UNICEF Invests Crypto Into Blockchain Startups

July 07, 2020

Blog

UNICEF’s crypto fund makes the biggest investment of 100K into blockchain start-ups

To further its mission in making the world a better place, the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is expanding its blockchain investments with its largest crypto funding contribution to date.

Comprising United States dollars and cryptocurrency amounts, $100,000 will fund startups who utilize open-source technology in their efforts combat global challenges. This latest news follows an announcement from June 20th in which the organization’s crypto fund invested 125 ETH into providing these startups with a prototype within a one-year program and develop their open-source, digital public goods. Previously, UNICEF investments required fund recipients to keep the funds within cryptocurrency as an educational piece to understand cryptocurrency benefits.

Another important focus for UNICEF funds is a requirement to use open-source technology for its use as a tool to:

“Confer the freedom to use, modify, and share for any purpose, not just those allowed or even envisioned by their original creators. For blockchain applications, this is a natural requirement for decentralization and trust that the system is doing what it should. This may be why the only meaningful blockchain frameworks are all open-source licensed.”

Brain Behlendorf

Executive director of the Hyperledger Foundation

Open-Source Technology

The use of open-source technology also enables UNICEF as a fund provider to measure its return on investment and understand the technology’s usefulness in different settings.

Since 2016, UNICEF has invested in more than 50 startups across 35 countries after identifying blockchain as a technological tool that could have a global impact.

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