Brazilian bitcoin currency exchange FoxBit announced on its Facebook page the initiative to support the victims of the tragedy in Mariana region of Minas Gerais state, Brazil.

The donation campaign runs under the hashtag #BitcoinForMariana.

On November 5, 2015, a dam burst at an iron mine in Brazil and inundated a nearby town, killing at least one person. Ten days later the disaster had grown out of proportion with nine people killed, 19 missing, two dams collapsed and drinking water for a quarter of a million people being cut off. Sixty million cubic meters of water carrying dense orange sediment of mineral waste have displaced 500 people and caused an environmental catastrophe across the territory of nearly 500 km.

FoxBit together with four other Brazilian bitcoin companies – FlowBTC, CoinBR, NegocieCoins and BitcoinToYou – has announced a bitcoin donation campaign which will last until 30 November, 2015. The amount of donations pledged by the five companies is $2,500. The companies will match each dollar donated in BTC by donating the same amount, thus, if the total of donated bitcoins reaches the equivalent of $2,500, with the corresponding contribution of the five companies, the victims will rely of $5,000 of financial help. The collected amount will be used to purchase, package and deliver drinkable water to the population of Governador Valadares. The address for donations is 1SoSMGjEDuvR5Be1g1t9ZHh9gKMbhKrqe.

This is not the first donation campaign initiated by FoxBit. In September the company announced the launch of the “Bitcoin for Peace” campaign to mark the International Day of Peace. The campaign encouraged digital currency exchanges around the world to donate their fees collected on 21 September 2015 to organisations striving for peace in conflict areas.

Diana Bogdan