Denmark’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has released a new report on the applicability of blockchain to foreign aid.
The study was prepared in conjunction with blockchain startup Coinify and Sustania, a think tank, in a bid to explore the ways in which the technology can help deliver assistance to impoverished areas, particularly on the financial side. It’s an area that has attracted interest from a number of public-sector organizations, including the United Nations. The UN, for example, used ethereum as a means to deliver aid to thousands of refugees in a pilot program earlier this year.
Among the proposals: using blockchain as a means to send aid from Denmark citizens to those in need directly. The report suggests that the country should “consider being the first donor country to transfer aid by using cryptocurrency.”
The possible benefits of such an arrangement center mainly around the removal of financial intermediaries from the process. Rather than funding going through the traditional financial system, donors could potentially send cryptocurrencies straight to the foreign government or group that is collecting aid.
“There [are] huge opportunities in bringing the technological development into play in development cooperation. The use of blockchain and cryptocurrency is merely some of the technologies, which can give us new tools in the development cooperation toolbox,” Ulla Tørnæs, Danish Minister for Development Cooperation, said in a statement.
Diplomats in other countries, including in the U.S., have also started looking at blockchain as a potential vehicle for delivering aid.
Denmark flag image via Shutterstock
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