UNHCR Introduces Blockchain Payment Method to Help Ukrainians Forced to Leave Due to War

The launch of a “blockchain payment solution for digital cash distribution to internally displaced persons (IDPs) and other war-affected people in Ukraine” was announced on December 15 by the UNHCR and the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), an organization promoting the development of the Stellar blockchain.

The organization claimed in a statement that it had joined the United Nations International Computing Center (UNICC) as the first organization “to pilot the new Stellar-based aid disbursement solution.” The UNHCR praised the pilot phase, which was created especially for Ukraine, and claimed that by using this system, the funds are guaranteed to reach their intended recipients.

Eligible Ukrainians will receive the donated funds in the form of the USDC stablecoin under the terms of the agreement. The recipient has the option of keeping the money in their Vibrant wallet or withdrawing it at any Moneygram location worldwide. This is also possible for recipients to do at “over 4,500 Moneygram locations in Ukraine.”

Although the program will eventually be extended to more Ukrainian cities, the statement only mentioned Kyiv, Lviv, and Vinnytsia as the currently participating cities. The “people most impacted and vulnerable due to the war” are among the expected beneficiaries of the pilot.

The pilot program is expected to’strengthen humanitarian efforts’

Karolina Lindholm Billing, the UNHCR’s representative in Ukraine, commented on the agency’s pilot cash distribution program:

“Ukraine is a global leader in the development of technical solutions to increase access to social protection, including assistance for displaced people. For years, UNHCR has collaborated with the tech sector around the world, which has played a critical role in assisting us to innovate in order to deliver assistance faster, as speed is critical in humanitarian action. It is also critical to provide people with a variety of options for receiving assistance because one size does not fit all.”

Denelle Dixon, CEO and Executive Director of SDF, stated that her organization’s collaboration with the UNHCR has paved the way for “a new future for the delivery of billions of dollars in aid disbursed annually.” According to Oleksandr Bornyakov, Ukraine’s deputy minister of digital transformation, the pilot program will likely strengthen “humanitarian efforts all over the world.”