UnBlocked Cash: Piloting Accelerated Cash Transfer Delivery In Vanuatu

Distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) are among the most
promising innovations to have emerged during the last decade,
with the potential to fundamentally transform existing economic,
institutional and social systems. Often referred to as ‘Blockchains’
in honour of the first example developed by Satoshi Nakamoto,
these distributed ledgers present enormous social and commercial
potential across a range of sectors and have been broadly applied
by several of the largest humanitarian actors, including Oxfam.

The promise of these technologies to deliver aid at low cost
while reducing transaction times and streamlining reporting has
obvious appeal at a time where humanitarian budgets are under
increasing pressure. However, DLTs have also been used to enhance
the transparency of supply chains, ensure wages and working
conditions meet acceptable standards, and deliver tamper-proof
voting systems among many other applications.