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The newly established UNICEF Innovation Fund, under the umbrella of the parent cooperative, has financed six startup blockchain projects in emerging markets to tackle real-world problems. The mutual fund was designed to specifically finance open source and early stage projects in emerging technologies, which would allow UNICEF to learn these new technologies eventually shaping markets for the benefit of children according to the Emergency Fund charter for the United Nations childhood.
According to a press release last month, the innovation fund will invest 100,000 USD. Six companies were chosen from a 100-question pool in 50 countries.
Selected companies will deliver an open source prototype of blockchain applications within 12 months. The six selected companies have joined other 20 technology startups in different scientific areas, including Machine Learning, Data Science, Virtual Reality and Drones managed by the Fund.
Chris Fabian, Chief Adviser of UNICEF's Innovation echoed these sentiments on DLT, "Blockchain technology is still at an early stage – and there's a great deal of experimentation, failure and learning in front of us as we see how and where he can use this technology to create a better world. "
The six blockchain projects are:
Atix Labs – This Argentinian blockchain startup designs and develops solutions based on Bitcoin, Ethereum Classic, Cardano and tokkenit platforms. It will develop a financing platform for SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) with a transparent traceability of the use of funds and their impact.
Onesmart: this Smart City based platform in Mexico offers sustainable solutions for the future. Their project will address the issue of embezzlement and corruption of government funds in emerging markets. The prototype will guarantee the transparent distribution of social services issued by governments to children.
Prescrypto – Another Mexican startup whose flagship app can create, send and track electronic recipes for doctors, clinics and pharmacies. They will develop a tailor-made solution for developing countries to provide a standardized medical platform to improve the efficiency, safety and reliability of the care provided.
Statwig – Headquartered in India, this IoT startup incubated at T-Hub, the largest Indian start-up incubator, specializes in supply chain management systems. For this project they will develop a blockchain-based supply chain solution for the efficient delivery of vaccines to children. The company will use both technologies to increase the visibility, monitoring and monitoring of products.
Utopixar – The Tunisian company has devised an open source community platform called Coinsence.org for a purpose-oriented economy and a connected company. The platform offers various tools for creating value, ideal for organizations that love collaborative standards, responsibilities and shared resources. The tool will be used to create sustainable and growing economies.
W3 Engineers – The technology company based in Bangladesh offers a wide variety of services, including the development of applications that take advantage of the DLT. They are planning an offline mobile network solution for refugee and migrant communities – which would require neither an Internet connection nor a SIM card.
These investments are part of a larger initiative on part of the charity to implement emerging technology for real-world use cases to help needy children. UNICEF also intends to:
- Use smart contracts to improve your organizational efficiencies
- Rationalization of decision-making processes through decentralization
- Build a knowledge base of blockchain technology in U.N and in more than 190 countries in which the charity operates
This is not the first time we are seeing the global charity of children entering the Blockchain arena.
In April 2018, UNICEF Australia announced an initiative whereby users can use the processing power of their computer to extract cryptocurrencies and give it to charity. Prior to this, in February 2018, UNICEF launched a charity campaign for Syrian children, asking PC players to extract the cryptocurrency Ethereum to give children access to clean water, health and education.
Interest from honorable international bodies such as UNICEF not only explore blockchain technology but find viable solutions to real-world problems would do much for the adoption of the DLT and silence critics who proclaim that there are cases minimum use of emerging technology.
Faisal Khan, Data Driven Investor author of this article, which can also be found here.
The opinions and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of CDOTrends.
