2018 West Japan Flood Donation Report

Blockchain Charity Foundation reveals the results of the West Japan Disaster Relief project, our pilot test for donation transparency.  

Background

In late June through mid-July 2018, successive heavy downpours in southwestern Japan resulted in widespread, devastating floods and mudflows. More than 8 million people were advised or urged to evacuate across 23 prefectures. As of July 20, 225 people were confirmed dead across 15 prefectures with a further 13 people reported missing. Further, around 17,000 of the houses of the victims were damaged. It is the deadliest freshwater flood-related disaster in the country since the 1982 Nagasaki flood when 299 people died.

Executive Summary

On July 8, Binance called for actions to help remedy the disaster.

With donors' generous support, we have raised roughly US$410,000 more in crypto-donations at that time in 7 days, making a total donation valued at US$1,410,000 consisting of various types of ERC20 Tokens.

Meanwhile, we reached out to local NGOs, organizations and government agencies to support the frontline donation operation. We identified four organizations that satisfied these criteria: on-site, direct/immediate support, and openness to cryptocurrencies. As of October 15, Binance has completed donations worth around 56,700,000 JPY (63.03 BTC or 169.85 ETH), helping more than 41,200 victims across 3 prefectures: Okayama, Ehime, and Hiroshima.

Our Approach

As soon as the flood occurred, Binance contacted various organizations in Japan to support the victims with the donation.

Peace Winds Japan was established in 1996 with the aim of “timely humanitarian relief in emergencies to help people whose lives have been threatened by conflicts and natural disasters.” As soon as the flood happened, they have dispatched their staff and engaged in the distribution of emergency supplies, support for the evacuation centers, and provision of rescue and search teams. Their comments on Binance's donation can be seen here.

Momotarou Fund is the fund established by Okayama Share Foundation to support various needs of the victims in Okayama by subsidizing local communities, NPOs, and other organizations. Their support includes but not limited to: stress relieve, provision of shelters, children/mothers support, temporary shelter for nursing home, after-school education/care for child victims, mental care, emergency supply, support of school equipments, volunteers, soup-run, hospice care for patients, and reconstruction support. Binance's donation is mentioned in this page.  

Open Japan was established by the groups of the victims and supporters gathered for 2011 Tohoku earthquake in Japan. They provide volunteer services such as clean-up of dirts with heavy equipments and soup-run. For the west Japan flood, they landed the disaster areas in Okayama, Hiroshima, and Ehime as the disaster happened and provided various support. In addition, together with Keen Japan, they have donated shoes to the victims whose shoes have been carried away by the flood. Binance's donation is mentioned here.  

Kure City Office is located in Kure, Hiroshima, which is one of the areas most severely damaged by the west Japan flood. Kure City Office has been providing various help to the victims in the area.  

Bic Camera is the second largest consumer electronics retail chain in Japan and is providing home appliances needed by the victims. Binance has collaborated with Kure City Office and Bic Camera to provide appliances and supplies for temporary shelters.

How Was the Donation Carried Out?

Due to the immediate need to support the victims, the first donation was carried out with the help of the local supporter, Miss Bitcoin Mai. Binance has transferred 61.09 BTC (equivalent to 50 million JPY at that time) to her Bitcoin account. Then, she converted BTC to JPY and bank-transferred 25 million JPY to Peace Winds Japan and 25 million JPY to Momotaro Fund. The flow is summarized below.

2018 July 19 02:45:59

Binance to Miss Bitcoin: 61.09 BTC

Txid:D45ff0d3af33a78361e2c545e1cd2cf751f44e05d33b315462e25402015a9bcd

Txid: 3484a98b42c6f0e3b4ccb9b94340e808eb314efc613136583bb436fc845b1dcd

Destination Address: 3EFJuByQRFNqMdxwM9BjPyPHBUVsQzLvUF

2018 July 19

Miss Bitcoin Fiat Conversion: 61.09 BTC to 50 million JPY

Price: 818,465

Quantity: 61.09 BTC

2018 July 26

Miss Bitcoin's Fiat Transfer to Peace Winds Japan and Momotarou Fund

PeaceWinds Japan: Hiroshima

Bank Account Number: 3023797

Branch: Yuki Branch

Momotarou Fund: Chugoku

Bank Account Number: 3332513

Branch: Main Branch

The second round of the donation was carried out using the cryptocurrencies directly. Open Japan has opened a cryptocurrency account, and Binance has transferred 169.85 ETH (equivalent to 5.3 million JPY at that time).

2018 Aug 31 06:44:09

Binance donated 169.85 ETH to Open Japan

Txid: 0x87f6882fc55149a58eb9173e48326d0919a38c1182e41354a11d9773129ec0c1

Txid: 0x3b8f6952adb3439f14ed682f7a13dd74258c6dcc40b57e68dcb8979f8744987a

2018 Aug 31

Open Japan converted 169.85 ETH to 5.3 Million JPY Equivalent

Also, after hearing the needs of Kure City, Binance has directly made orders to Bic Camera with 1.94316403 BTC, procuring appliances for the temporary shelters in Kure. The donation flow is shown below.

2018 Aug 28 01:22:34

Binance started BTC transfer, totaling 1.54495755BTC (1.19 million JPY)

Txid: 2ba4a8464f649d2b69fb5fded0ec9322ddd2571b1ecf34541b82ca237096e13a

Txid: 97eb3b29689f5515041a2fe82e3aef336de5fe5bd196dd467ae5beafbdbf69a8

Destination Address: 3KbNMZSeCURhG35mgnRJWAFMjQ2yXmBe4L

Destination Address: 34NmGinccVHE6JKQWzjCKRF7Aw2nwKspKT

Destination Address: 3AtibneKP9auHMRecYSyu83ArRGgegskKb

Destination Address: 3HD8Dzo5mUAYYg4PuwEd5sX7eZ2qGcBuUP

2018 Sep 2

Bic Camera completed the 1st delivery of the appliances to the shelters

The disaster will have long term impact. The project is still ongoing. We will keep donating to relevant crises cause the disaster occurred.

Conclusion

Binance has donated about 56.7 million JPY worth of crypto (63.03 BTC & 169.85 ETH) to remedy the West Japan donation. Binance would like to thank all of the donors, users, supporters, coordinators in Japan who have helped us pass the donation to the victims.

Following the donation, Open Japan mentioned, “It wasn't difficult to get our account set up, and once everything was ready Binance contacted us to proceed with the donation. It was carried out instantly, and after confirming the transfer we were able to convert it to Japanese yen. Receiving this donation left us with a deep impression of cryptocurrency: both its growing effect on our world and its potential.”

Binance will continue to support the weak and victims of disasters with the use of cryptocurrencies

Special thanks to the following teams and individuals for their donations:

Teams: POA Network, Steemit Japanese Community, UTRUST Team, Havven, vipstarcoin, ABYSS, and OCT Coin.

Individuals: Skorch founder SpydrZero, Qoqo founder Adam Elmostehi, Zelaa Coin CEO Sahil Arora, Adirut Nithilerdviwat of r0ix.com, Harith of Bitex team, Francesco Nazari Fusetti of Aidcoin, 5 5, Philip Arthur Moore of wecobble.com, Micky Foster, Alexandre Dreyfus, Zahir Khan, Andrey Zolin, Hiroshi, Richard, Hidekazu Sakabayashi, Takuma Okonogi, Tuan Pham, Clay Christain, Takanori Honda, Tsubasa Kanai, Alexander Busarov of walimai.com, Phuong Tran, Cliff Szu of HADRON, and Koichi Miwa.