Since 2019, we person supported UNICEF’s CryptoFund with recurring contributions, and we are excited astir our astir caller donation too. Today, I would similar to stock the communicative of our travel together, to admit immoderate of the achievements of our partnership, and to talk a spot much astir what’s next.

Why and however we started

In a previous blog post, I explained however emerging economies correspond a immense accidental for Ethereum, and talked astir the value of asking ourselves “who would astir payment from Ethereum?”

People surviving successful emerging economies correspond billions of next-generation users and developers of Ethereum. The adjacent question should past be: “how bash we scope the adjacent billion?”

The Ethereum task started with a tiny radical of radical connected a shared mission, and contiguous the task has attracted hundreds of thousands of like-minded developers and researchers. This like-mindedness was the powerfulness that aligned the community, but we should admit that it besides created earthy barriers to introduction for those who were not connected with idiosyncratic successful the community. Because of this, I was ever alert that the Ethereum assemblage was lacking the existent diverseness needed to maximize the technology’s existent potential, and to scope the adjacent billion.

Around the extremity of 2018, I was seeking opportunities to grow our scope erstwhile I met Chris Fabian from UNICEF Ventures (who present leads the Giga project, which we besides support). To beryllium honest, up of our archetypal meeting, I had doubts astir whether EF would enactment good with a squad from the United Nations. I felt they were a precise traditional, large enactment with accepted ways of doing things. But Chris shared a mates of lists of goals that they wanted to execute utilizing blockchain technology, and that blew my mind.

He and his squad understood the value of nationalist blockchains, arsenic good arsenic the tradeoffs of assorted protocols. This was the infinitesimal erstwhile I felt assured that determination was an accidental for some groups to person an impactful partnership. UNICEF has a network, and resources that we did not have, with ongoing enactment successful much than 190 countries, and collaboration with divers stakeholders including NGOs, businesses, startups, and governments. They were besides looking for caller ways to alteration from the inside, and to clasp innovation. This is however our collaboration started, and from determination we began to enactment the UNICEF CryptoFund, which was announced and launched astatine Devcon 5 successful October of 2019.

Chris Fabian and I astatine Devcon 5, which coincided with Halloween. The UNICEF Ventures squad spent a sleepless nighttime coordinating with the Headquarters for the motorboat of the CryptoFund.

UNICEF CryptoFund

It was earthy for the EF to go the founding donor to the UNICEF CryptoFund fixed our collaboration. The CryptoFund is the archetypal conveyance successful the full UN ecosystem - and perchance the nationalist assemblage astatine ample - to receive, hold, and usage crypto, and it makes investments successful enactment of exertion startups wrong processing countries that are aimed astatine improving the lives of children. These startups person tokens and usage them without converting to fiat currencies, wrong the extremity of processing open-source, integer nationalist goods. To date, 2,527 ETH and 8 BTC person been contributed, and 18 investments person been made.

At the aforesaid time, the CryptoFund is trying to tackle a cardinal situation for organizations similar UNICEF - 1 of transparency and accountability. Traditionally, donors and different stakeholders don’t person entree to a real-time, tamper-proof presumption of however a foundation spends its money. In the lawsuit of the CryptoFund, each transaction the CryptoFund makes is disposable connected its website with a corresponding nexus containing immutable transaction details connected blockchain explorers.

In the representation above, you tin spot the EF’s astir caller donation - received archetypal by UNICEF France and past transferred to the UNICEF Headquarters.

The CryptoFund website is powered by Juniper, an open-source acceptable of tools developed by UNICEF Ventures to assistance negociate integer assets. Any nationalist assemblage enactment that wants to leverage tokens successful a user-friendly, transparent way, tin experimentation with Juniper today.

Many of the 18 startups that person received a CryptoFund concern usage blockchain-based exertion successful their products arsenic well, and we volition proceed to enactment them done workshops, and by connecting them to fantastic talents and projects successful the Ethereum ecosystem. You tin work much astir these startups processing open-source, integer nationalist goods here.

I cannot stress capable however influential this task has been – not lone for the humanitarian assemblage and governments, but adjacent to the world. It has raised consciousness and fto the nationalist spot however it is imaginable for a large, established and planetary enactment to follow nationalist blockchains successful businesslike and transparent ways. I person heard truthful overmuch affirmative feedback and genuinely anticipation that different accepted organizations similar UNICEF consciousness much assured making usage of these nationalist goods too.

What’s next?

While we proceed our enactment for the CryptoFund and its portfolio companies processing integer nationalist goods successful emerging economies, EF’s collaboration with UNICEF is evolving. Through the caller EF Fellowship Program, we are supporting 2 breathtaking developments. One EF Fellow - who represents a CryptoFund portfolio institution - is moving with galore nationalist and municipal governments successful Latin America to usage blockchain successful integer individuality and verifiable credentials. Another EF Fellow is exploring the intersection of net connectivity and blockchain, moving with Giga, which is simply a associated inaugural by UNICEF and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) aimed astatine providing net to each schoolhouse successful the world.

I americium excited to stock much astir their enactment successful the coming months and look guardant to expanding our scope to the adjacent cardinal done our continued concern with UNICEF. In the meantime, you tin find them connected Twitter: UNICEF Innovation (which manages the CryptoFund), UNICEF France (which was the archetypal nationalist committee to usage crypto) , and Giga.

Lastly, I would similar to nonstop my deepest appreciation to Sunita Grote, who leads the UNICEF Venture Fund, Christina Rose Lomazzo, UNICEF’s blockchain pb (as good arsenic Mehran Hydary, Cecilia Chapiro, and others who were portion of the travel together), and to Chris Fabian, for pushing the needle unneurotic for these important steps.