We’ve been supporting since 2019 UNICEF’s CryptoFund with recurring contributions and we’re enthusiastic about it additionally our newest donation. Right this moment I would wish to share the story of our journey collectively, acknowledge a number of the achievements of our partnership, and speak just a little extra about what’s subsequent.
Why and the way we began
IN earlier weblog publishI defined how growing economies characterize an enormous alternative for Ethereum and talked concerning the significance of asking ourselves “who would profit probably the most from Ethereum?”
Folks residing in growing economies characterize billions of the following era of Ethereum customers and builders. The subsequent query ought to then be: “how are we going to get to the following billion?”
The Ethereum mission began with a small group of individuals on a standard mission, and at present the mission has attracted a whole bunch of 1000’s of like-minded builders and researchers. This like-mindedness was the drive that certain the group collectively, however we should admit that it additionally created pure boundaries to entry for individuals who weren’t related to somebody locally. Due to this, I’ve at all times been conscious that the Ethereum group lacks the true range wanted to maximise the true potential of the expertise and attain the following billion.
In late 2018, I used to be searching for alternatives to develop our attain after I met Chris Fabian of UNICEF Ventures (who now leads Giga mission, which we additionally assist). To be sincere, earlier than our first assembly I had my doubts whether or not EF would work properly with the United Nations group. I felt they had been a really conventional, massive group with standard methods of working. However Chris shared a couple of lists of targets they needed to realize utilizing blockchain expertise and it blew my thoughts.
He and his group understood the significance of public blockchains, in addition to the trade-offs of various protocols. That was the second I grew to become satisfied that there was a chance for each teams to have an impactful partnership. UNICEF has a community and assets that we didn’t have, with steady work in additional than 190 international locations and collaboration with numerous stakeholders together with NGOs, firms, startups and governments. They had been additionally searching for new methods to alter from inside and embrace innovation. That is how our cooperation started, and from there we began supporting the UNICEF CryptoFund, which is introduced and launched at Devcon 5 in October 2019.
Chris Fabian and I at Devcon 5, which coincided with Halloween. The UNICEF enterprise group spent a sleepless night time coordinating with headquarters to launch the CryptoFund.
UNICEF crypto fund
It was pure for EF to develop into a founding donor of UNICEF’s CryptoFund given our collaboration. CryptoFund is the primary fund in your complete UN ecosystem – and maybe within the public sector usually – that receives, holds and makes use of cryptocurrencies, and invests in supporting expertise startups in growing international locations which can be centered on enhancing the lives of kids. These startups obtain tokens and use them with out changing them to fiat currencies, with the objective of growing open supply digital public items. Up to now, 2,527 ETH and eight BTC have been invested, and 18 investments have been made.
On the similar time, CryptoFund is attempting to deal with a key problem for organizations like UNICEF – the problem of transparency and accountability. Historically, donors and different stakeholders do not have entry to a safe, real-time view of how a charity spends its cash. Within the case of CryptoFund, each transaction that CryptoFund makes is seen your web site with a corresponding hyperlink containing immutable transaction particulars on blockchain explorers.
Within the picture above, you possibly can see EF’s most up-to-date donation – which was first acquired by UNICEF France after which transferred to UNICEF headquarters.
The web site is powered by CryptoFund Spruce, a set of open supply instruments developed by UNICEF Ventures to assist handle digital belongings. Any public sector group that desires to make use of tokens in a easy, clear method can experiment with Juniper at present.
Most of the 18 startups that acquired CryptoFund’s funding are additionally utilizing blockchain-based expertise of their merchandise, and we’ll proceed to assist them by workshops and by connecting with fantastic expertise and initiatives within the Ethereum ecosystem. You’ll be able to learn extra about these startups growing open supply digital public items right here.
I can not stress sufficient how impactful this mission has been — not just for the humanitarian sector and governments, however even for the world. It raised consciousness and allowed the general public to see how it’s doable for a big, established and worldwide group to undertake public blockchains in an environment friendly and clear method. I’ve heard a lot constructive suggestions and I sincerely hope that different conventional organizations like UNICEF really feel extra assured in utilizing these public items.
What’s subsequent?
As we proceed to assist CryptoFund and its portfolio firms growing digital public items in growing economies, EF’s collaboration with UNICEF is evolving. By way of the brand new EF scholarship program, we assist two thrilling developments. One EF Fellow – representing a CryptoFund portfolio firm – is working with many nationwide and municipal governments in Latin America on the usage of blockchain in digital id and verifiable credentials. One other EF fellow is exploring the intersection of web connectivity and blockchain, working with Giga, a joint initiative between UNICEF and the Worldwide Telecommunication Union (ITU) to deliver web to each faculty on the earth.
I am excited to share extra about their work within the coming months and sit up for increasing our attain to the following billion by our continued partnership with UNICEF. Within the meantime, you’ll find them on Twitter: A UNICEF innovation (which manages CryptoFund), UNICEF France (which was the primary nationwide board to make use of crypto) , and Giga.
Lastly, I wish to specific my deepest gratitude to Sunita Grota, who leads UNICEF’s enterprise fund, Christina Rose Lomazzo, UNICEF’s blockchain lead (in addition to Mehran Hydary, Cecilia Chapiro and others who had been a part of the journey collectively), and Chris Fabian, who collectively pushed the needle for these vital steps.
