The United Nations Children’s Fund, better known as Unicef, announced financing a start-up in Argentina with ether(ETH) which is up to USD 100,000. The objective is to promote financial education for sectors of the population that do not have access to these services.
The company benefiting from this UNICEF initiative, coordinated through the Investment Fund and CryptoFund of the organization is Xcapit, based in Córdoba. In addition, the project also encompasses five other firms from Mexico, India, Nepal, Kenya, and Rwanda. This seed capital investment will be used to promote and inform about the various investment methods based on new technologies in Argentina.
Xcapit is a platform that links to a Binance account to generate investments through the artificial intelligence (AI) method. There are different investment plans and models that each user can choose according to their possibilities and preferences.
The company was founded in 2018 and, according to the article published by Unicef Innovation Fund, it will receive 43.78 ether (ETH) for the development of its services for the 1.7 billion people who do not have access to these facilities in Latin America.
On the website of the venture, reference is made to its collaboration with the UN, and the following message is added: “We are building a blockchain platform powered by AI, which fosters a culture of savings and investment among young people.” One of the ideas of this project is that Xcapit has an area dedicated to raising funds in crypto to allocate to community aid in Argentina.
UNICEF and its use of cryptocurrencies
The Unicef Crypto fund (whose official name is UNICEF Cryptocurrency Fund) was launched in 2019, and as the organization itself, represents the first initiative of its kind in the United Nations. It is part of the Unicef Innovation Fund, which to date has contributed to 110 startups from 57 countries with a total of more than USD 10 million.
Cecilia Chapiro, an investment advisor at the Crypto fund, explained that “few people associate UNICEF with blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. But precisely in my area, we seek to explore how these emerging technologies can generate a positive impact on the world.”
In that sense, Chapiro added that all the companies in which this area of Unicef is interested, “have a technological base especially in virtual reality, data science, internet of things, drones and blockchain.”
Unicef creates a cryptocurrency fund to manage donations
Unicef, the UN agency for children, announced the launch of a cryptocurrency fund, which it will use as a new way to accept and distribute donations. As revealed by the institution, it will accept Bitcoin and Ether – two of the most popular cryptocurrencies – in a decision that makes it the first United Nations agency to use this technology. The funds, in principle, will be used to finance technologies that benefit children and young people around the world, the entity explained in a statement.
“This is a new and exciting project for Unicef ,” explained the executive director, Henrietta Fore, who highlighted the potential of digital currencies for the development of the world economy. The executive also added that it has the potential to change the lives of future generations, and considered it important that Unicef explore the opportunities that cryptocurrencies are offering”.
The first contributions to this fund will be made by the Ethereum Foundation, a non-profit entity that promotes the Ethereum platform.
Although Unicef did not specify the amount of that donation, a person in charge of the Ethereum Foundation has said that 100 ether has been disbursed, nearly $234,000 at the current exchange rate. The money will go to three technology projects supported by Unicef, and another that seeks to connect schools in different countries to the internet. The donation has been channeled through the French committee of Unicef, while the national committees of the United States, Australia, and New Zealand are also ready to accept cryptocurrencies.
This is a monumental move by Unicef
The launch of this cryptocurrency fund is part of Unicef’s work with blockchain technology or ‘chain of blocks, which leads the agency together with the World Food Program (WFP), an innovation network within the UN that is studying the potential and potential problems of this and other technologies.
