The Spanish Red Cross deploys RedChain for private donations.
The Spanish Red Cross (Creu Roja) has launched RedChain, a new blockchain-based aid distribution system that provides real-time donor transparency without revealing the identities of recipients.
According to a release to Cointelegraph, the platform, built with Barcelona-based infrastructure provider BLOOCK and the zero-knowledge proof-of-concept BILLION network, aims to digitize “the entire aid lifecycle, from donation to disbursement.”
It replaces paper vouchers and prepaid cards with ERC-20 grant credits issued on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain, delivered to a mobile wallet, which can be spent at participating merchants via quick response (QR) codes.
User information, including names, contact information and case records, is stored entirely off-chain within Creu Roja's own systems. The public blockchain only serves as an authentication layer, hashing, timestamping, and verifying the integrity of transactions instead of private information.
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RedChain aims to separate transparency from identity.
Donors and administrators can audit when and where the money was spent, the system is designed so that no party can reconstruct the identities of individuals from onchain records.
A Crew Roja spokesperson told Cointelegraph that “donors can see aggregated and verified information on how funds are allocated and spent,” such as how much is distributed in the program and when payments are made. However, “donors are never exposed to the identity or personal circumstances of the recipients.
According to the spokesperson, RedChain “is clearly designed so that transparency applies to flows and results, not individuals, so that the Red Cross can be accountable to donors without compromising the privacy and dignity of its users.”
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Humanitarian aid providers want a guaranteed flow of aid
Creu Roja designs RedChain in response to pressure on humanitarian organizations to demonstrate that aid reaches its intended purpose without turning vulnerable communities into data sources.
“People who need help don't have to choose between getting help and protecting their privacy,” said Francisco López Romero, CTO of Crewe Roja Catalunya.
Recipients receive digital credits in a wallet on their phone and pay at regular checkout, making transactions indistinguishable from regular purchases and eliminating visible signs that identify a person as a grant recipient.
“We give them credit, and they can buy it at a supermarket chain that complies with our program in accordance with the rules. No one can be excluded because of technical limitations,” the spokesman said.
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Blockchain as a public note for help
The system implements a hybrid trust model. ERC-20 tokens represent allocated grants, spending records and proofs of eligibility remain in off-chain databases linked to onchain proofs.
BLOOCK describes its role as a “blockchain as an authentication layer” architecture, where cryptographic anchors can encrypt internal records without ever publishing data.
Block CEO Louis Libre told Cointelegraph: “Every post-hoc change to the internal records will immediately fail verification against immutable onchain verifications, as every important state change is encrypted on the public blockchain.
Essentially, he said, blockchain acts as a “public ledger that verifies the occurrence of an event without revealing its content or the parties involved.”
Billion Network, on the other hand, offers zero-knowledge authentication coverage so that users can verify their eligibility or authorization without revealing their identity or behavior. Credentials are stored in the user's wallet instead of a centralized identity registry.
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