UNICEF has set up the UNICEF Cryptocurrency Fund to receive, hold and disburse donations in ether and bitcoin. The fund will be used to finance open-source technology and will go towards improving the lives of children and youths worldwide.
The first contributions to the fund will come from the Ethereum Foundation and it will go to three fund recipients of the UNICEF Innovation Fund. They are Prescrypto, Atix Labs and Utopixar.
100 ether, which is worth approximately US$18,000 based on its current price, has been donated to the Fund, said Aya Miyaguchi, Executive Director of the Ethereum Foundation.
UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said the partnership is a “new and exciting venture” for UNICEF. She said the organization is open to exploring the opportunities digital economies and currencies offer if they have the potential to create better lives for the coming generations.
The UNICEF Cryptocurrency Fund is UNICEF’s latest move to push the adoption of blockchain technology for its various goals, while UNICEF is the first UN agency to accept cryptocurrency for donations with UNICEF USA, France, Australia and New Zealand being the first to implement this, according to Forbes.
“We’re going to need need to be ready to deal with digital assets whether that be bitcoin or ether or some other government-backed digital currency. It could be any of those, but this is really helping us build up the muscles to understand how to live or how to on-board digital assets,” said Christina Lomazzo, the UN Children’s Fund’s first head of blockchain.
Earlier this year, the UN was in talks with the Kyrgyzstan government to kick off the Project Connect initiative to utilize blockchain in providing internet access to schools.
