© Reuters Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin Donates $5.3M to Kirby Institute
- Vitalik Buterin gifted USDC$4M or $5.3M to Kirby (NYSE:) Insitute UNSW Sydney.
- His donation is believed to be the largest-known cryptocurrency given to an Australian high education institution.
- The donation was to support the development of a pandemic detection tool named EPIWATCH.
Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of , gifted the Kirby Institute at the University of South Wales (UNSW) Sydney to help build a tool that would warn of future pandemics.
Kirby Institute has received the largest known cryptocurrency donation to an higher education institution from #Ethereum co-founder @VitalikButerin to support an open-source tool providing pandemic early warning signals designed by Prof Raina MacIntyre. https://t.co/aYYhI10HiJ pic.twitter.com/rbBWWQCdan
— Kirby Institute, UNSW (@KirbyInstitute) May 13, 2022
The founder of the world’s second biggest cryptocurrency gave USDC$4M (stablecoin), which approximately converts to $5.3 million. It is believed to be the largest-known cryptocurrency given to an Australian high education institution.
The donation was received to support EPIWATCH, an open-source intelligence (OSINT) tool developed by UNSW Kirby Institute’s Professor Raina MacIntyre.
EPIWATCH development began in 2016 and strengthened extensive research and testing. The said tool works by scanning millions of items of publicly available online data, such as social media and news reports, to spot epidemics far faster than formal reporting from national laboratories and doctors.
Buterin said:
The earlier we can detect new epidemics as they come, the more quickly we can start developing treatments or even stop them before they become large.
According to Professor MacIntyre, the gift will allow the team at UNSW’s Kirby Institute to make EPIWATCH accessible to low-and middle-income countries. “Imagine if someone had detected COVID-19 before it spread around the world – that is our…
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