Joe Tidy is a cyber reporter.
Image source, ReutersThe Ukrainian war effort has so far received at least $10 million in anonymous donations through the internet, according to analysts.
The Ukrainian government, NGOs and volunteer groups have raised money by advertising their Bitcoin wallet addresses online, according to researchers at Elliptic.
More than 4,000 donations have been made so far, with one anonymous donor giving $3m to an organization.
The average donation is $95.
On Saturday afternoon, the official account of the Ukraine government posted a message. Accepting donations of cryptocurrencies. There are three types of digital currency: Bitcoin, Ethereum andUSDT.
Within eight hours, it collected $4.25m from two cryptocurrencies.
The Ukrainian Digital Ministry would not say how the money would be spent.
Tom Robinson, founder of Elliptic, said that cryptocurrencies have emerged as a powerful alternative to payments companies that refuse to allow donations to be made to groups supporting the Ukrainian military.
The donation page for "Come Back Alive", a Ukrainian organization that has been raising money for Ukrainian forces in conflict zones since 2014, was suspended on Friday.
The page was found to violate the company's policies, as they don't allow Patreon to be used for funding weapons or military activity.
Modern conflicts around the world are becoming more and more affected by fund raising using cryptocurrencies.
The current situation in Ukranian seems to be a good time for scammers to trick users.
Elliptic says that at least one social media post was found to have copied a legitimate message from an organization, but with the author changing their address to their own.
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