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In a recent announcement, UNICEF stated that it would have the option to receive, hold, and distribute the contribution of cryptocurrencies in Ether and Bitcoin through its recently established UNICEF Cryptocurrency Fund. In a first for United Nations associations, UNICEF will utilize cryptocurrencies to fund open source projects, which will benefit young people and children around the globe.
To understand and be ready for a digitally financed future, @UNICEFInnovate with the support of @ethereum will be the first UN organization to hold crypto-denominated assets through its #UNICEFCryptoFund. 🚀https://t.co/BJ1nZ6f1ka pic.twitter.com/gCBKk1hxnX
— UNICEF Innovation (@UNICEFinnovate) October 9, 2019
UNICEF Executive Director, Henrietta Fore said,
This is a new and exciting venture for UNICEF. If digital economies and currencies have the potential to shape the lives of the coming generations, it is important that we explore the opportunities they offer. That’s why the creation of our Cryptocurrency Fund is a significant and welcome step forward in humanitarian and development work.
The first donation to the UNICEF Cryptocurrency Fund will be accepted from the Ethereum Foundation. It will benefit three recipients of the UNICEF Innovation Fund, and a venture organized by the GIGA initiative to interface schools over the world to the internet.
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Executive Director of the Ethereum Foundation, Aya Miyaguchi said,
Together with UNICEF, we’re taking action with the Cryptofund to improve access to basic needs, rights, and resources. 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’d like to thank UNICEF and the UNICEF family of national committees for their leadership as we create real progress together.
Regardless, the UNICEF Cryptocurrency Fund is the UN children agency’s most recent move to adopt blockchain technology for its more extensive objective. At the beginning of this year, it was in the initial round of discussion with the government of Kyrgyzstan to utilize the blockchain for giving internet access to schools in the nation through the purported Project Connect initiative.
Last December, UNICEF said it was investing 100,000 dollars in six new blockchain companies to solve global problems through blockchain, starting from healthcare service delivery transparency to managing funds and assets.
The fund was launched with a donation of one Bitcoin and 10,000 Ether from the Ethereum Foundation. It has just signed contracts with organizations from four countries, UNICEF USA, UNICEF Australia, UNICEF France, and UNICEF, New Zealand, to begin accepting cryptocurrency donations directly.
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Three existing portfolio organizations have been chosen to get the initial cryptocurrency donations. Argentina-based Atix Labs will get one Bitcoin, Tunisia-based Utopixar will get 50 Ether, and Mexico-based Prescrypto will get fifty Ether. Altogether, the current Innovation Fund has just supported six blockchain organizations in a portfolio of 72 organizations from 42 countries.
