Cryptocurrency developers have created a digital coin that allows traders to bet on the coronavirus epidemic, based on how many people fall ill or die, according to Reuters.
Called the “CoronaCoin,” its supply will diminish every two days based on the rate of new cases, according to its website – suggesting its price could move higher the more people the virus kills.
The coronavirus epidemic is becoming global, with six new countries reporting their first cases on Friday and the World Health Organization raising its global spread and impact alert to “very high.”
Latest WHO figures indicate more than 82,000 people have been infected, with more than 2,700 deaths in China and 57 deaths in 46 other countries.
The rapid spread of the virus, which emerged in China in December, has stoked a frenzied selloff in global markets, with the three major U.S. stock indexes on track for their worst week since the 2008 financial crisis.
Total supply for the CoronaCoin is based on the world population, and tokens will be burnt once every 48 hours based on the number of those that have been infected or have died, according to its website.
“Some people speculate a large portion of the supply will be burned due to the spread of the virus, so they invest,” Sunny Kemp, a user who identified himself as one of the developers, said in a chat on messaging app Telegram.
Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are digital currencies that rely on advanced cryptography to validate their transactions. The nascent asset class has been plagued by frequent price crashes and scams.
Transactions are recorded through a digital ledger called blockchain. The CoronaCoin blockchain documents the spread of the virus and the token can be bought and sold on some online exchanges, such as Saturn.Network, according to Kemp.
The way the currency is structured:
. There is a set number of tokens in the world: 7,604,953,650.
. The total number of tokens = the population of the world at the time of minting the tokens.
. As the number of infected/dead from the virus increases, the number of tokens are manually burned every 48 hours. So for every one infection, one token is burned.
„The fact that the number of tokens decreases over time, means that it is deflationary and should become more valuable over time. The supply is also non-mintable, so no new Coronacoins can ever be created.”according to coronatoken.org
By putting the information regarding the number of infections and deaths on the blockchain, it enables this data to enter authoritarian countries uncensored (i.e. China’s Great Firewall). This allows people to understand the true impact of the virus and prepare for any potential situations accordingly.
The ticker symbol of Coronacoin is $nCoV, which will enable it to rapidly gain publicity, due to it sharing the same name as the novel-coronavirus.
When deciding on which blockchain ecosystem to use, the team behind Coronacoin decided to use the Ethereum blockchain. Since it has already been adopted by a large number of developers and users, they decided it was the perfect platform for Coronacoin and its planned DAPPs
(decentralized applications).
Around 20% of supply will be allocated for donation monthly to the Red Cross using a well-known cryptocurrency payments processor, Kemp said.
Asked whether the token could be seen as morbid, Kemp said: “There are currently active pandemic bonds issued by the WHO. How is that different?”
For more details download The CoronaToken.org Whitepaper
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