The Spanish Red Cross (Creu Roja) has implemented a novel blockchain-based aid distribution system, RedChain, which provides real-time donor transparency without revealing the identity of aid recipients.
Developed jointly with Barcelona-based infrastructure provider BLOOCK and zero-knowledge certification company Billions Network, the platform aims to digitize “the entire aid lifecycle from donation to disbursement,” according to a release shared with Cointelegraph.
It replaces paper vouchers and prepaid cards with ERC-20 relief funds issued on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain and delivered to a mobile wallet that can be used at participating merchants via quick response (QR) codes.
Beneficiary data, including names, contact details and case records, is stored completely off-chain in Creu Roja’s own systems. The public blockchain only serves as a verification layer, anchoring hashes, timestamps, and proof of transaction integrity, not personal information.
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RedChain aims to separate transparency from identity
Donors and administrators can control when and where funds are allocated and spent, and the system is designed so that no party is able to reconstruct individual identities from onchain records.
A spokesperson for Creu Roja told Cointelegraph: “Donors can see aggregated, verifiable information about how funds are allocated and spent,” such as how much was distributed through the program and when disbursement occurred. However, “donors will never see the identities of the beneficiaries or their personal circumstances.”
A spokesperson said RedChain was “explicitly designed to be transparent about flows and outcomes, not individuals, so the Red Cross can be “accountable to donors without compromising the privacy and dignity of its beneficiaries.”
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Humanitarian donors demand verifiable aid flows
Creu Roja presents RedChain in response to growing pressure on humanitarian organizations to demonstrate that aid is achieving its intended purpose without turning vulnerable communities into data sources.
“People looking for help should not have to choose between getting help and protecting their privacy,” Francisco López Romero, CTO at Creu Roja Catalunya, said in a statement.
Recipients will receive digital funds in a wallet on their phone and pay at normal checkouts, making transactions indistinguishable from standard purchases and avoiding visible markings that mark someone as a recipient of aid.
“We provide them with a loan, and they can, in accordance with the regulations, make purchases in the supermarket chain, which is our program,” the spokesman said. “No one can be excluded due to technical limitations.”
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Blockchain as a notary for help
A hybrid trust model has been implemented in the system. ERC‑20 tokens represent allocated aid, while expenditure records and eligibility checks remain in off-chain databases linked to onchain evidence.
BLOOCK describes its role as supporting a “blockchain as certification layer” architecture, where cryptographic anchors enable tampering with internal ledgers to be detected without requiring the underlying data to be published.
BLOOCK CEO Lluís Llibre told Cointelegraph: “Because any significant change in state is cryptographically anchored in the public blockchain, any post hoc modification of internal records would immediately result in verification failure based on immutable onchain evidence.
He said that essentially blockchain functions as a “public notary, certifying that an event has occurred without disclosing the content or parties involved.”
Meanwhile, Billions Network provides a zero-knowledge credential layer so that beneficiaries can prove eligibility or authorization without revealing their identity or attributes. Evidence is stored in the user’s wallet, not in a centralized identity registry.
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