Binance rushes to help the epidemic area: point-to-point assistance is more efficient than helping the poor
Text | Qin Xiaofeng Editor | Mandy Wang Mengdie
Produced | Odaily (ID: o-daily)
The number of new coronavirus (2019-nCoV) infections is still rising, and the epidemic situation is not optimistic. Local governments have adopted a series of extraordinary measures, and all sectors of society have also offered their help."Supporting the Wuhan Epidemic, These Blockchain Companies Are in Action"Faced with the difficult situation of frequent news of the shortage of medical supplies in various places, many blockchain companies have also generously donated money to support the epidemic area. Odaily also launches special curated topics
"Supporting the Wuhan Epidemic, These Blockchain Companies Are in Action"
In this issue, our protagonist is Binance. As the first blockchain company to officially support Wuhan, Binance has promised to provide 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) in supplies.
12 days have passed since the "official announcement", how is the progress of Binance's actions? Odaily interviewed the organizer of the aid event, Li Jiayi from the Binance Marketing Department. In this article, we use real details to show readers the real corner of the work of supporting the epidemic area. We also hope to provide some effective experience and help for other non-governmental organizations rushing to aid the epidemic area, and to inspire more capable people to dedicate their love.
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Binance Material Allocation Status
This Spring Festival, most urban white-collar workers stay behind closed doors, but for Li Jiayi, this year is much busier than ever.
Since New Year's Eve, Li has been working overtime for more than ten days in a row, looking for supplies, meeting the needs of hospitals in the epidemic area, and doing his part for the epidemic in Wuhan.
On January 26, the first day of the Lunar New Year, Binance co-founder He Yi called for volunteers in the Binance Marketing Department to cooperate with the Binance Charity Foundation to support Wuhan, and Li Jiayi signed up immediately.
"Our little friends have been paying attention to the epidemic situation. One sister and one call, and there is no one who does not respond." She explained that she had also donated money to the epidemic area in Wuhan before.
On the same day, Binance founder Zhao Changpeng also tweeted that Binance promised to provide 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) to help those infected with the new coronavirus in Wuhan. Binance became the first blockchain company to officially announce assistance to Wuhan.
“We (previously) have not issued any statement, but the Binance Charity Foundation and the Binance team have been very busy in recent days. We still need help with local logistics arrangements.” Zhao Changpeng said.
Li Jiayi said that Binance had no plan to disclose the assistance information to the outside world, "I am afraid that others will say it is a show, so I think it is better to keep a low profile."
And Zhao Changpeng’s official announcement was also based on two reasons: “First, many people asked us if we had donated to Wuhan; second, we are also a slightly influential company in the industry, and we also hope that through our actions, we will drive domestic , and more companies and individuals in the world to pay attention to the Wuhan epidemic and join our love action."
This kind of work rhythm has been the norm for Li Jiayi in the past two weeks. This Northeast woman described her state in one sentence: "I have cried, I have been moved, and I have been sad. Doing charity is a bigger practice for me. Because you have more access to first-hand information, See through life's vicissitudes."
Li Jiayi revealed that in the past ten days, Binance's support operations have cost more than 2 million yuan. The donated materials cover: masks, disinfection machines, disinfection water, medical gloves, protective clothing, etc., and some of the materials are still in transit; the aid areas are not limited to Wuhan, but also include other cities in Hubei, as well as Sichuan, Guangxi and other epidemic situations Serious other provinces and cities.
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Although the amount of the above-mentioned materials is not large, it is the limit of what non-governmental organizations can do in the current state.
Taking the first batch of 3,000 N95 masks as an example, the donation started on January 25 (New Year’s Eve), and Binance requested an order quantity of 50,000 masks (amounting to more than 500,000 yuan) from the manufacturer. Due to insufficient inventory of the manufacturer, only 3,000 were distributed in the end, and Binance allocated the remaining funds to other materials.
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Helping the emergency is not helping the poor, doing practical things is more useful than spending money
During the process of connecting with hospitals in the epidemic area, Li Jiayi found that the hospitals in the epidemic area were basically in a state of "poor and white", and there was an extreme shortage of supplies.
“The hospitals I’ve dealt with, especially the earliest ones, basically have nothing.” Li Jiayi explained, “Especially the health stations in county towns and rural areas, it’s even worse. Their medical level is even worse. Materials, including logistics and transportation, are very difficult, so they are basically in a state of having nothing.”
Binance's rescue principle is "rescue the emergency, not the poor." Li Jiayi explained that Binance is using a small amount for emergency relief, ensuring that the supplies are delivered to the people who need them most, and the resources are allocated to the maximum extent, instead of hoarding in a hospital warehouse.
According to the rescue list it showed to Odaily, each batch of supplies, including gloves and protective clothing, must be distributed to dozens of hospitals. Taking protective clothing as an example, the number of protective clothing allocated to each hospital is indeed very small, and those who have more can only be allocated more than ten sets.
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(100,000 gloves)
"We don't just distribute each batch of goods to one or two hospitals. That's really easy. After the publicity, it seems to be very powerful." Li Jiayi added, "Binance announced the epidemic The 10 million aid fund is not about who spends money faster, but who gets more practical things in the end, and this is not a one- or two-day battle, every penny must be spent correctly.”
In the process of searching for materials, Binance also tried its best to suppress the living space of middlemen. All materials, try to ensure that they are purchased directly from the manufacturer. For this reason, Li Jiayi entered various material docking groups, frantically searching for material information. Even if there is a middleman, she still requires direct communication with the manufacturer's group, checks the other party's qualifications, and requires the manufacturer to collect the account from the public during the transaction, "We oppose all kinds of price gouging behaviors to prevent the middleman from making a fortune. "
In addition, due to the shortage of domestic materials, Binance has also turned its attention to the international market. "There are many factories in China, which have now been taken over by the government and purchased in a unified manner. We think the country can make better allocations. In this case, we will not add to the chaos, and we will do our best to find external sources of goods." Li Jiayi He explained that in order to facilitate overseas customs clearance, on the one hand, Binance used the green channel of the Red Cross Society of Hubei Province, and on the other hand, in order to speed up customs clearance, they also found a third-party customs clearance company to clear customs.
In addition to material procurement, how to ensure that each batch of materials is delivered to the hospital quickly and accurately has also become a difficult problem to test Binance.
Binance's solution is to form a common group of material demanders (hospitals), material suppliers (manufacturers), logistics transporters (logistics companies), and material payers (Binance).
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(receipt certificate)
First of all, Binance will review the identity of the staff of the material demander to confirm whether they belong to the hospital in the epidemic area. After the materials are shipped and arrived, Binance will notify the staff in the group; after the materials are received, the other party will be required to issue a receipt certificate to ensure that each batch of materials is actually delivered to each hospital; in addition, the logistics party needs to synchronize in the group Logistics information to prevent material loss.
Of course, the transportation of materials was not very smooth. Since there are many hospitals corresponding to each batch of materials, and the logistics can only reach Wuhan at present, hospitals in other cities can only drive to Wuhan to pick them up. "The docking cycle of each batch of materials is very long."
Li Jiayi added that the current logistics are changing day by day. The first batch of overseas supplies will fly directly to Changsha, the second batch will fly directly to Shanghai, and it may also fly directly to Beijing or other cities in the future.
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Unforgettable Moments: File Folders as Protective Masks
When the reporter asked Li Jiayi what unforgettable moments she had during her volunteer work, she told us three short stories about three materials: protective masks, disinfectant and protective clothing.
On January 25th, it was New Year's Eve when thousands of families were reunited, but medical workers were still fighting on the front line of the fight against the epidemic.
What attracted more attention that night than the Spring Festival Gala was the photos and videos of the epidemic area that were circulated on the Internet: On New Year’s Eve, because takeaway delivery was suspended, the New Year’s Eve dinner for doctors at Wuhan Tongji Hospital could only be instant noodles and biscuits.
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(Tongji doctors fighting on the front line)
In addition to the shortage of living supplies, the shortage of medical supplies has attracted the attention of all walks of life since that day.
Li Jiayi clearly remembered that that night, the nurses of Xiaogan First Hospital posted a photo in the WeChat group: Due to the lack of protective masks, medical staff used transparent file bags to make protective masks. But they are still optimistic, with angelic smiles between their brows and eyes. This scene shocked Li Jiayi.
After donating to the epidemic area, Li Jiayi immediately contacted his friends and asked them to distribute protective materials to Xiaogan First Hospital. Not long after, Xiaogan sent back the photos to express his gratitude.
"Our own strength is not enough." After that, Li Jiayi responded to Binance Charity and started an organized rescue operation.
"They (doctors) are the frontline people who risk their lives to save the lives of others. These protective equipment are what they should have, but they didn't get it. But they didn't complain, didn't shrink back, didn't have resistance, but they themselves Find a way to persevere. They are very grateful when these protective necessities are delivered to them.”
2. Disinfectant
On January 28, Binance contacted a manufacturer in Shandong through a blockchain public welfare organization and ordered 200 barrels (5 tons in total) of disinfectant water.
Later, through a reporter friend, I contacted YTO Logistics to be responsible for the transportation. Yuantong finally decided to provide free transportation to support the epidemic area in Wuhan.
"At that time, the people we met were also very excited. We said that they belonged to real heroes and delivered the goods to Wuhan for you." Thinking of this incident, Li Jiayi was still very angry.
Later, Binance negotiated seriously with the manufacturer, and contacted the courier immediately to apologize.
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Fortunately, the courier brother was very generous. He was wronged, and he still insisted on picking up and delivering the goods the next day. From Shandong to Wuhan, thousands of miles away, the courier brother successfully delivered the goods the next day after picking them up.
"I am really grateful to the courier brother. This kind of spirit is really precious. I also told him that I thank you on behalf of the people of China and the world."
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(Yuantong disinfection water delivery truck)
3. Protective clothing
According to Xinhuanet, the current demand for medical protective clothing on the frontline of the fight against the "epidemic" is very large. The demand for medical protective clothing on the frontline of Wuhan alone has far exceeded my country's production and supply in normal times. In the early days of the "epidemic" war, Hubei's demand list for medical protective clothing was once as high as 100,000 sets per day, of which Wuhan's daily demand was 50,000 sets. In 2019, the total output of my country's national standard medical protective clothing was only 400,000 sets.
As mentioned earlier, Binance’s first and second batches of overseas supplies were protective clothing. It is worth noting that the second batch of a total of 2,300 (originally priced at 2,600, 300 out of stock) protective clothing is reusable. This batch of protective clothing, from Tel Aviv, Israel, was the same type of protective clothing used by the British medical team to fight against the Ebola virus in West Africa.
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(reusable protective clothing)
The reusable nature makes this batch of materials even more precious. However, when Binance purchased from overseas manufacturers, they were reluctant to cooperate with them at first.
"Materials are very precious, and they (manufacturers) are also afraid that we will resell them, so they are only willing to give to internationally renowned foundations and provide business information." Li Jiayi explained, "At first we had to give up, but then we gave it a try The mentality, saying that we belong to Binance. Unexpectedly, this middleman actually knew about Binance, and was willing to help us connect with the manufacturer, because he himself is in the pharmaceutical industry, and finally succeeded in getting the goods.”
This batch of protective clothing is also the largest batch of materials that Binance has invested so far: the unit price of each protective clothing is about 70 US dollars (490 yuan), and the total cost exceeds 1 million yuan.
At present, the unit price of other protective clothing on the market is only more than 100 yuan. Although the cost of this batch of materials is high, Li Jiayi believes that it is worth the money. "The first is that it can be reused, which is more cost-effective; the second is that the impermeability is far superior to other protective clothing."
Li Jiayi also told Odaily that this batch of reusable protective clothing will be used by medical teams from various provinces supporting Wuhan and some experts, including well-known experts who are familiar to everyone, but it is not convenient to disclose their names.
At present, 2,300 pieces of reusable protective clothing have taken off from Tel Aviv, are about to land in Shanghai, and will be shipped to the epidemic area in the near future.
