UNICEF, last Wednesday, became the very first United Nations organization and one of the handfuls of international bodies to reap the benefits of cryptocurrencies. They proudly announced that the agency would now be accepting Bitcoin and Ether as donations through the UNICEF Cryptocurrency Fund.
UNICEF also took its crypto avocation to the next level by declaring that all the contributions made in cryptocurrencies to the UNICEF fund, will be held and even be distributed as the same cryptocurrencies as received instead of converting the raised funds into fiat currencies. The goal behind this is to bring more positive attention to the supported cryptocurrencies.
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This initiative from UNICEF is being considered by many as the “paradigm shift” taking place at the highest levels of international superpowers, which is most likely to send across a wave of mass adoption of digital currencies. UNICEF, rather than automatically converting their crypto donations to traditional currencies, seems to be much more interested in HODLing and spending crypto donations as it is. The motive behind this move is to further enhance transparency, which, in return, would attract a larger number of donors around the globe. The international organization believes that since every donation related transaction will be permanently recorded on the blockchain and everything will be visible on the public ledger, and there will remain almost no room to ‘lose’ funds.
Experts are dubbing this approach by UNICEF as an undeniably impactful move that makes sense than ever in the current scenario. Henrietta Fore, UNICEF’s Executive Director, confirmed that since Bitcoin and other altcoins are the only global form of money today, each and every option in this regard should be explored. She also believes we’re at a juncture when digital currencies are strongly poised to transform the lives of our future generations. And standing at this point, she considers the creation of the UNICEF Cryptocurrency Fund as a significant step forward in humanitarian.
According to reports, the Ethereum Foundation has already donated its contribution to the UNICEF Cryptocurrency Fund, which “will benefit three grantees of the UNICEF Innovation Fund.” Contributed through Ethereum’s French national committee, the initial funding will benefit three grantees—Prescrypto, Atix Labs, and Utopixar alongside a project coordinated by the GIGA initiative to connect schools across the world to the internet. The former three primarily focus on the areas like prescription tracking, matching investors with those needing funding, and community tokens and engagement.
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UNICEF functions across over 190 countries and territories worldwide with the aim of reaching out to the world’s most disadvantaged children. Now, the introduction of the UNICEF Cryptocurrency Fund depicts a crucial move from the international organization towards the adoption of blockchain and cryptos to reach its wider goal.
