The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) France has announced that it now accepts donations in the DAI cryptocurrency, which adds to a growing list of accepted cryptocurrencies, of which there are now 10.
The announcement reads,
Donations made in Dai to UNICEF France will go to creating bounties and funding research for open source tech and infrastructure projects, to help the world’s most vulnerable people. No amount is too small.
UNICEF has set up a Ventures initiative that invests in emerging technologies to solve global challenges. According to the website, blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) have been on the radar for a while. A Dignity Network has even been created with the agenda of educating the youth and creating youth-composed “blockchain communities” that can help create solutions for local challenges.
UNICEF France began accepting donations in crypto in 2018, and the DAI token joins Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Litecoin (LTC), EOS (EOS), Monero (XMR), Stellar (XLM), and DASH (DASH).
Last year, Director of UNICEF France, Sébastien Lyon, said of cryptocurrencies and their potential to assist development efforts,
Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology used for charitable purposes offer a new opportunity to appeal to the generosity of the public and continue to develop our operations with children in the countries of intervention.
Meanwhile, blockchain lead at UNICEF Ventures, Christina Lomazzo, told ETHNews that crypto donations in DAI can fund the Venture’s blockchain development community,
When UNICEF France offered to put these Dai donations into global bounties, that’s really where we began to see an alignment with our plans. The overall goal is to get these early startups to a point where UNICEF Ventures or other venture funds can consider investing in them. This may just be one small step towards early funding possibilities, but it’s a really important one.
Donations in the Form of Crypto Growing
Crypto donations and non-profits are becoming an increasingly common phenomenon. The ease and quickness with which an individual can make a donation using crypto — and more generally, the general trait of cryptocommunities banding together for a cause — makes the means of payment a welcome addition to charitable foundations.
In February 2018, UNICEF launched a fundraising program for children in the midst of Syria’s civil war, letting users download a program that would mine Ethereum for the cause. The program, called “Game Chaingers” would directly send the crypto to UNICEF’s account.
UNICEF Australia has set up The Hopepage, which performs a similar function.
Likewise, Coinbase announced that it would donate $10,000 worth of Zcash (ZEC) to GiveCrypto.org as part of its 12 Days of Coinbase, a promotional campaign which doles out crypto donations to those in need.
