Lyudmyla Kozlovska, President of the Open Dialogue Foundation, was one of the speakers at the Blockchain Summit on “How Blockchain Impacts Humanitarian Aid and Charitable Giving”, held on 21 March 2023 in Washington DC.
Within two days of the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The Open Dialogue Foundation, together with Ukraine’s defence minister, managed to raise funds and deliver humanitarian aid with the help of the cryptocurrency community. “We could not have done this using the traditional financial system,” said Lyudmyla Kozlovska, adding, “We were only able to do it using Bitcoin and stablecoin transactions. In this case, we Ukrainians are the end-users, and your influence saved our lives.”
The Blockchain Summit in Washington is held annually by the Digital Chamber of Commerce.
“We must cooperate with regulators and explain to them that crypto assets should not be regulated in the same way as the traditional financial system. Instead, regulating financial and crypto institutions must allow people like us to raise funds, rather than classifying us as ‘risky customers’, depriving us of the right to an account, to exchange cryptocurrencies. We see the financial exclusion of civil society in the long term as a huge problem because of the consequences of AML/CFT regulation,” the ODF president pointed out.
Other speakers were Candace Kelly – General Counsel of the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), Christian Pennotti – Senior Director of Market Approach at CARE, Kevin Peach – Chief Operating Officer at Disaster Services Corporation (DSC) St Vincent de Paul (SVDP), and Roya Mahboob – co-founder of the Digital Citizen Fund. The discussion was moderated by Sena Loyd, president of the Web3 ID Coalition.
According to Candace Kelly, in response to the Russia–Ukraine war, Stellar Development Fund formed a partnership with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to create a blockchain payment solution for digital cash distribution of the Circle USDC cryptocurrency, which is the second largest stablecoin.
“The UN is able to disperse, almost immediately, aid to people in Ukraine who have been displaced to various locations – wherever they are and wherever they have their phone,” said Candace Kelly. “Through a pilot programme run in partnership with MoneyGram, even people who were literally sitting in a bunker were receiving USDCs to their smartphone.”
We encourage you to watch the entire panel discussion:
Read also:
- ”Bitcoin is borderless” Conference — how to combat financial exclusion worldwide? (October 15, 2023)
- How Bitcoin became a tool for NGOs — an interview with Lyudmyla Kozlovska (October 6, 2023)
- Bitcoin the basis for freedom: panel discussion at BTC Prague conference (June 8, 2023)
- “Bitcoin as a tool for financial freedom” — Lyudmyla Kozlovska at Plan ₿ Forum 2022 (October 22, 2022)
Photos: Chamber of Digital Commerce / YouTube
