Announced on Reddit on 20th February 2020 a company has developed a unique and arguably the most unpleasing Ethereum based coin called the CoronaCoin, which is, believe it or not, indexed to proof of death.

It’s been almost two months since the newly detected Coronavirus has been giving nightmares to people from China and other countries. With the death toll now topping two thousand two hundred at the time of writing, countries are stepping up health and sanitary measures and pulling out all stops in containing the spread of novel coronavirus.

CoronaCoin: Did we just see the worst side of the crypto industry?

Amid this state of hysteria, a company decided to launch a coronavirus pegged cryptocurrency called the CoronaCoin (NCOV). NCOV is an Ethereum-supported token whose worth increases in value with each casualty. As the virus spreads, claiming people’s lives, NCOV becomes more valuable.

Put simply, its uniquely designed algorithm ensures that with each death, CoronaCoin investors make money, and needless to say, the announcement has piqued widespread resentment and somewhat antipathy to the crypto industry, inadvertently showing people how much can it lower its morals. Thus, many users took to social media platforms to express their displeasure.

However, the intention to launch a virus-indexed coin may not be as evil as we assume it to be. According to the CoronaToken official website, the token that presumably known to cause economic deflation is actually contributing towards COVID-19 relief efforts. As much as twenty percent (20%) of the total sale of CoronaCoin will be donated to Red Cross, who are helping victims recuperate from the deadly disease.

Besides, the token itself is burned every forty hours, depending on the number of casualties arising from the virus outbreak. Thus, the total supply of CoronaCoin is, in fact, dependent on the world population, rendering the token to be non-mintable and deflationary, as per the website.

That said, the fact that a larger extent of the spread of coronavirus makes the coin’s investors make more money is enough to strike all the wrong chords and spark worldwide criticism. It makes us wonder if the outbreak has gotten the worst out of the crypto industry. Can it really stoop to this level where it is alright to enable people to make money from other people’s misery?

And while that may be open to interpretation, let this instance not be the representative of the whole crypto industry. After all, several prominent names from the industry have stepped forward with substantial crypto donations. Last month, leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced a crypto donation worth one and a half million US dollars ($1.5 million) for the relief of coronavirus victims.

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