UNICEF: 'We're Trying to Engage New People Through Methods Like Crypto Mining'

UNICEF Australia is increasing its funds through cryptocurrency mining. According to reports, the charity launched the so-called HopePage website which mines cryptocurrency with the help of a visitor’s computer processing power. Sputnik discussed this with Tony Tang, Digital Engagement and Content Manager at UNICEF Australia.

Sputnik: Can you tell us in more detail how the organization came to the idea of using cryptocurrency mining to raise funds?

Tony Tang: The HopePage is effectively a new fundraising product for us, it’s a new way that we are offering people here in Australia to support children in need, in this case, the Rohingya children affected by the refugee crisis. How we came about with that is we're constantly thinking about new ways to engage people in Australia, building an understanding about what UNICEF does and capture their attention, and, perhaps, trying to capture the attention of groups, audience segments which we, perhaps, wouldn’t be able to reach and engage via our traditional ways of communications.

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So this product came on the back of a collaboration with creative agency partner called VML, the result of that collaboration between them and us was the HopePage. So with the HopePage the idea is to leverage this new emerging technology, the cryptocurrency, which has been largely used to generate profits into using it for something good, in this case to help provide children with lifesaving supplies and aid.

Sputnik: Can you tell us more about what is involved technically, what do you have to do to contribute to UNICEF through this program, perhaps, you can also touch on why you chose Monero over Bitcoin which is more popular?

Tony Tang: From a user perspective all you need to do is open the HopePage and or go to hopepage.org, open the browser and consent for your browser to start mining cryptocurrency which will be then converted into Monero and all of those funds will be saved in a UNICEF Australia crypto wallet. The reason why we decided to go with Monero is because that particular cryptocurrency has a much easier algorithmic resolving rights, from an investment perspective Bitcoin might be a much more popular trading cryptocurrency, but in this case because we're talking about cryptocurrency mining that doesn’t really have any relevance with the product and the objective we're trying to achieve. So at the moment there are four main cryptocurrencies but Monero for the purposes of cryptomining is easier to mine with the processing power of a standard computer that you would use on a day-to-day basis.

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Sputnik: Tell us how successful this has been so far, a lot of people are donating this way, do you think you’re attracting donors that, perhaps, wouldn’t donate in traditional ways?

Tony Tang: Yes, I think with this new product we need to wait and see, the cryptocurrency has been mined on a monthly basis so we will be able to see how much funds there’s actually been raised directly from the cryptocurrency mining in a months time, but the product was developed with two objectives in mind, one of direct revenue, and the other one, which is a really important one, and it’s the core organizational goal is to raise awareness and understanding about all the humanitarian crises and emergencies that are threatening children across the world every year. So for us we see this as an effective communications platform as well as a direct revenue resource too. The HopePage also gives you the ability to subscribe to our newsletters, to be kept up-to-date about our work and to be more connected with our work more generally, so we see it as an engagement opportunity to reach new people that we, perhaps, wouldn’t be able to reach otherwise.

Sputnik: Are you getting some criticism from people that you use a lot of energy and computer batteries, increased energy consumption, and regarding ways to regulate the amount of power that is donated, what can you say about those concerns?

Tony Tang: People are given the option to both decide how much and for how long they wish to use their processing power to mine cryptocurrency. So the platform itself offers users the ability to select what percentage of their spare processing power they wish to donate, and people can always decide to exit the page if they don’t wish to mine cryptocurrency anymore for us, that’s as simple as that.

We’re not asking people to turn their computers into permanent cryptocurrency mining machines or for their computers to be run 24/7 for days nonstop which would have an impact as far as energy consumption and energy bills effectively, but we are, on the other hand, just asking people if they wish to do something to help children as easy as opening a webpage that they can do that, but we’re not encouraging people to do that outside the period of time when they’re doing their day-to-day online activities as if they were doing it any other day.

Sputnik: This is going to be available only in Australia? Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are all international, is it not possible to go to this HopePage from any other country, are there some kind of restrictions that allow you to mine only in Australia?

Tony Tang: I don't think there are any restrictions, it's just about promoting the HopePage, it’s about coordinating with our colleagues across the world to make sure that this product is there, is advertised through their own market, promoted through their channels.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.