Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
With traditional financial systems being disrupted by new and easy digital models, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has launched a cryptocurrency fund to support open source technology that it says will benefit children and young people around the world.
This disclosure was made following an official announcement published on October 8. With this, UNICEF has become the first United Nations (UN) organization to hold and make transactions in cryptocurrency.
The cryptocurrency used by the organization are namely Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH).
According to UNICEF executive director Henrietta Fore, “This is a new and exciting venture for UNICEF.
“If digital economies and currencies have the potential to shape the lives of 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.”
After the announcement, the Ethereum Foundation, a Swiss non-profit organization, became the first contributor to the new cryptocurrency fund.
Aya Miyaguchi, executive director of the Foundation, said that 100 Ethers — (by conversion rate as at the time of report, $18,000) — were already sent to the UNICEF via the new partnership.
“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.” Miyaguchi added.
These funds will benefit three grantees of the UNICEF Innovation Fund and also a project coordinated by the GIGA initiative to connect schools across the world to the internet, according to the announcement.
