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The UN may not be the most innovative of institutions, yet it does, with surprising frequency, experiment with new technology and solutions. In recent years, its undertaken initiatives that incorporate artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and blockchain technology.

These projects often remain confined to the realm of experiments. But a recent undertaking by UNICEF, the UN agency tasked with providing aid to children around the world, now offers what could be a glimpse of the future: The Cryptocurrency Fund, which collects contributions in cryptocurrencies, and then doles out those donations in the same currency. No exchange needed.

The crypto fund is nested within another UNICEF venture, the Innovation Fund, which provides seed funding to blockchain-based companies developing products or services that could potentially be of use in social and development settings.

Beginning in October 2019, UNICEF has been outfitted to receive donations in two cryptocurrenciesbitcoin and etherwith the first donation coming from the Ethereum Foundation, the organization that created ether. So far three organizations have received funding through UNICEFs crypto fund.

As it does in other settings, cryptocurrency presents opportunities and challenges for UNICEF and, more broadly, the whole UN system. Cryptocurrencies are volatile and vulnerable to scams and money laundering. But they are also highly traceable and, when it comes to the UN, could some day provide the international organization greater independence from the countries that make up its members.

The Innovation Fund, and the crypto fund thats part of it, is managed by an office at UNICEF that handles projects that incorporate technology like drones, machine learning, blockchain, and other advancements. So far, the Innovation Fundwhich amounts to $25 millionhas supported more than 20 companies with seed money, up to $100,000 per investment.

The projects funded varyfrom digital prescription services, to drug delivery, to mobile networks.To receive funding a project must be based in so-called emerging or developing markets, work in a field with a market cap of $1 billion, and work with open source technology. There are no limitations, however, to the field in which the company operates, nor must it provide an immediate social good. Atix Labs, for instance, an Argentinian blockchain developer and a fund recipient, provides services to high-profile clients like Nestl and Honda.

Since the opening of the crypto fund, a portion of the Innovation Funds investments are now made in cryptocurrency. The donations made into the crypto fund arent converted into fiat currency, but given out in the same cryptocurrency in which they were received, so the recipients need to be familiar with blockchain technology and cryptocurrency.

Digital finance is going to change pretty significantly how we work as an organization, Sunita Grote, who manages the Innovation Fund, told Quartz. There was a need to prepare the organization to be able to leverage the kind of emerging technologies in that field to make us more efficient.

UNICEF is an organization with an annual budget of $7 billion that makes a lot of financial transactions. The sheer volume of the funding that we move means that any gains in efficiency, any increases in transparency, could have quite a significant impact on how we operate as an organization, Grote said.

As a large international organization with many layers of bureaucracy, each donation to and from UNICEF has to go through several steps, and digital currency makes that process much easier to trackand much quicker to complete. According to Grote, transactions that could take months to get through the required levels of authorization, can happen in a matter of minutes with blockchain-based currencies, because the required authentications can happen exponentially faster.

In this sense, the crypto fund is a way to grease the wheels and build up that muscle memory internally, Grote said. We can imagine that, a couple of years down the line, we would be making more transactions in digital currencies at greater volume.

Although it is small, and likely to remain such for the foreseeable future (Grote dismissed the idea that there may be a future in sight where the UN works exclusively in digital currency), the potential seems significant, in particular given the fact that the fund doesnt convert back to other currencies. This means that where today the cryptocurrency donation received is transferred directly to a blockchain technology development company, in a faraway tomorrow the recipient could be an employee receiving a salary.

While the program has worked so far, there are several issues that the use of cryptocurrency at the UN raises, beginning with volatility. The value of cryptocurrencies can fluctuate dramatically, and while UNICEF says the fact that there is no conversion and donations are made to and from the fund in the same digital currency, that doesnt necessarily eradicate the issue. For instance, the donation made by the Ethereum Foundation in October was 100 ETH, or about $18,000. It is now worth roughly $22,700.

Companies may be used to dealing with cryptocurrency, but most still need to pay bills in a local fiat currency, Angus Champion de Crespigny, a cryptocurrency expert and managing director of technology at strategic firm C|T Group, told Quartz.

There are other issues to consider, like the risk of hacking and scams related to cryptocurrency accounts, or the fact that volatility can make it hard for a government to track exactly how much money is being donated and received, which raises money laundering concerns.

There is also the value organizations like the Ethereum Foundation derive from having UNICEF use their currencya situation made more complicated by the fact that Ethereum Foundation itself was the first to make a large donation to the crypto fund, and that the organizations persistence was reportedly behind UNICEFs embracing of blockchain and crypto currency. The lobbying seems to have paid off: Ether seems to be the go-to currency for UNICEFs crypto transaction, and is being tested in its Kazakhstan office, where the agency has set up a system to make internal payments in ether.

A recognized public institution such as the UN accepting and distributing bitcoin and ether is of course a vote of confidence in their respective ecosystems,Champion de Crespigny said. While this isnt intrinsically a bad thing, it can have enormous impact at a stage when the value of crypto currency changes so dramatically, and getting the endorsement of a large international organization might help propel the value of the digital currency.

While these potential problems are all of concern, Grote said the UNICEFs crypto fund acts as a sort of test case, allowing managers to learn from the issues that arise and design protocols and best practices to address themultimately helping to potentially introduce the use of cryptocurrency across the whole UN system.

There is also an important political component to cryptocurrencyperhaps best revealed by Facebooks Libra. Although the social networks currency experiment has yet to take off, it revealed the potentially disruptive power of decentralized currency. It is the first instance in which a currency is associated with a community that exists independently of the currency itself. In a way, Facebooks users are to Libra what the citizens of a country are to that countrys currency.

This concept can become particularly powerful in the case of an international organization like the UN. Despite being an institution comprised of numerous member countries, until now its been forced to use national currencies. There have been proposals to introduce an international currency backed by a reserve of state currencies, but no real action has been taken in that direction. Cryptocurrency, which is not associated with any national banks, could be an alternative way to relieve the UN of having to rely on the currencies of individual countries, giving it a new level of independence, and perhaps even more international authority.

After all, what distinguishes cryptocurrency is its decentralized nature.

Many would argue that bitcoins sole value proposition is to allow people and entities to be independent of central banks, Champion de Crespigny said, in which case non-sovereign organizations could absolutely use assets such as bitcoin to remain as independent as possible from all parties in a not-too-distant future.

That is, however, at least in theory, and with the usual caveat applicable to cryptocurrency, that its still too early to understand with any degree of confidence whether it is the gateway to a new economicand politicalfuture, or just a fad.

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How UNICEFs crypto currency fund could change the UN - Quartz

Cryptocurrency investors are seeing red this week, as are investors in the stock market and just about any financial market due to widespread fears over the coronavirus.

But theres one cryptocurrency that is defying all odds and market conditions and has just reached above its previous all-time high daily close.

Chainlink is the cryptocurrency industry stand out of the last year.

It was a top performer during 2019, even while other assets were falling, the altcoin kept on rising.

The cryptocurrency asset is showing its resiliency regardless of market conditions once again and is defying all odds to potentially set a new all-time high even during one of the most extreme market selloffs the world has seen in years.

Not only has Chainlink held up particularly well, even rising amidst the economic turmoil, it is well on its way to setting a new all-time high against Bitcoin on the LINK/BTC trading pair.

The current all-time high rests at 48750 sats, however, the highest daily candle close tops out at 46500 sats.

Right now, Chainlink is trading at 47000 sats, and if the daily candle can close at this level, it will be a new record for the assets highest ever daily close.

Such a strong showing by Chainlink even despite a widespread selloff is nothing short of amazing, and breaking a record for highest daily close during this steep collapse will likely cause it to set a new all-time high and close above the former level.

Chainlinks all-time high on USD price charts currently rests above $4.80. The unstoppable altcoin is currently trading at just $4, after reaching as low as $3.25 cents in the recent crypto market crash.

The altcoin is overperforming against Bitcoin and the rest of the crypto space, but still has ways to go before setting another new all-time high.

However, give the fact that theres no major overhead resistance, breaching above the level is likely to send the asset into price discover mode, where investors push the price of the asset to new heights before psychological resistance levels are reached and set.

Cryptocurrency asset valuations are primarily based on speculation and hype, and with the incredible potential that Chainlink offers, it is easily among the most hyped altcoins of the current crypto market cycle.

Analysts expect the likes of Chainlink, Tezos, and other, shiny new altcoins to outperform the altcoins of the last bubble, as holders of those assets will need to sell on the way up to break even, where these new altcoins have nothing but upside in their future.

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While The Rest of the Market Tanks, One Cryptocurrency Is Above All-Time High - newsBTC

Berkshire Hathaway CEO and Chairman Warren Buffett on Monday reaffirmed his aversion to cryptocurrencies.

"Cryptocurrencies basically have no value and they don't produce anything," he told CNBC's Becky Quick in a "Squawk Box" interview. "In terms of value: zero."

"I don't have any cryptocurrency and I never will," added Buffett, who was interviewed two days after he released his annual shareholder letter.

Buffett has been a long-time critic of the world's largest digital coin. He called bitcoin "probably rat poison squared," ahead of the 2018 Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting. A "mirage," "not a currency," and "tulips" are among the descriptors Buffett has used for bitcoin, according to CNBC's Warren Buffett Archive.

Berkshire Vice Chairman Charlie Munger has called it a "turd," and said that trading cryptocurrencies is "just dementia."

Last year, in an attempt to change Buffett's mind, Justin Sun, founder of cryptocurrency TRON and CEO of file-sharing company BitTorrent, bid $4.57 million in a charity auction to have a meal with the bitcoin skeptic.

"When Justin and four friends came, they behaved perfectly and we had a very friendly 3-hour dinner and the whole thing was a very friendly exchange of ideas," Buffett said. He added that neither he nor Sun changed their stance on bitcoin.

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Warren Buffett: Cryptocurrency 'has no value' 'I don't own any and never will' - CNBC

The Takeaway:

So far, it appears using bitcoin (BTC) in a war zone may be riskier than cash, especially when illicit actors use cryptocurrency as well as civilians.

The ongoing civil war in Yemen highlights the contradictions underlying bitcoin adoption: Its difficult for civilians to acquire cryptocurrency without heavily regulated infrastructure that makes them vulnerable to coercion and surveillance. Such is the case in Yemen, where the Iran-backed Houthi militia controls the northern half of the country and a failing government controls the central bank in the south.

Related: As Fed Contemplates Coronavirus-Prompted Easing, Bitcoin Traders Bet on Halving

For most people in Yemen, purchasing bitcoin is nearly impossible. Most international companies avoid doing business in Yemen due to concerns over U.S. sanctions, which arent comprehensive like the sanctions against Iran but nonetheless raise compliance questions. This week the United Nations Security Council approved further sanctions against Yemen in an attempt to curtail arms trading between Iran and the Houthis. With the Houthis now functionally governing the northern half of the country, the Trump administration may reportedly suspend humanitarian aid.

Everyones looking at a timeline of a month or two. Thats the point at which different [donors] will start to suspend some of the programs, a senior U.S. State Department official told Reuters on Tuesday.

Plus, peer-to-peer markets are hampered by both cash shortages and a lack of reliable communications infrastructure. Yemeni-American researcher Ibraham Qatabi at the Center for Constitutional Rights said telecom and electricity companies are owned by governments, both foreign and domestic, depending on the region. Theres no need for a warrant if Big Brother already owns the pipes. Plus, Qatabi said, most international money transfers are monitored by local authorities.

Everything is monitored. They have everyones information, Qatabi said. If they want to go after somebody, theyll have access to those files.

Related: Bitcoin News Roundup for Feb. 28, 2020

Hamza Alshargabi, a doctor who worked in Yemen until 2012 and briefly mined ether (ETH) after he immigrated to the U.S., agreed its almost impossible to get a safe and reliable internet or phone connection in most of Yemen. He said in big cities connectivity is so expensive that its unusable, so he cant imagine his sister using bitcoin in Yemen. Although someday mesh networks may help bitcoiners transact without reliable internet, theres hardly any bitcoin to trade on the ground.

Meanwhile, it appears the Houthis are promoting cryptocurrency adoption, just not censorship-resistant bitcoin.

According to a report from the Yemen-focused Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies (SCSS) in December 2019 the Houthi militia instructed civilians in northern Yemen to trade in the internationally recognized bills for an equivalent amount of e-Rials, a cryptocurrency developed by the militant group.

As such, some Yemeni civilians and expats are scared to be associated with cryptocurrency, including bitcoin. If protests last year in Iran and Lebanon offered a peek at bitcoins limitations, then Yemen is the full picture of bitcoin usage still relying on government infrastructure.

Cryptocurrency has itself become a weapon in Yemens civil war.

By issuing a digital currency, the Houthis strived to establish a circular economy with less dependence on banks hostile to their cause. The group even banned the possession of new Yemeni rial bills.

They are denying the government the most basic function, printing money, Alshargabi said. At least in Iran there is a lot of wealth and oil, commerce they can build around. In Yemen, theres nothing to sell.

This isnt the Houthis first crypto venture. The group has been mining decentralized cryptocurrencies since 2017, according to the cybersecurity company Recorded Future, which declined to comment for this article. It is not clear which currencies the Houthis mined. However, some Iranian military leaders are looking to create cryptocurrency tools in order to circumnavigate sanctions. And, according to the Brookings Institute, Irans influence with the Houthis is growing.

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Perhaps this is, in part, why the Houthis tested a payments pilot in April 2019, using the Houthi-run Yemen Petroleum Company and other public institutions, like the Yemeni Telecommunications Corporation. But the employees protested and refused to accept e-Rial salaries.

Nine months on, the e-Rial can still only be used to pay limited expenses, such as water and electricity utility bills and mobile phone services, the recent SCSS report noted. There is currently no mechanism for using the e-Rial for normal daily economic activities.

One SCSS researcher, who requested anonymity for safety, said the Houthis started these cryptocurrency experiments to deal with a local cash shortage. He added bitcoin may be caught in a paradigm where, socially, people mostly trust sources a friend or relative personally vouched for. Yet, talking about bitcoin on social media or local phone networks could get that person targeted.

(Note that all sources for this article commented from the Yemeni diaspora, due in part to what the SCSS researcher described as a high level of scrutiny through local telecommunications networks and general concerns about monitoring financial activities in the area.)

Thats why Alshargabi eventually stopped mining ether in the U.S., scared the American government would profile him for additional surveillance. Even if he has no connection to illicit crypto users in Yemen, Alshargabi isnt confident the legal system would protect a foreign-born Muslim.

How do I know Im not going to get a knock on my door someday? Alshargabi said.

So Alshargabi sends money to family in Yemen the old-fashioned way instead.

You call your friend and say, You give my mom $200 and Ill give your mom over here $200. There are regular people in that type of business, he said.

This same ad hoc system Alshargabi uses to send his family cash also works for the few civilians in Yemen who want to own bitcoin, not e-Rials.

Since most global cryptocurrency exchanges dont accept credit cards or bank transfers from Yemen, small groups of crypto-curious Yemenites show personal relationships across the diaspora are the key to accessing bitcoin in times of crisis.

Such was the case for a small group of roughly eight friends around 2018, including computer science student Manal Ghanem. She didnt buy any herself, just played with simulations and testnets. But a few of her friends with family abroad got bitcoin by using foreign bank accounts on global exchanges. One bitcoiner would shop online for foreign products, then sell it locally for cash, she said, because shipping was the least difficult part of the cumbersome process.

I do believe with the collapsing financial institutions in Yemen, if people get a bit educated they can leverage bitcoin to their benefit, she said. They are eager to create new opportunities but it can be really dangerous to go online and gamble what little you have and then lose.

Her friend Faissal Alshaabi said he struggled to use exchanges in Yemen because his internet connection was too weak to even load a website. Alshaabi turned to a cloud mining service instead, but American regulators shut it down and he lost his capital.

Despite all these challenges, Alshaabi said he still believes cryptocurrency could be useful inside Yemen.

Its a fast way to send money and with low fees, so I think people would use it as payment method, he said.

In the meantime, the most important thing Yemenites can do is establish situations where they can acquire bitcoin without attracting the wrong type of attention. This education requires in-person meetings. Governments may not be able to confiscate your bitcoin, but they can take your life.

In terms of increasing awareness, that would have to be verbally transmitted, the researcher said. Its too soon for bitcoin.

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Yemens Civil War Shows the Dangers of Crypto - Yahoo Finance

Early in January, One Click Miner 1.0 Beta 6 was released with fixes for all the issues to Beta 5. Users were then advised to try it. And, they can were further requested to report anything wrong on Github in a way facilitating improved final release.

Recently, Vertcoin tweeted about the release of One Click Miner 1.0 RC1 Improved and added more extensive reporting to the output of the GPU detection step so its easier to see what went wrong. If no more bugs are found this code will be recompiled into the v1.0 final release.

Sydney Ifergan, Crypto Expert tweeted: Since Poloniex disabled Vertcoin, the withdrawals have been disabled from February 27, 2020. Further, Vertcoin have requested investors to move $VTC to the wallet of their choice. Vertcoin-Core is the wallet recommended by the parent site.

The Vertcoin is 6 years old and they are beginning to rock the cryptocurrency world already. We just recollect that Vertcoin was created as a graphics card mined version of Bitcoin in Jan 2014 as response to Litecoin succumbing to ASIC control. It is important that everyday people with desktop computers can mine the network so that network hashrate is as decentralized as possible. Something nice about them is that there is no premine, no ICO and No Airdrop.

Vertcoin believes in that cryptocurrencies are supposed to belong to people. When anything less than this happens it is a failure to the goal for which cryptocurrency was treated in the first place. Vertcoin focuses on keeping the cryptocurrency ecosystem as decentralized as possible.

Alex Turek, MTS Systems Debug Engineer at AMD during his spare-time fights for Asic Resistance in the cryptocurrency space as a Dev Team Member at Vertcoin. He has contributed in terms of Own end-to-end validation of ARMv8 SMMUs for Datacenter Products, testplans, multi-core / multi-IO exercisers, execution, and debug / triage, when he was working for Qualcomm.

Bienvenido Rodriguez, Instructor at The Grace Hopper Program at Fullstack is a volunteer developer at Vertcoin. Currently, he is working on creating a mobile and desktop wallet to interface our second layer solution Lit. Lit is our version of the Bitcoin Lightning Network.

Valentin Anghel is in to the process of mining at Vertcoin. It is evident that the user base at Vertcoin is not only diverse, but it is filled with rich technical expertise. People with commitment make it happen and there are lot of them at Vertcoin.

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VertCoin (VTC) One Click Miner Beginning To Rock the Cryptocurrency World Already - The Cryptocurrency Analytics