Charity fundraising risks being left behind in the shift to online activity. But taking inspiration from the COVID-19 pandemic trends, and new payment technology, could open doors. Change comes whether you’re ready or not, but being ready means you can seize the opportunity. The past year has accelerated the pace of digital transformation dramatically — sure, personal contact was already moving online, and contactless payments were slowly replacing cash, but the pandemic did not so much push as shove the world faster and farther than anyone expected. This creates specific challenges for the nonprofit sector — and with those, some …

The United Nations Global Compact, a nonbinding pact aimed at encouraging businesses to adopt sustainable, socially responsible policies, has accepted nonfungible token (NFT) and blockchain gaming platform Enjin as a participant. Enjin announced on Tuesday that it would be exploring ways to use NFTs to promote sustainability and equality as part of the UN pact. The company suggested using the technology to fight climate change by employing it in carbon-capture companies and reducing the global wealth gap by allowing creators around the world permissionless access to NFT markets. "While we are struggling to recover from the global pandemic and its …

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, or ECLAC, a United Nations’ regional commission to encourage economic cooperation, is the latest regulator to raise concerns about El Salvador’s decision to accept Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender. ECLAC executive secretary Alicia Bárcena has warned that El Salvador’s Bitcoin move poses a number of systemic risks as well as risks related to money laundering, local news agency Diario El Mundo reported Friday. Bárcena emphasized that there is no study yet that would have investigated potential risks or benefits of El Salvador accepting BTC as legal tender. She expressed confidence that …

Amid ongoing concerns over Bitcoin’s carbon footprint, the United Nations has said that cryptocurrency’s underlying technology has massive potential for fixing global issues such as climate change. The U.N. will keep exploring the uses of blockchain technology as a way to fight the climate crisis and help reach a more sustainable global economy, according to an article published on the official U.N. website on Sunday. U.N. experts are confident that “cryptocurrencies and the technology that powers them can play an important role in sustainable development, and actually improving our stewardship of the environment.” Specifically, the article points out a number …

The seventh session of the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development convened earlier this month with the theme “Building forward better: Towards a resilient and green Africa to achieve the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063” and to promote the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. Amina Mohammed, deputy secretary-general of the United Nations, pointed out that developing a just, fair economic model that embraces green and renewable energy, resilient infrastructure, and digitalization — while protecting natural resources by broadening partnerships for science, technology and innovation — could unleash the region’s green potential and fuel economic transformation. UNECA’s digital …

The United Nations has accused the North Korean state of stealing $281 million worth of crypto from an exchange during September 2020. According to Reuters, the findings from a “confidential report” authored by independent sanctions monitors for U.N. Security Council members “strongly suggests” links between the hack’s perpetrators and the North Korean regime. Reuters quoted the report: “Preliminary analysis, based on the attack vectors and subsequent efforts to launder the illicit proceeds, strongly suggests links to the DPRK.” Reuters noted the U.N. report accuses North Korea of using the stolen funds to support its nuclear and ballistic missile programs in …

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres estimates trillions of U.S. dollars per annum is needed to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. The question is: “Where would it come from?” Official development aid, philanthropy and public finances cannot suffice, which means the needle is moving toward private capital to fund sustainable development projects. Related: The UN’s ‘decade of delivery’ needs blockchain to succeed But the gap between financing and the environmental impact does not exude the confidence of private investors to fund development projects. India, a center of sustainability risks and innovative interventions, offers an example of this gap. Between 2014–2015 …

It has been a blazing start to a new decade, with 13% more large, uncontrolled wildfires around the world this year compared with 2019. This has spelled dire consequences for CO2 levels, which have made worse a terrible COVID-19 pandemic that has led to unprecedented worldwide lockdowns that have rapidly pushed the economy toward digitization. Related: How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the crypto space? Experts answer As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the world have been forced to focus on integrating blockchain technology into their financial services. At the 75th anniversary of the United Nations General …

The United Nations has released a blockchain-powered solution to help the Afghan government manage property ownership issues in the country’s urban areas. According to a Dec. 2 announcement, the U.N. Human Settlements Programme, or U.N.-Habitat, will present its new digital land registry solution to the Ministry of Urban Development and Land in Afghanistan in December 2020. The U.N. first launched its blockchain project for sustainable urban development in Afghanistan in 2019. Now, with its new blockchain-enabled digital land registry tool, the U.N. wants to help Afghanistan address major challenges in urban informal settlements — otherwise known as slums or shanty …

Sentry is an an app developed by Hala Systems that has been providing civilians with a crowdsourced and sensor-driven early warning system against airstrikes during the protracted civil war in Syria. Live since 2016, the system has evolved to become more accurate and complex, using a sensor network, artificial intelligence and blockchain technology to provide a strong, technological underpinning for analyzing data on the ground and distributing critical alerts. Sentry now issues an average of 140 early warnings each day, giving citizens between seven and 10 minutes’ advance notice of potential dangers. The data inputs for the warning system include …

Blockchain technology can help countries like Kenya from losing billions of dollars to corruption, according to an official at the United Nations’ drugs and crime agency. David Robinson, the regional anti-corruption advisor at the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime, believes that new technologies like blockchain will help Kenya combat government corruption and other economic crimes. According to Nation Media Group on Nov. 3, Robinson claimed that blockchain-based solutions can provide full traceability of transactions, protecting public registries from fraud and forgery. The official said: “Blockchain technology becomes attractive to the global community and international organizations because it is a …

When the Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, were conceived back in 2012, blockchain technology was in its early days. Few could have foreseen the trajectory and the potential of blockchain for advancing these ambitious targets. But today, we see opportunities for blockchain technology to recast conventional approaches to sustainable development — and accelerate progress if deployed responsibly. Macro trends of 2020 There are a number of macro trends this year in the world of blockchain and sustainable development that provide context. This has been — and will continue to be — an important year for laying the groundwork for major …