HKmap, HK protesters’ Geo-location data provider, accepts BTC, XRP, other coins
With peaceful protests engulfing Hong Kong for many months now, cryptocurrencies have emerged as one of the key tools to counteract government surveillance, with Bitcoin being the most popular.
In the past couple of months, several local businesses announced that they would be accepting top cryptocurrencies as a mode of payment which includes Pricerite and Hong Kong Free Press.
A new addition is HKmap.live, a live web mapping similar to Google Maps, also started to accept cryptocurrencies for donations.
Kuma, the developer of HKmap.live, spoke about the mapping application and the reason they started to accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, in an interview for Unchained Podcast. In his words, it is a website “that supports HK protests for freedom by providing real-time crowd-sourced geolocation data of groups of polices, protesters, deployed tear gas, warning flags, and more.”
Answering a question about their decision to support cryptocurrencies, Kuma stated that it was because of the “injustice,” further adding that Hong Kong had forced its people to “go anonymous.”
The Twitter announcement from Nov 18 reads:
[Here’s] why I prefer #crypto as our donation option. Anti-government protest should use a decentralized currency that government cannot control. #bitcoin #ethereum and other #cryptocurrency accepted at https://hkmap.live/crypto.html
The website currently accepts Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Monero, ZCash, Stellar, XRP, and Nano for donations, with the latter three being added on the user demand.
According to the dev, at the time of the interview, HKmap.live has raised a “couple thousand worth of US dollars,” which are used to cover hosting, operational, and legal expenses, and for other projects related to HK protests online and offline.
There are organizations fighting for a good cause out there really need the anonymity and decentralize feature cryptos offer and HKmap being one of them.
The developer realizes funding for anti-government movements in an oppressive regime is a dangerous endeavor but they are strong in their will to support the protest movement.
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