To celebrate efforts of saving children’s lives and defending their rights for seventy-five years, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) intends to sell 1,000 data-driven non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
The NFT collection dubbed Patchwork Kingdoms includes artwork representing a subset of more than 280,000 schools across twenty-one nations.
Part of the NFTs will be digitally watermarked to celebrate the agency’s 75th-anniversary, scheduled on December 11. The rest will be tied to events in early 2022.
UNICEF’s executive director, Henrietta Fore, welcomed this move and stated:
“For 75 years, UNICEF has been a driving force for change in children’s lives. And as we look back at our history, we must also look forward and seize every opportunity to take innovative actions to secure the future for our children.”
Reaching out to more children for a better world, UNICEF decided to use NFTs as part of its toolbox to support its global efforts and bridge the digital divide, according to Fore.
Proceeds from the NFT auction will be channelled towards promising initiatives like Giga, an ITU and UNICEF program intended to connect every school worldwide to the internet using cutting-edge technologies like blockchain, machine learning, and low-earth orbit satellites.
Fore acknowledged:
“There are more than 1.3 billion children disconnected in an increasingly connected world. We cannot allow these children to grow up on an information island, cut off from the wealth of information and opportunities available online, and with fewer resources to learn and grow.”
The United Nations has been at the forefront of NFT adoption in realising distinctive objectives. For instance, through its UN-Habitat program, it is taking advantage of NFTs to create awareness about the global climate crisis using an initiative called DigitalArt4 Climate.
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