The war in Ukraine has been raging since February this year and millions of Ukrainians have therefore found themselves in dire circumstances. To help these people, the United Nations will therefore donate money to the affected population using blockchain technology, according to a official press release.
Blockchain donations Ukraine
The United Nations agency that will do this is it United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). They will start the program in three major cities in Ukraine: Kyiv, Lviv and Vinnytsia. These are also cities to which many Ukrainians have fled from the hardest-hit areas in the east and south.
People in Ukraine can participate in the program by downloading the Vibrant app. This is a blockchain platform based on the Stellar (XLM) network. In this way, a safe place is created where people can stablecoins that they receive from the United Nations.
Stablecoins and Stellar
The stablecoin that will be used for this is USD Coin (USDC), which is issued by Circle and Coinbase. Once Ukrainians in need have received the stablecoins, they can freely exchange them for other currencies such as the Ukrainian hryvnia or the euro.
Karolina Lindholm Billing, a UNHCR representative for Ukraine, had this to say about the plan:
“UNHCR has been working with the technology sector for years, which has played a vital role in innovating to deliver aid faster, as speed is essential in humanitarian action.”
That speed is also one of the reasons why the Stellar network was chosen. This network is known for the high speed with which transactions can be processed and the low transaction costs involved.
Earlier it was in it crypto news to read that there millions of donations were sent to Ukrainians by private individuals in the form of cryptocurrencies. Even the Ukrainian government has therefore recognized that the importance of the crypto industry to the country cannot be underestimated.