Contributions to the fund will be held in the cryptocurrency they have been made in and granted out in the same form.

The crypto-fund will be utilised to support open source technology which will benefit young people, with the first contributions being made by the Ethereum Foundation, supporting three grantees of the Unicef Innovation Fund and a project to connect schools to the internet.

Henrietta Fore, executive director, Unicef, said: “If digital economies and currencies have the potential to shape the lives of coming generations, it is important that we explore the opportunities they offer.

“That’s why the creation of our Cryptocurrency Fund is a significant and welcome step forward in humanitarian and development work.”

Aya Miyaguchi, executive director of the Ethereum Foundation, said: “We aim to support the research and development of the Ethereum platform and to grow the community of those that benefit from a technology that will better countless lives and industries in the years to come. We’d like to thank UNICEF and the UNICEF family of national committees for their leadership as we create real progress together.”