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Given how eager the International Monetary Fund and World Bank were to pounce on El Salvador for its rapid Bitcoin implementation, it may seem that international adoption of crypto is a distant dream. However while IMF and WB look at crypto through the monetary prism, crypto has evolved way past just payment methods. Nowadays it's the technology that drives the world of crypto - a direct consequence of billions in investments, cleverest minds in tech, and desire for a better tomorrow that fused together into one behemoth of an industry. Hence let it be known, rapid advancements in tech are inevitable, even if global adoption isn't guaranteed. It is unfortunate that this is unclear to most international organizations.
So, with that in mind, does the crypto-verse have a single ally in this world of bureaucracy and neglect for change? Yes, and it's called UNICEF.
UNICEF - the Crypto Flag-bearer
It couldn't have been any other organisation. A United Nations agency, UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) works for the benefit of children worldwide, so it is primed to think about tomorrow and creating a better world for the next generation rather than preserving the status quo and the unsustainable growth that follows. As a result, UNICEF launched the UNICEF Innovation Fund in 2016 which aims to use innovative tech to aid UNICEF's children-oriented missions. Specifically, the fund invests in exclusively open-source projects involved with AI, drones, VR, and blockchain. Open-source, innovative, and impactful tech is the philosophy of the fund which sits perfectly well with the crypto-verse's own ethos. Hence the match made in heaven - blockchain tech is the Innovation Fund's 2nd largest investment category, with over 1,800,000 USD allocated.
Source: Link
Partners
On their website, aside from governments and corporations, the fund names 2 crypto-partners: the Ethereum Foundation and the Ethereum Classic Labs - quite an unlikely alliance to say the least.
Projects UNICEF's Invested In
Alright, but what does UNICEF stand to gain from blockchain? The Innovation Fund seeks to utilize blockchain to track pharmaceuticals and vaccines (RxChain by Prescrypto, StaTwig), providing digital IDs for schoolchildren (Amply by TrustLab), facilitating access to financial services (Kotani Pay, Xcapit), humanitarian aid distribution platform (Rahat), and many more. Feel free to explore the rest of the projects here. Moreover, the projects' code is open-source and up for grabs for those of you looking for inspiration for your own dApps or wishing to implement these solutions in your own community. Clearly the mentioned projects are not "cryptocurrencies" per se, but definitely "crypto" given their reliance on immutable distributed ledgers. Given blockchain's wide applications, particularly in the developing world, I am looking forward to greater UNICEF involvement with the crypto-verse.
Kotani Pay team as featured on UNICEF's website. Source: Link.
What This Means for Adoption of Crypto
A UN agency's avid investment into crypto-projects reveals that there is no conspiracy among the world elites and governments against crypto. Whether IMF and World Bank realise it or not, blockchain technology is exactly that - technology, and as is often the case with new tech it is meant to be applied to solve real life problems and make people's lives better. Though of course it's how you use the tech that matters, but when it comes to UNICEF one can find no bad intent. UNICEF's Innovation Fund's impressive investments in blockchain tech point towards a bright future for global adoption of crypto and a sign of many great things to come. Personally, I am anticipating that other UN agencies and global institutions will follow the example set by UNICEF and step by step, the industry will achieve the recognition it deserves and reach the remarkable potential it has.
P.S. If you want to know about the projects UNICEF is invested in in more details, do tell in the comments. Best regards, comrades!
https://www.unicef.org/innovation/venturefund
https://www.unicefinnovationfund.org/about
https://www.unicef.org/innovation/what-we-do-new
