The United Nations’ Children’s Welfare Agency (UNICEF) has announced that it had launched the UNICEF Crypto Fund which will facilitate the acceptance of donations in Ethereum and Bitcoin. The prototype of the fund is already running, and the worldwide body is ready to receive cryptocurrency donations.
UNICEF said that Christina Lomazzo, head of the blockchain at the United Nations’ Children’s Fund, will be leading the crypto fund and the activity it engages in. Several of the body’s subsidiaries in France, New Zealand, the US, and Australia have signed up to participate in the fund. It is expected that subsidiaries in several other countries will join the cause, and cryptocurrency funds will be pouring in from all corners of the world.
The purpose of the crypto fund
Cryptocurrencies are approaching mainstream mass adoption and UNICEF is looking to access this growing market. The funds raised through the UNICEF Crypto Fund will be invested in blockchain projects that further the cause of UNICEF. The donations made to the fund will not be converted into fiat currency, or into any other asset that is used on investment platforms. The Bitcoin and Ethereum will be directly funneled into the various blockchain projects that UNICEF is associated with.
There is a limit that has been placed on the donations that can be received by the fund. The fund has been limited to no more than 10,000 ETH and no more than 1,000 BTC. The fund has already received some donations, with 10,000 ETH coming from the Ethereum foundation and another separate donation of 1 BTC coming from an unnamed source. The existing funds have already been used to back six blockchain-based companies out of the 72 companies in their portfolio. The 72 companies in the portfolio are located in 42 countries, and they expect to have more companies on board in the future.
Security of crypto funds
Bodies such as UNICEF depend on the donations that are made by people around the world for them to operate successfully. There are questions of transparency that come with donations, and many prospective donors are skeptical of making contributions to funds due to fears that their donations may be used inappropriately. Blockchain technology and the ledgers that come with it provide transparency and easily verifiable use case for funds. A donor can easily keep track of what a body is using funds for, and this builds confidence in the organization.
Lomazzo said that they are working on providing a visual that reads the data from each blockchain and shows how the money is being used and what for. Each donor can go on the blockchain and verify for themselves that the funds are being used appropriately. The UNICEF Crypto Fund will likely attract huge amounts of donations from players in the crypto industry, especially because the funds will be used to fund the progression of blockchain projects.
UNICEF is affiliated with several other NGOs and these organizations could follow in the world body’s footsteps and adopt cryptocurrency. The mainstream mass adoption of the asset class could be pushed as a result of the participation of such big organizations in the use of digital assets.