), and only entered this circle.

I really didn't think much of it at first. In short, I first applied for an account of a cryptocurrency exchange, and after passing the identity verification (KYC), I found that there was a limited-time fee discount for new users, so I decided to buy Canadian currency during this time. After all, my purpose is to understand the operation process of cryptocurrencies. It is necessary to buy early and late. It is better to buy cryptocurrencies when there are discounts on handling fees.

So the next step is to think about which cryptocurrency to buy. I didn't think much of it at the time, so I decided to choose Ethereum (ETH). There is no other reason. The topic of NFT was very hot in Taiwan at that time (it should still be, right?), if you want to try to buy NFT with cryptocurrencies in the future, it should be more appropriate to choose ether.

Looking back now, although I had a little exposure to relevant information because of the writing of the manuscript, I still knew too little. For example: NFTs minted on different chains will require cryptocurrencies on different chains, in addition to ether, there are cryptocurrencies with much cheaper fees, etc.

In short, I bought the first bag of ether in my life at a relatively high point. The quantifier "bag" is used because there is less than one "piece", let alone a "bucket", so let's use a bag ~ probably a very small bag, smaller than a wallet. Now that bag of "first-time-purchased ether" is still earning interest in my cryptocurrency exchange wallet, I should probably be able to get the value of that bag of ether back up to the price at which I bought it. Put it on a cryptocurrency exchange and don't touch it.

After that, I believe that those who are concerned about the value of cryptocurrencies know that there have been various declines from the end of last year to the beginning of this year. I also took advantage of the time when the price of the currency fell sharply, and continued to buy some ether in small amounts. The reason for still buying ETH is very simple, just because I feel that ETH is a cryptocurrency that I understand better about the price increase compared to other cryptocurrencies, so I continue to buy ETH. After all, if you plan to use ETH to buy NFTs in the future, Seems to need a little more ether. (At that time, Matters's Travelloggers were put into the reference list. I just got Travelloggers a while ago, so I continued to save the ether)

Ready to donate to Ukraine

In the early morning of February 14, Russia officially attacked Ukraine, and the war has continued to this day, and it seems that there is no slack in the capital. Also because of my work, I was really in touch with news related to the front every day during this period. I have been thinking in my heart that if I can't contribute, it's better to contribute some money. In the past, because there was no stable income, I seldom donated. Now I finally have the ability to contribute to the society, so I have been paying attention to relevant donation channels.

However, even if you want to help, you may not really be able to help. Especially with regard to donations, the front line in Ukraine should be in chaos now. Even if a non-profit organization opens a donation link, it is still uncertain whether the money donated can really be used in the right place. In the past, little was known about Ukraine. Without knowing the background of local civil organizations in Ukraine, it was actually risky to donate directly to local organizations; At this point in time, there must be no way for multinational groups to immediately enter the local area to provide assistance, so I have been waiting for official information from the Ukrainian government.

What happened later is just like the title, I know that the official Ukrainian Twitter has announced the wallet addresses of Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum and Tether (USDT) (the wallet addresses of other cryptocurrencies will be opened in succession), and it is confirmed that the news is true. (not the official Twitter hacked account), I decided to dedicate the experience of "transferring ether for the first time" to Ukraine.

Step 1: Buy Ether

I first spent about NT$3,000 and bought 0.042 ether. As for the reason for this number, the main reason is that the account of the cryptocurrency exchange opened before is based on 100 US dollars as the minimum unit, so it is customary to use 3,000 Taiwan dollars as a unit to buy cryptocurrencies.

But to clarify, I later opened accounts on other exchanges where I could buy cryptocurrencies in smaller amounts, so it’s not the same amount every time I buy cryptocurrencies. Just because the cryptocurrency and the stock market fell after the war, I don’t know if this is a kind of war money. In short, I feel that the current currency price is relatively low. I expected to donate about 3,000 Taiwan dollars, so I took 0.042 ether as an integer.

Step 2: Find out that you have to wait an extra day

The next step was to directly transfer the 0.042 ETH to the Ukrainian government's wallet, but unexpectedly encountered the problem of "you have to try it before you know": After I added the Ukrainian government's wallet location to the whitelist, I found that It will take a day before cryptocurrencies can be withdrawn (transferred) to the newly added wallet location.

stand with the people

Here's another little story. That is, I wrote "stand with Ukrainian🇺🇦" in the remarks area of the transfer. After the transfer, I realized that there were actually more "stand With Ukraine" written. I think this should be a certain part of me who more agrees with the concept of "standing with the people" rather than "standing with the country", which is probably the same as when the Czech Senate President Miloš Vystrčil came to Taiwan before. The Legislative Yuan said the concept of "I am Taiwanese".

Well, I admit that this should be an excuse after the fact, because I usually say "stand with Hong Kong", and I don't particularly add er to the end...

Step 3: Withdraw Ether

A day later, the transfer was successful, completing the first time in my life I had withdrawn ether from a cryptocurrency exchange.

Why donate ether?

Before writing this article, I shared on Liker Social that "the first time I transferred ether in my life, I gave it to Ukraine", and received many comments from netizens. Although I have already responded to the questions raised by several netizens under this post, I still want to share here why I decided to donate cryptocurrency in the first place.

To clarify one thing first, I decided to donate ether, and the time I actually transferred it out was on March 1 (the screenshots above are all there), so I didn't see it because I saw the official Ukrainian Twitter post saying that as long as Donate cryptocurrency to the official Ukrainian wallet before 6:00 p.m. local time (GMT+2) on March 3, and you can get an airdrop before deciding to donate ether. The time of the official Ukrainian Twitter post was on March 2, and I had already transferred the money before this tweet~

As for why you chose to donate ETH instead of USDT, there are actually several reasons behind this:

1. The main reason is that I know the price of ETH is relatively low right now.
   I spend the same amount to buy ether or tether, and then the price of ether must have a chance to rise. Tether is a stable currency. If I donate Tether, the value of the cryptocurrency I donate will only be TWD 3,000. In this case, of course I choose Ethereum!
2. There is also a very important idea behind this, I think the Ukrainian government should not use these cryptocurrencies right away. These cryptocurrencies are likely to wait until the end of the war, and the Ukrainian government will need a lot of money to rebuild and repair their homes, At that time, the value of the Canadian currency should rebound, and the 0.042 ether I donated will not be only NT$3,000.
3. As for why I chose Ethereum instead of Bitcoin, it is simply because I know the price of Ethereum better. I have no experience in operating Bitcoin at present, so of course I choose a currency that I am more familiar with.
   

In fact, I spent TWD 3,115 to buy 0.042 ETH the day before. When I transferred the next day, the value of these 0.042 ETH became TWD 3,394. I think I bought it at the right time. In fact, although the gas fee of Ether is not cheap, I was shocked when I first transferred money and doubted whether my decision was right. There are only 0.037 coins. In fact, this is similar to the amount of ether that I could buy with NT$3,000 when I was at a relatively high point. So it is very open-minded.

Can you get an airdrop by donating to the Ukrainian government?

It is precisely because I decided to donate ether before the Ukrainian government announced the airdrop. To be honest, when I saw the news of air investment, my mood was very complicated.

On the one hand, I want to donate money to you because I hope you will use the money well, why do you want to airdrop! Every time I see a non-profit fundraiser that spends time and thought on donating and giving back small things, I feel very puzzled. Although it is understandable that publicity tactics such as "if the donation amount reaches _____ yuan, you can get _____", may increase the total amount of donations received, but from the perspective of donors, I personally prefer to spend all the money I donate. on the knife edge. Later, I learned that airdrops can attract more people to donate cryptocurrencies to Ukraine. Seeing the surge in cryptocurrency donations received by the Ukrainian government, I think the Ukrainian government is really good at it~

Regarding the operation of the Ukrainian government, you can refer to " Why is Ukraine a major cryptocurrency country? " "This article.

On the other hand, I thought that it would be nice to be able to get an airdrop! Although I don’t know what the specific form of airdrop will be at the moment, will it be the issuance of new tokens? Or airdrop POAP? This is like the "donation certificate" of web3.0, and it is also a record that I have participated in this (probably the first time in history) that people donated cryptocurrency across borders to a government to fight against totalitarian aggression.

However, as mentioned earlier, I directly transferred the money from the cryptocurrency exchange to the cryptocurrency wallet of the Ukrainian government, without going through my usual hot wallet, so it is very possible that the Ukrainian government airdropped something, But I can't get it! Therefore, when the Ukrainian government changed its tune and said that it would cancel the airdrop and change to NFT, there was not much difference to me, and there was no gain or loss. After all, I didn’t donate because of the airdrop, and even if there was an airdrop, I might not receive it (laughs)

All in all, having support is a good thing! #StandWithUkraine️