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UNICEF appeals to gamers to mine cryptocurrency for helping Syrian children

UNICEF appeals to gamers to mine cryptocurrency for helping Syrian children

UNICEF, the UN program that provides humanitarian and
developmental assistance to children and mothers in developing countries, is exploring
fundraising through cryptocurrency mining.
It has issued an appeal to the esport community to use their computing hardware
to mine Ether for UNICEF. Ether is
the cryptocurrency generated on the open-source, public, distributed computing
platform called Ethereum (Ether and Ethereum are sometimes used interchangeably
in popular discourse).

The funds will be used to help Syrian children, who have
been suffering
in one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises for the past 7 years. According
to the 2017
year-end report
from UNICEF, nearly 5.4 million Syrian refugees registered
in the region and nearly half of them are children. Depleted resources, the
high cost of living and restricted livelihood opportunities are making it
difficult for vulnerable families to meet their children’s basic needs. Many
Syrian refugee families are forced to resort to negative coping practices, including
early marriage and child labour. However, the crisis is not receiving enough
support and the financial needs are not being met.  

Gamers have computers with powerful graphics cards, which are
also necessary for the resource-intensive activity of cryptocurrency mining. Miners
use the computational power of their hardware to solve complex puzzles and
validate transactions, so that they can be added to the public ledger known as
the blockchain. The miners receive cryptocurrency as reward.

To participate in the operation, the gamers have to install
a mining software (Claymore). They can start and stop mining whenever they want
and generate Ethereum that will go directly to the UNICEF e-wallet.

The participants would be contributing their time, equipment
and electricity. Mining utilises the full power of the graphics card and electricity
consumption is similar to that of playing a new, resource-hungry video game.

Regulators in many countries have issued warnings about
cryptocurrencies in recent months. Concerns have been raised over potential
criminal uses. The acceptance of bitcoin, the cyrptocurrency with the largest
market cap, for payments has
been limited
, while its price reached stratospheric heights last year. The
volatility in price has drawn investors but reduced its attractiveness as
medium of exchange. UNICEF also mentions the volatility of crypto-currencies on
its project FAQ page, but says that this initiative’s focus is to create an
opportunity to give for those who cannot give or have never had the opportunity
to do so.

Last month, the UNICEF Innovation Fund announced
that it is looking to invest in companies developing software solutions on open
blockchain. Software solutions could be related to smart contracts, data
analysis, crypto-tokens or crypto-currency mining. The examples given included
the use of crypto tokens to incentivise or support behaviour that benefits
humanity and the creation of passive distributed mining networks to create investment
funding opportunities for the UNICEF Venture Fund. Blockchain-based smart
contracts could also enable a transparent donation and fund-utilisation mechanism.

PARTNER

Qlik’s vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. A private company, Qlik offers real-time data integration and analytics solutions, powered by Qlik Cloud, to close the gaps between data, insights and action. By transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer relationships. Qlik serves more than 38,000 active customers in over 100 countries.

PARTNER

CTC Global Singapore, a premier end-to-end IT solutions provider, is a fully owned subsidiary of ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (CTC) and ITOCHU Corporation.

Since 1972, CTC has established itself as one of the country’s top IT solutions providers. With 50 years of experience, headed by an experienced management team and staffed by over 200 qualified IT professionals, we support organizations with integrated IT solutions expertise in Autonomous IT, Cyber Security, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure, Workplace Modernization and Professional Services.

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PARTNER

Planview has one mission: to build the future of connected work. Our solutions enable organizations to connect the business from ideas to impact, empowering companies to accelerate the achievement of what matters most. Planview’s full spectrum of Portfolio Management and Work Management solutions creates an organizational focus on the strategic outcomes that matter and empowers teams to deliver their best work, no matter how they work. The comprehensive Planview platform and enterprise success model enables customers to deliver innovative, competitive products, services, and customer experiences. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with locations around the world, Planview has more than 1,300 employees supporting 4,500 customers and 2.6 million users worldwide. For more information, visit www.planview.com.

SUPPORTING ORGANISATION

SIRIM is a premier industrial research and technology organisation in Malaysia, wholly-owned by the Minister​ of Finance Incorporated. With over forty years of experience and expertise, SIRIM is mandated as the machinery for research and technology development, and the national champion of quality. SIRIM has always played a major role in the development of the country’s private sector. By tapping into our expertise and knowledge base, we focus on developing new technologies and improvements in the manufacturing, technology and services sectors. We nurture Small Medium Enterprises (SME) growth with solutions for technology penetration and upgrading, making it an ideal technology partner for SMEs.

PARTNER

HashiCorp provides infrastructure automation software for multi-cloud environments, enabling enterprises to unlock a common cloud operating model to provision, secure, connect, and run any application on any infrastructure. HashiCorp tools allow organizations to deliver applications faster by helping enterprises transition from manual processes and ITIL practices to self-service automation and DevOps practices. 

PARTNER

IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

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