According to a The Trump administration plans to distribute the staff of the State Department and review by Wired, and plan to rename the US Agency for International Development (USAID) as US International Humanitarian Aid (IHA) and bring it directly to the Secretary Secretary. The document, which Politico first reported, states that the agency as part of its reorganization ‘Blockchain technology’ will utilize as part of his procurement process.
“All distributions will also be secured and detected via blockchain technology to radically increase security, transparency and traceability,” the memo states. “This approach will encourage innovation and efficiency under the implementation of partners and provide for more flexible and responsive programming focused on tangible impact, rather than simply completing activities and input.”
The memo does not make it clear what it means specifically – if it includes cash transfers in a type of cryptocurrency or stableecoin, or simply a blockchain major book means to use the payout of help.
The memo comes because staff members at USAID are trying to understand their future. The agency was an early target of the so -called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), which was effectively led by Centibillionaire Elon Musk. Shortly after the inauguration of President Trump, the State Department placed the staff of the entire agency with administrative leave, cut off its workforce and stopped part of the payments to partner organizations around the world, including those doing life rescue work. Since then, a federal judge has issued a preliminary order against the agency’s dismantling, but it seems that the memo indicates that the administration plans to continue its mission to drastically cut USAID drastically and fold it fully in the State Department.
The plans for the blockchain also caught staff members off guard.
Few blockchain-based projects have managed to achieve large-scale use in the humanitarian sector. Linda Raftree, a consultant who helps humanitarian organizations adopt new technology, says there is a reason for it – the incorporation of blockchain technology is often unnecessary.
“It feels like a false technological solution to a problem that doesn’t exist,” she says. “I don’t think we could ever find an institution where people use blockchain where they couldn’t use existing tools.”
Giulio Coppi, a senior humanitarian officer at the non -profit access who has now investigated the use of blockchain in humanitarian work, says that blockchain technology, although sometimes effective, offers no clear benefits over other tools, such as an existing payment system or another database instrument. “There is no proven advantage that it is cheaper or better,” he says. “The way it is presented is this technical solution approach that has been proven over and over again not to have a material impact in reality.”
However, there have been some successful cases of using blockchain technology in the humanitarian sector. In 2022, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) managed a small pilot to grant cash aid to the Ukrainians who were relocated in a stablecoin by the Russia-Ukraine war. Other pilots were tested in Kenya Red Cross Society in Kenya Red Cross. The International Committee of the Red Cross, which works with the Kenya team, also helped develop the Humanitarian Token Solution (HTS).