{"id":618131,"date":"2023-03-15T09:49:01","date_gmt":"2023-03-15T14:49:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/15\/in-ukraine-crypto-finds-a-purpose\/"},"modified":"2023-03-15T09:49:01","modified_gmt":"2023-03-15T14:49:01","slug":"in-ukraine-crypto-finds-a-purpose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/15\/in-ukraine-crypto-finds-a-purpose\/","title":{"rendered":"In Ukraine, Crypto Finds a Purpose"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Crypto has been tapped to collect donations during humanitarian crises in the past. It has been successful in bringing together pools of money, but it can be difficult to actually use on the ground. In\u00a0Turkey and Syria<\/a>, after a huge earthquake in February that killed more than 50,000 people, recipients of crypto donations complained that they couldn\u2019t spend the coins or turn them into fiat currency, limiting their usefulness.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenge is that there\u2019s not a lot someone can do with crypto once they have it in their possession,\u201d says Alex Holmes, MoneyGram\u2019s CEO. \u201cIt\u2019s not a form of payment that a lot of [vendors] accept.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The UNHCR pilot overcomes this problem by building in a mechanism to convert crypto into cash.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For now, the stablecoin program in Ukraine is being piloted on a microscopic scale, with fewer than 100 participants in the cities of Kyiv, Lviv, and Vinnytsia. The UNHCR is preparing to expand the initiative to up to 5,000 wallets by April, but this would still represent only a fraction of the number of Ukrainians displaced by the war.<\/p>\n

Hett declined to reveal how much cash has already been distributed via the program\u2014information she describes as \u201cnot so important\u201d\u2014but insists the system is ready to scale. \u201cIt\u2019s not about how many millions have flowed through,\u201d she claims, \u201cit\u2019s about how many millions will flow through going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ukraine may be an ideal proving ground for experimental financial services of this kind. Even before the war, the country was nurturing plans under President Volodymir Zelensky to become a\u00a0digital-first economy<\/a> and build a central bank digital currency\u2014a blockchain-based version of Ukraine\u2019s hryvnia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got a community that is used to change, with high consumer technology penetration, and generations of people scattered across the globe,\u201d says Dora Chomiak, board member at the Ukraine-focused nonprofit Razom. \u201cCombine all of those things, and going beyond formal banking makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

The process of launching the project has, in its own way, been radical for a humanitarian system known for its often ponderous bureaucracy.<\/p>\n

The project was incubated for 10 months before being launched in December, far quicker than its backers anticipated, according to Denelle Dixon, CEO at the Stellar Development Foundation. As well as the usual red tape, the job of convincing stakeholders of the technology was made harder by the\u00a0implosion of crypto exchange FTX<\/a> in November, which sparked a\u00a0crisis of confidence<\/a> in the sector. \u201cBut I think that\u2019s mostly behind us now,\u201d says Dixon.<\/p>\n

The goal is not to replace traditional cash-based intervention, say the UNHCR and its partners, but to arm humanitarian organizations with alternative rails for distributing aid that support the full range of scenarios refugees may find themselves in. \u201cThe real breakthroughs here are more evolutionary than revolutionary,\u201d says Disparte. \u201cIt\u2019s about extending the brick-and-mortar banking system beyond its many limitations.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is also important to avoid scenarios in which crypto is applied to problems that do not exist, says Dixon. \u201cYou never want crypto to be a square peg in a round hole. This is just another option\u2014another tool in the toolbox.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irrespective of the small scope of the initial pilot, the partners on the UNHCR scheme believe that projects like their own, as well as the\u00a0$78 million in crypto<\/a> donated to Ukrainian causes since the war began, hint at a permanent change in the way humanitarian aid will be distributed.<\/p>\n

The UNHCR is investigating the potential for the same system to assist those displaced by the economic crises in Venezuela and Argentina, says Hett. And Holmes points to potential applications in Turkey and Syria.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving portable access to money, no matter where they are, gives people the options to move on in life,\u201d says Hett. \u201cThe question is now, how can we do more of this? Because we know it works.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Joel Khalili<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crypto has been tapped to collect donations during humanitarian crises in the past. It has been successful in bringing together pools of money, but it can be difficult to actually use on the ground. In\u00a0Turkey and Syria, after a huge earthquake in February that killed more than 50,000 people, recipients of crypto donations complained that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":618132,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22791,46,2454],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-618131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crypto","8":"category-technology","9":"category-ukraine"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}