By Shailendree Wickrama Adittiya
There has been an overflow of compassion and kindness during the economic crisis Sri Lanka is currently going through. Whether it is by donating food, medicines, and other essential items to protestors, alerting those in need of fuel or gas availability, or distributing dry rations to vulnerable communities, the people of Sri Lanka have risen above the challenges they are facing to help each other.
With each person helping within their capacity, we have also seen organisations work towards helping people in need. Hyperglade, a Sri Lankan non-fungible token (NFT) product and services company, has organised an NFT collection to help alleviate the medical crisis in the country. Hyperglade Co-CEO/Co-Founder Kalana Muthumuni joined Brunch to talk about the initiative and how people can get involved.
“Sri Lanka is going through the worst economic crisis in its independent history. The Sri Lankan rupee has become the worst-performing currency in the world and dwindling foreign reserves has led to a major shortage of fuel, gas, food, electricity, and medicine,” Muthumuni said, adding that one of the most terrifying results of the crisis is the shortage of medicine.
Medical professionals have taken to social media to share information on shortages of medicine in various hospitals, with others offering to source medicines from overseas. “Doctors have reported that multiple patients have succumbed to death due to the unavailability of medicine,” Muthumuni said.
It is through the sale of this collection of NFTs that Hyperglade plans on alleviating the medical crisis, and more information on the situation can be found on the website medicalcrisis.lk.
Muthumuni said: “90% of the funds will be allocated to help the crisis by using Watchdog and Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) medicine trackers, and 10% of the funds are provided to the creators.”
According to him, Heal Sri Lanka is a collection of 10,000 NFTs by creatives inspired by the struggle of the people. The collection will feature 20 different artworks, each with 500 copies.
“We will feature different types of artwork. We currently have 10 slots left to fill in the collection, and creators can send us artwork, photographs, songs, videos, or poems for the collection,” he said.
Each NFT is valued at $ 100. “NFTs have a royalty function which, in this case, donates 5% of the price every time any of these NFTs gets resold,” Muthumuni added.
He went on to say that the target audience for the collection are the South Asian and South East Asian crypto/NFT communities and the Sri Lankan expatriate community. The entire collection will be visible by 20 May at healsrilankanft.com.
“We are revealing NFTs as we speak,” he said.
Hyperglade has partnered with Hatch Works, Decibel.lk, Utpatti Records, and Urban.lk for the collection.
NFTs are a relatively new technology, and awareness about it has been rising in recent times, especially in Sri Lanka. When asked how they came up with the idea to use a technology like NFTs as a fund-raising initiative, Muthumuni explained that NFT collections have a wider reach internationally and have been proven successful in raising funds in foreign currencies.
“Over the last few months, we have seen successful NFT projects that support causes similar to ours. Furthermore, it provides an international reach to the amazing creators of Sri Lanka and their work,” he added.
However, there are questions about transparency and accountability, especially when it comes to such fund-raising efforts. According to Muthumuni, NFTs are based on the blockchain, which ensures transparency.
He went on to say that all transactions can be traced, and whatever donations made can be cross-referenced in the blockchain. “We will be utilising the trackers setup by Watchdog and GMOA in order to optimally distribute the funds based on the immediate requirements at a hospital and national level. To further ensure transparency, we will be providing proof of costs for each donation made,” Muthumuni added.