The UN Is Ready to Cooperate With The Digital Market Player
TechnologyBit News Today1 min read
Between 2016 and mid-2018 United Nations agencies moved from studying blockchain to paying refugees and raising money through it, while crypto companies began making large charitable gifts of their own. The table lists those steps, from WFP food entitlements on a private Ethereum fork to the Secretary-General's digital cooperation panel and Binance's pledge for flood victims in Japan.
| Date | Organisation | Initiative | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | UNOPS | Blockchain project on aid transfers | Explored how distributed ledgers could make aid transfers more efficient |
| Jan 2017 | World Food Programme | Building Blocks field simulation | Private fork of Ethereum tested for technical viability, with a trial in Pakistan |
| May 2017 | World Food Programme | Building Blocks at Azraq camp, Jordan | 10,000 Syrian refugees paid for food with entitlements recorded on the ledger and linked to iris scans |
| Jan 2018 | UN Women | Live blockchain lab simulation | Agency planned 2018 pilots with other UN bodies and private companies |
| 2 Feb 2018 | UNICEF France and agency BETC | Game Chaingers | Gamers ran Claymore software to mine Ether for Syrian children until 31 March; direct Ether gifts also accepted |
| Feb 2018 | UNICEF | First Game Chaingers tally | 477 contributors mined about EUR 1,105 in the opening days |
| Late Mar 2018 | Ripple | $29 million in XRP to DonorsChoose | Covered 35,647 teacher requests at 16,561 US public schools |
| May 2018 | UNOPS | IOTA trial | Agency examined the IOTA ledger to improve its data management |
| 8 Jul 2018 | Binance | West Japan flood relief | $1 million pledged, payable in BNB, BTC or yen |
| Jul 2018 | Binance | Flood relief crowdfunding | About $410,000 collected from users in the first week |
| 12 Jul 2018 | UN Secretary-General | High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation | 20 members led by Melinda Gates and Jack Ma, with blockchain among the main topics |
Sources: WFP Innovation, The Jordan Times, The Living Library, University of Geneva, Global Geneva, The Next Web, PC Gamer, Journal du Coin, Crypto.news, CryptoSlate, Cryptoglobe, UNHCR, IP Watch.
