Cardano NFT Column: Cardano For Pakistan

This week’s guest on the Cardano NFT Column is a completely voluntary charity fundraising campaign to support the 33 million+ victims of the devastating floods ravaging Pakistan: Cardano For Pakistan.

Last week’s guest was an event-based project focused on puzzles, cryptography and internet sleuthing.

This initiative is a point of reference for NFTs on Cardano and every week or two we will invite someone to answer some questions and give us an update directly from within the Cardano community.

Considering that many of our readers are new to the crypto space, we will have a mix of simple and technical questions.

Cardano NFT project: Cardano For Pakistan

Hey, glad to have you here. Please introduce your team, where are you from, what are your backgrounds?

Zushan: Hey everyone, Zushan here. Based in Australia, born and raised in Dubai, but originally Pakistani. I’ve been in CNFTs since the get go, and running ADA NinjaZ since September 2021, with my mates and team. I used to work in academia and government prior to going full-time in this space.

Max: Hey my name is Max.25 and I am based in Switzerland but born and raised in the UK! Been in space since 2021 and founded Universe25 and Fudbuddies with a bunch of  friends. I used to be a creative director by trade before dedicating my time fully to Web3.

What is Cardano For Pakistan? Who’s creating the art?

Zushan: Cardano for Pakistan is a completely voluntary charity fundraising campaign that involves a range of different creators from the Cardano NFT space, to support the 33 million+ victims of the devastating floods ravaging Pakistan.

There has been minimal media coverage or attention on this front, but 1/3rd of the nation is submerged under water, and deaths are taking place on a daily basis. Everyone involved with Cardano for Pakistan is essentially working to support and help those affected.

There are several artists on board, including, but not limited to V (ADA NinjaZ), Flavio (Universe 25), Lucky One (Lucky Planet), Mac CC (Cardano Casino, Project 2090, Boss Dao) Masa (Cyberbots) Henry TG, Bung King, Pink Queen, Victor Warr, Joseph Miranda, SYIOK, Mosie, Kimosabe Art, Olie (SpaceBudz), ADA Army, Cozmos (Pendulum) Sampoo, ExeDeb (Curse NFT) and more.

All of these incredible artists have taken the time out from their very busy schedules to create amazing art pieces that will be minted by the top donors as NFTs. Each artist is creating 1 piece of art, with 5 colour variations.

Additionally, Max from Universe 25 and myself (Zushan from ADA NinjaZ) are project managing the campaign, with Aly injector from JPG Store and Thara supporting us on the marketing front.

We’ve been quite fortunate to also receive support and backing from NMKR & LE4F Agency, who will be providing our minting solutions, and front end development, respectively.

There are a few other businesses in the space who are interested in backing us and also donating, that we’ll be announcing shortly

When will it be possible to send donations? And how does the donation process work?

Zushan: We hope for donations to be live by Monday, 19th September. There will be a donation button on the Cardano For Pakistan website, where you will be able to donate anything above 15 ADA.

For every donation, you will receive a “Receipt” NFT made by the amazing Henry TG.

Additionally, the top donors will receive 1 of the 100-150 NFTs at random.

We are going to donate all the funds to Savepakistan.crypto, an initiative led by the Tayaba organisation in Pakistan, that acts as a crypto aggregator, and has hundreds of different organisations they are in touch with, on the ground, in Pakistan. 

They are able to ascertain that the money is used in the right manner and delivered directly to the people who need it most.

What is the situation in Pakistan? What are people going through and what can be done to help them?

Max: Currently Pakistan is paying a massive price for our global climate change. The flood has caused a potential economical loss of $30B, besides the economical loss that Pakistan will need to recover from, we are seeing over 6.4M people being left behind with inadequate access to basic needs such as housing, food, water, medical aid, etc. 

Even once the flood has cleared, it may take years for Pakistan to fully recover from this catastrophe. We hope that beyond just donating, people understand that global warming has an impact on humans. This isn’t about who causes climate change or who is responsible for it, but rather accepting that we are part of a generation that has to do what we can to fight climate change. Small changes often have the biggest impact. 

What advantages does blockchain technology and NFTs bring to donations? What does the process look like and how can donors be sure their money reaches the desired destination?

Max: Personally I think this really isn’t there is any advantage from a tech perspective but rather from the perspective of a strong community! The Crypto space overall is a tight group of people that are all in the same boat wanting a brighter financial future for the next generation. Especially in Cardano people stick together and support one another to achieve that goal. 

Thanks to that mindset, projects like Cardano For Pakistan, can bring everyone together and work towards helping, regardless of tech, and what blockchain you support.
However, this tech does allow us to provide contributors full transparency with how funds are moved, transferred and potentially allocated. 

This is the power that Crypto has, and this is why initiatives like ours with basically no complex infrastructure can set up a project like this and be held fully accountable by the Community. 

Wishing you good luck! Any closing comments? Where can people learn more and donate?

Max: As simple as it may sound, a “THANK YOU” for anybody that interacted with Cardano For Pakistan in any shape or form. Any donation will help, and even by simply sharing the cause, you are part of the solution! <3

Disclaimer: The opinions and views of the people interviewed are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Cardano Foundation or IOG. Moreover, this content is for educational purposes, it doesn’t constitute financial advice.