The Red Cross will deploy a blockchain-based digital aid platform.
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Sead Fadilpašić
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Creu Roja (Spanish Red Cross) has unveiled a novel, privacy-preserving, digital aid platform based on blockchain, with verifiable donor transparency.
According to the press release, Barcelona-based technical infrastructure company BLOOCK collaborated on the development of the platform.
The new product integrates corporate IT systems with blockchain. Developers have used Ethereum via its public blockchain, as well as Solidity smart contracts for ERC-20-based credit issuance.
Among other technology highlights, he said, is Ionic for mobile wallets, and “role-based access control with digital signatures.”
The announcement said the construction “ensures that even if external systems are compromised, the blockchain itself does not contain any private information.”
What's more, Crew Roja deploys zero-knowledge technology through its human and AI authentication platform at Billions Network (formerly Polygon ID). The platform will digitize the entire donation lifecycle, from donation to disbursement, promising that “no personal data will ever touch the public blockchain.”
The goal is to provide complete tracking and financial transparency to donors while protecting the privacy and dignity of recipients.
Therefore, RedChain's hybrid trust model allows the data of all aid recipients to be stored completely off-chain in systems controlled by Creu Roja. The output data also remains off-chain with an on-chain verification hash. “The entire audit trail can be reconstructed from the chain of evidence without exposing private information,” the developers say.
Francisco López Romero, CTO at Creu Roja, Catalunya, commented, “People who need help should not have to choose between getting help and protecting their privacy.” Therefore, the organization has designed this new system as “a real game changer so that donors can verify their contributions, and beneficiaries can receive support without being tracked, profiled or stigmatized.”
Replacing manual and paper-based processes
The announcement highlighted that the novel platform will simplify the entire process. Eliminates traditional paper-based workflows and prepaid cards. Instead, a digital system “separates what donors need to know from what they don't.”
Creu Roja says recipients don't need a bank account or credit history. On Ethereum smart contracts, they receive digital aid credits in the form of ERC-20 tokens. These tokens go directly into personal mobile wallets.
Also, there is nothing that qualifies these credits as “grants”. Recipients spend “transactions indistinguishable from any regular purchase” at local merchants authorized by QR codes.
At the same time, donors and administrators can follow the integrated aid flow in real time. This allows them to see the money allocated, the amount spent and where each euro went, the organization said.
Why is this platform needed?
Crewe Roja pointed out that the control over the delivery of international aid is growing. Affected communities cannot receive appropriate and effective assistance due to lack of transparency, corruption and bias.
And even though blockchain solutions predate this platform, most require recipients to give up their personal data, including biometrics.
This can lead to, even unintentionally, vulnerable populations being exposed to surveillance, profiling and discrimination, says Crewe Roja.
“The blockchain shows how humanitarian organizations can combine accountability, privacy and digital efficiency without introducing new risks to the people they serve,” the press release says.
What's more, under Billions Network CEO and founder Evin McMullen, Crew Roja built a system of testimonials, not surveillance.
“Recipients carry proof of eligibility in their own wallets. They present it when needed, reveal nothing else, and get on with their lives. That's how ID should work everywhere, especially in humanitarian and public benefit systems. You own your credentials, you decide what to share, and no one builds a profile of you without your permission,” he wrote.
BLOOCK CEO Louis Libre added, “Blockchain should verify truth, not store content.” This is what the platform architecture enables. “Each transaction generates a permanently anchored and independently verifiable cryptographic proof, but the proof contains no personal information.”
Meanwhile, according to the announcement, the BLOOCK platform has been able to process more than 952,000 cryptographic transactions and more than 257,000 data verifications to date.
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