Update on the partnership between EF and UNICEF

Since 2019, we have now supported UNICEF’s CryptoFund with recurring contributions, and we’re enthusiastic about our most recent donation too. At this time, I want to share the story of our journey collectively, to acknowledge a few of the achievements of our partnership, and to talk a bit extra about what’s subsequent.

Why and the way we began

In a previous blog post, I defined how rising economies signify an enormous alternative for Ethereum, and talked concerning the significance of asking ourselves “who would most profit from Ethereum?”

Individuals dwelling in rising economies signify billions of next-generation customers and builders of Ethereum. The following query ought to then be: “how will we attain the subsequent billion?”

The Ethereum venture began with a small group of individuals on a shared mission, and in the present day the venture has attracted tons of of 1000’s of like-minded builders and researchers. This like-mindedness was the facility that aligned the group, however we should always admit that it additionally created pure obstacles to entry for individuals who weren’t linked with somebody in the neighborhood. Due to this, I used to be at all times conscious that the Ethereum group was missing the true variety wanted to maximise the know-how’s actual potential, and to succeed in the subsequent billion.

Across the finish of 2018, I used to be looking for alternatives to develop our attain after I met Chris Fabian from UNICEF Ventures (who now leads the Giga project, which we additionally help). To be sincere, forward of our first assembly, I had doubts about whether or not EF would work effectively with a workforce from the United Nations. I felt they have been a really conventional, large group with standard methods of doing issues. However Chris shared a few lists of objectives that they needed to realize utilizing blockchain know-how, and that blew my thoughts.

He and his workforce understood the significance of public blockchains, in addition to the tradeoffs of assorted protocols. This was the second after I felt assured that there was a chance for each teams to have an impactful partnership. UNICEF has a community, and sources that we didn’t have, with ongoing work in additional than 190 international locations, and collaboration with various stakeholders together with NGOs, companies, startups, and governments. They have been additionally on the lookout for new methods to vary from the within, and to embrace innovation. That is how our collaboration began, and from there we started to help the UNICEF CryptoFund, which was announced and launched at Devcon 5 in October of 2019.

Chris Fabian and I at Devcon 5, which coincided with Halloween. The UNICEF Ventures workforce spent a sleepless night time coordinating with the Headquarters for the launch of the CryptoFund.

UNICEF CryptoFund

It was pure for the EF to grow to be the founding donor to the UNICEF CryptoFund given our collaboration. The CryptoFund is the primary automobile in your complete UN ecosystem – and presumably the general public sector at giant – to obtain, maintain, and use crypto, and it makes investments in help of know-how startups inside growing international locations which can be aimed toward enhancing the lives of youngsters. These startups obtain tokens and use them with out changing to fiat currencies, inside the purpose of growing open-source, digital public items. Up to now, 2,527 ETH and eight BTC have been contributed, and 18 investments have been made.

On the similar time, the CryptoFund is attempting to sort out a key problem for organizations like UNICEF – one in all transparency and accountability. Historically, donors and different stakeholders don’t have entry to a real-time, tamper-proof view of how a charity spends its cash. Within the case of the CryptoFund, each transaction the CryptoFund makes is seen on its website with a corresponding hyperlink containing immutable transaction particulars on blockchain explorers.

Within the picture above, you possibly can see the EF’s most up-to-date donation – acquired first by UNICEF France after which transferred to the UNICEF Headquarters.

The CryptoFund web site is powered by Juniper, an open-source set of instruments developed by UNICEF Ventures to assist handle digital property. Any public sector group that wishes to leverage tokens in a user-friendly, clear means, can experiment with Juniper in the present day.

Most of the 18 startups which have acquired a CryptoFund funding use blockchain-based know-how of their merchandise as effectively, and we’ll proceed to help them via workshops, and by connecting them to fantastic skills and initiatives within the Ethereum ecosystem. You may learn extra about these startups growing open-source, digital public items here.

I can’t emphasize sufficient how influential this venture has been — not just for the humanitarian sector and governments, however even to the world. It has raised consciousness and let the general public see how it’s doable for a big, established and worldwide group to undertake public blockchains in environment friendly and clear methods. I’ve heard a lot optimistic suggestions and actually hope that different conventional organizations like UNICEF really feel extra assured making use of those public items too.

What’s subsequent?

Whereas we proceed our help for the CryptoFund and its portfolio firms growing digital public items in rising economies, EF’s collaboration with UNICEF is evolving. By means of the brand new EF Fellowship Program, we’re supporting two thrilling developments. One EF Fellow – who represents a CryptoFund portfolio firm – is working with many nationwide and municipal governments in Latin America to make use of blockchain in digital identification and verifiable credentials. One other EF Fellow is exploring the intersection of web connectivity and blockchain, working with Giga, which is a joint initiative by UNICEF and the Worldwide Telecommunications Union (ITU) aimed toward offering web to each college on the planet.

I’m excited to share extra about their work within the coming months and sit up for increasing our attain to the subsequent billion via our continued partnership with UNICEF. Within the meantime, you could find them on Twitter: UNICEF Innovation (which manages the CryptoFund), UNICEF France (which was the primary nationwide committee to make use of crypto) , and Giga.

Lastly, I want to ship my deepest appreciation to Sunita Grote, who leads the UNICEF Enterprise Fund, Christina Rose Lomazzo, UNICEF’s blockchain lead (in addition to Mehran Hydary, Cecilia Chapiro, and others who have been a part of the journey collectively), and to Chris Fabian, for pushing the needle collectively for these vital steps.