UNICEF Opens Cryptocurrency Fund; Ethereum Foundation Donates 100 ETH

Oct 09, 2019
11:10
2 min reading

Choise.com team

In a move to provide open source technology to children all across the world, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) decided to open a cryptocurrency fund that would hold and manage donations made in Bitcoin and Ether. The organization shared the information in a press release released on Wednesday on its official website.

Henrietta Fore, who is the executive director at UNICEF, stated that the potential of digital economies and currencies on future generations made the groundwork of the decision, as the organization is willing to explore the opportunities that the disruptive sector offers. She regarded the creation of a cryptocurrency fund as a significant next step in the organization’s humanitarian work.

The Ethereum Foundation became the first entity to donate to the fund, contributing 100 ETH to the organization’s effort, which is worth around $18,000 at the time of writing. As for the beneficiaries of the crypto fund, three grantees from the UNICEF Innovation Fund will receive a portion of the donations.

The beneficiaries include Atix Labs, Prescrypto, and Utopixar. All of the mentioned projects focus on areas such as ‘prescription tracking, matching investors and those needing funding, and community tokens and engagement.’ Additionally, a project managed by the GIGA initiative, which plans to connect schools all around the world with the internet, is also set to benefit from the fund.

Commenting on their contribution, the executive director of the Ethereum Foundation Aya Miyaguchi stated that the foundation is excited to prove the benefits of Ethereum and blockchain technology as it shows what it can do for communities all around the world. According to Miyaguchi, the Ethereum Foundation is working together with UNICEF through the crypto fund to improve access to basic rights, needs, and resources.

Additionally, the executive director added: ‘We aim to support the research and development of the Ethereum platform and to grow the community of those that benefit from a technology that will better countless lives and industries in the years to come. We would like to thank UNICEF and the UNICEF family of national committees for their leadership as we create progress together.’

Previous accomplishments

On another note, the UNICEF Crypto Fund has previously held discussions with the government of Kyrgyzstan to adopt blockchain as a tool to provide internet access to schools in an initiative named ‘Project Connect.’

Near the end of last year, UNICEF announced that it invested $100,000 in six blockchain startups in an effort to solve global challenges such as healthcare delivery transparence, finance management, resources, and other problems.