BTC FUNDED COVID-19 TRACKER INFORMED INDIA BEFORE AAROGYA SETU

Covid-19 has reminded the world the world about the importance of information and the bliss of ignorance. Every since the virus began spreading outside mainland China, there’s been only one question of everyone’s mind – “Is there a positive case in my country?”

In a country like India, with over 1.2 billion people, sharing a 3,400-kilometre border with the source of the virus China, supported by a weak domestic healthcare infrastructure, an under-insured population, and the largest diaspora in the world, inklings of the next coronavirus epicentre was foreseeable. At a time like this, to be informed and not in bliss was important, if not essential.

During March, when the number of cases in the sub-continent began rising, I remember skimming through various news portals, health ministry websites and health ministers’ Twitter handles to come to terms with the size and scale of the spread. However, with no consolidated domestic tracker, and most international trackers looking at the big-picture and not country-level data, it’s easy to sway into the “ignorance is bliss camp.”

Some, instead of being ignorant and quiet, decided to keep the public abreast of what is happening in the country. Sachin Yadav, better known as ze_rusty, a designer from Hyderabad, India, took it upon himself to build a grassroots tracker of domestic Covid-19 cases with the hope of keeping people alert and informed. And you know what else? He funded it all through Bitcoin.

The initial steps

During the early phase of India’s Covid-19 ordeal, when just above 100 cases were reported in the subcontinent, Rusty decided to bridge the information gap. He didn’t do it alone either, behind him was a 6,000-member strong IndiaBits community comprised of cryptocurrency enthusiasts.

Gathering like-minded and citizen-conscious minds of the IndiaBits community, Rusty, sent out a poll on their Telegram group. In the poll, Rusty was quite clear this would be a tracker specifically for India, complete with the all-CAPS, providing useful information about the number of active cases, state-wise breakdwon and other ‘basic guidelines and stats.’ An overwhelming 73 percent were in favor of the website and thus began the creation of India’s Bitcoin fueled Covid-19 tracker.

Using the tipping-bot in the IndiaBits telegram channel, Rusty said he received funds entirely in Bitcoin and no altcoins. In the first three hours of the crowdfunding, 300,000 Satoshis was pledged. He also put up his Bitcoin address on Twitter CC-ing, none other than and a man who knows a thing or two about Covid-19 and Bitcoin, Balaji Srinivasan.

On March 15, the website went live, and according to Rusty, it had 2,000 - 3,000 visits every day for over a month, until the Indian government’s official application was launched.

Rusty’s simplistic design and essential data was a feature not a flaw, he insisted. Instead of creating confusion and panic, this tracker was meant to create simplicity of data and not present a hosh-posh of numbers and graphs. He said, in no uncertain terms,

‘The reason I wanted to make this was because there was no simple data available anywhere... whatever was there people couldn’t trust, and it was too complicated to go through. So, I thought, people just want to see the numbers. Let’s be honest, you came here to see the numbers.’

The website tracks the total number of cases, patients recovered, under care and fatalities at a glance. In order to prevent the spread of misinformation, the tracker also provided essential corollary information, not in its own words, but by linking through to official documents of the central government. Displaying information such as the official lockdown duration, and guidelines on home quarantine period for traveling returnees.

Man on a Mission

Despite being in his early twenties, complete with a snapback quoting “Why Not”, as an air of smoke filled the room when we spoke, Rusty is a veteran of the Bitcoin world. He entered the cryptocurrency world as early as 2012-2013 through the path of one of Bitcoin’s predecessor used cases, Liberty Reserve, a digital payment system shut down by the United States government in 2013.

Bemoaning the “in it for the money” crowd who entered the Bitcoin market following the 2017 bull-run, Rusty’s vision for Bitcoin stretches far beyond what most people call “Lambo money” or “Bitcoin to the moon.” He stated,

‘I realized, there’s more to it [Bitcoin]. Of course, it will get me the money in the long run, if I keep stacking. But apart from it that there are so many important things [in the Bitcoin ecosystem].’

Rusty, an ardent Bitcoin not blockchain supporter, lays the blame on the anti-crypto narrative painted by the traditional financial media, both domestic and international and the 2017-2018 ICO boom which resulted in a multitude of scams.

India is no stranger to the ICO cesspool. In 2018, an ICO called Money Trade Coin [MTC] scammed investors of a total of $75 million with the help of an assistant inspector of police. As recently as February 2019 a $200,000 ICO scam with roots in India was advertised on prominent cryptocurrency websites like CoinMarketCap and newsBTC.

No doubt, nefarious minds have used the image of Bitcoin to prop-up altcoin scams, doing away with millions through information asymmetry. But this tracker powered by a disparaged IndiaBits community was leveraging the decried power of Bitcoin, to not only show the masses the unifying power of a censorship-resistant, universal and ubiquitous cryptocurrency but to bridge the once exploited information asymmetry.

This tracker is an example of the good a community-powered currency like Bitcoin can do.

Follow the leader

Weeks after Rusty’s Bitcoin funded Covid-19 tracker took the air, India launched Aarogya Setu an “open-source cross-platform” application. India enforced the world’s biggest lockdown on 24 March, lasting an initial estimate of 21-days. On 14 April, with just a week to go for the lockdown to be lifted, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an extension to 3 May, and urged citizens to download the Aarogya Setu application.

However, Aarogya Setu had some “problems.” Robert Baptiste, a French hacker going by the name Elliot Anderson, the protagonist in the TV show Mr. Robot hacked into the application to reveal several security and privacy issues. In a May 6 blog post, the hacker stated nefarious actors could access the app’s internal files and find out the number of infected people in any part of India.

His tweet [mentioned below] caught the eye of the Indian National Informatics Center [NIC], which put out an official statement on the matter. Anderson, however, summed up their reply as - “Nothing to see here, move on.”

More than numbers

Giving has always been a part of the Bitcoin community, and this tracker is the beginning of the Indian cryptocurrency community’s philanthropic testament.

While numbers is a good start to keep the public informed, the ambitions of Rusty and the Indian cryptocurrency community doesn’t stop there. When India enforced their lockdown, the worst-affected were also the poorest. India’s domestic migrants were left in economic limbo. With no source of income, and no means to travel back to their hometowns, many were left hungry and homeless.

Looking at their destitute state, Rusty claimed that the community was planning on raising a further INR 1 lakh [~$1,300] in Bitcoin to provide food and basic sanitation to the migrants, but unfortunately due to logistical fallacies “we had to drop the plan,” he lamented.

Bitcoin and philanthropy is quite a common association. With the ease of setting up a wallet, the universal nature of crypto and the simplicity of use, many charities and foundations including the Wikimedia Foundation, the Red Cross, Save the Children, United Way, among others have received Bitcoin donations. In 2018, Fidelity Charitable reported $69 million received in cryptocurrency donations from just 169 donors, marking a 10-fold increase since they began accepting Bitcoin donations in 2015.

Rusty with a wry-smile and a glint in his eye attested to the ‘philanthropic’ nature of the Bitcoin community and stated that while they couldn’t do their part this time around, in the future, there will be more opportunities to show the public the true nature of Bitcoiners in India. He concluded,

‘We’re still going to do it in different ways. Maybe corona [virus] won’t be the reason for it, but things like this, in different ways.’