UNICEF’s Venture Arm Trials Smart Contracts

The venture arm of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is expanding its exploration of blockchain to include ethereum.  In a recent trial, the venture arm of UNICEF is testing new ways of sending transactions even through smart Contracts using multi signature contracts.

The agency has also made public the ethereum address being used for the test, which reveals that the agency conducted a number of transactions over the weekend. The information was released in UNICEF Blog post. Last year Unicef had invested in their first Blockchain startup a company focused on creating distributed educational tools. 

UNCIEF software developer Qusai Jouda provided some background for the project, writing: “One way to re-shape online transactions is in lowering the ‘cost of trust’; in effect, improving how parties transfer assets across the Internet. For UNICEF Ventures – where we assess and prototype emerging technology that can provide a portfolio of solutions to our organization as early-stage tech matures – this means testing ethereum-based smart contracts as a tool for improved efficiency, transparency and accountability.”