UNICEF France starts accepting crypto donations

UNICEF France announced last week that it is targeting a new category of donors as it starts accepting donations in cryptocurrencies.

The organization has announced support for nine cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Ripple (XRP), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Dash (DASH), Monero (XMR), EOS (EOS), and Stellar (XLM).

In its official announcement, UNICEF France said (loosely translated):

“From now on, future crypto donors can go to the UNICEF France website and make a donation with one of the 9 accepted crypto-currencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, Dash, Monero, EOS and Stellar).”

This follows the organization’s successful drive to raise funds through Ethereum cryptocurrency earlier this year called Game Chaingers. The project involved aggregating the computing power of all the graphics cards of gamers in the world, to "mine" and generate Ethereum for the benefit of UNICEF. The campaign raised a total of 85 ETH, according to the official website.

"Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology for charitable purposes offer a new opportunity to appeal to the generosity of the public and continue to develop our actions with children in our country of intervention. It is an innovation in terms of solidarity and fundraising that we are still few to propose, but which tends to become more democratic,” Sébastien Lyon, Executive Director of UNICEF France.

Earlier in April, UNICEF Australia started an initiative which will allow users to donate some of their processing power to mine cryptocurrency as a donation to the charity, CoinTelegraph reported.