- Every 48 hours, CoronaCoins are burnt based on the deaths caused by the virus. The scarcity of the coins leads to the gain in value.
- The developers claim that they are planning to donate 20% of the money to Red Cross via its 2019-nCoV relief effort.
Cryptocurrency developers have created a new digital coin, named CoronaCoin, that lets users bet and earn money based on the number of people who fall ill or die due to Coronavirus. CoronaCoins decrease in number as and when more people get infected. The scarcity of the tokens leads to the gain in value. According to the devs, its total supply is based on the world population – around 7,604,953,650 (over 7 billion).
The website says:
As the number of infected/dead from the virus increases, the number of tokens is manually burned every 48 hours.
On February 28, around 85,366 tokens were burnt. Sunny Kemp, a user who identified himself as one of the developers, told Reuters:
Some people speculate a large portion of the supply will be burned due to the spread of the virus, so they invest.
CoronaCoin developers are planning to donate 20% of the money to Red Cross via its 2019-nCoV relief effort. In response to many people calling the coin a “tasteless idea,” Kemp referred to the World Health Organization (WHO) also issued pandemic bonds. “How’s that different?” he asked. CoronaCoin is backed by proof-of-death data maintained by the WHO.