Irish charity receives $1.1 million grant to fund blockchain aid distribution project. Oxfam Ireland, a Belfast-based charity fighting global poverty, received a €1 million ($1.1 million) grant to fund the next phase of a blockchain aid distribution project.
According to Irish Times, Oxfam is piloting the Ethereum-based platform with Ethereum venture studio ConsenSys and Australian tech firm Sempo in Vanuatu.
The project, UnBlocked Cash, was awarded the grant from the European Innovation Council in a competition called Blockchains for Social Good to run the second phase of the pilot.
In the first phase of the pilot, 200 residents in the villages of Pango and Mele Maat on the island of Efate received tap-and-pay cards. Each card loaded with about 4,000 vatu ($50) in DAI, according to Australian news outlet Mickey. The cards were used for payments across a network of local stores and schools, with 32 vendors in total.
According to the Times, the second phase of the pilot will include more than 5,000 participants and 100 vendors. Oxfam pitched the project to a jury in Brussels and was one of 24 projects picked from 178 applications, the charity said.
“Future plans seek to address the needs of over 2.7 million disaster-exposed and vulnerable people across the Pacific Region, as well as expanding use across the Oxfam Confederation, which reached 22.3 million people, across 90 countries, in 2018 alone,” Oxfam Ireland’s Director of Programme Niamh Carty said in a written statement.
[image: Jasper Wilde]
