Second Annual Global Impact Challenge with Switzerland for UNHCR

Using the Cardano blockchain to create innovative and impactful approaches to humanitarian aid

Zurich, 29 November 2022 - The Cardano Foundation is proud to announce a new collaboration with the UN Refugee Agency’s national partner in Switzerland: Switzerland for UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). As part of the collaboration, Switzerland for UNHCR will launch a charity stake pool, with stake delegation by the Cardano Foundation of 3.5 million ada, the native token of the Cardano blockchain. Taurus, a leading Swiss based digital asset infrastructure provider, will run the stake pool.

Frederik Gregaard, CEO of the Cardano Foundation, commented: “The collaboration with Switzerland for UNHCR is an embodiment of the Foundation’s ethos. We strongly believe in using blockchain to improve conditions for everyone, and doing so with the active participation of the Cardano community. Announcing this year’s Global Impact Challenge during the Cardano Summit 2022 was a great way of launching the conversation, giving ample opportunity for in-person dialogue, and ensuring the Cardano community, together with the Cardano Foundation, will help shape this year’s challenge. We hope this new Global Impact Challenge will make a real difference to the lives of displaced people globally.

This second Annual Global Impact Challenge will see 80% of the stake pool rewards generated go directly to Switzerland for UNHCR’s operations supporting forcibly displaced people. The remaining 20% will support the organization’s funds for innovation projects. The challenge furthers the Foundation’s commitment to both leveraging the Cardano blockchain technology and directing its resources to effect positive change. 

This collaboration builds on the success of the first Cardano Global Impact Challenge, a partnership with veritree, which saw the Cardano community contributing to one million trees planted across Kenya. The Cardano Foundation initiates Annual Global Impact Challenges as a way to unite the international Cardano ecosystem in supporting an application that not only creates broad positive impact, but also demonstrates the utility of blockchain technology. 

The Impact Challenge was launched at the Cardano Summit 2022, the largest ever in-person gathering of the Cardano community. With a main stage event in Lausanne, a virtual Summit Lodge, as well as 50 community-led events in multiple locations across the world, the Summit took place from 19 to 21 November and offered a variety of panels and keynotes about building on Cardano. 

To support this Global Impact Challenge, the Cardano Foundation will create a specific wallet, which is separate from the main delegation strategy. The Cardano Foundation’s ada will be rebalanced across its 45 existing wallet addresses and a 46th wallet created, dedicated to the UNHCR stake pool. Going forward, this wallet will be used to delegate stake towards interesting initiatives which support the positive adoption of Cardano.

Lamine Brahimi, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Taurus, a global leader in enterprise-grade digital asset infrastructure that plays a key role in bringing this 2022 Global Impact Challenge to fruition, remarked: “Distributed ledger technology (DLT) allows nonprofit organizations to raise funds in innovative and compliant ways using delegated proof of stake. Taurus has long-standing experience running DLT infrastructure and staking pools on multiple blockchains. We are extremely proud of this partnership which will provide direct support for forcibly displaced people around the world."

Hovig Etyemezian, Head of Innovation at UNHCR, concluded: “The tech sector has a crucial role to play in helping humanitarian agencies innovate to better deliver assistance. In a time when more people have been forcibly displaced than ever before, this collaboration between the Cardano Foundation and Switzerland for UNHCR, our national partner in Switzerland, is a great example of how innovation can be a force for good and empower the most vulnerable. I look forward to seeing how this partnership can unlock the power of the blockchain community, in support of people forced to flee."