At Datarella we have been active in the humanitarian space since our first project with the United Nations World Food Programme, saving them millions of Dollars every year. Supporting aid agencies by adding trust to supply chains & logistics has been another highly interesting effort. Lately, in October 2019, we launched the R Wallet – a smart wallet based on blockchain technology – for a 2-month pilot of the Rohingya Project.
The Rohingya Project
Nearly 40 years ago, the Rohingya people were driven from their home lands in Burma (now Myanmar) and deprived of their identity documents. Up to today, these ~1.5 mio. women, men and children live in a stateless limbo without rights or protection throughout Southern Asia. Needless to say, plenty of them are victims of human rights violations.
In 2018 we were approached by the Rohingya Project, a grassroots organization supported by the UNHCR that is standing up for the Rohingya people. The aim of the Rohingya Project is to create a digital ecosystem for the Rohingya people based on blockchain technology. Datarella had the honor to deliver the first product for a 2-month pilot project: the R Wallet, which serves as blockchain based smart wallet.
The R Wallet – a smart wallet for volunteer rewards
The R Wallet is a simple, usable mobile application that can store R Coin – a crypto currency that serves as reward coin for volunteer work within the Rohingya community such as teaching, counseling, assisting in soup kitchens and group cleanups.
Until the end of 2019, about 35 volunteers and NGO field partners will test the wallet and reward functionality. Earned R Coins can then be redeemed for gift cards and insurance packages – or they can be traded among participating volunteers. And by the way: the R Wallet is also open for other refugee communities in Malaysia.
Saqib Sheikh, from the Rohingya Project, demonstrating the Wallet for Rohingya Vision – a Rohingya TV station.
How does the R Wallet work?
The basis of the R Wallet is provided by the XSC Wallet, the crypto wallet we successfully launched in 2018. The R Wallet got its own skin, matching the corporate design of the Rohingya Project for better identification. Participants – consisting of volunteers, field partners and Rohingya project managers – downloaded the app and activated it with a one-time code provided by Datarella.
Volunteers will now perform their work and report it to the field partners. These partners receive an amount of coins directly from the R Wallet of Rohingya management for rewarding the volunteers: The partner enters the wallet ID and R Coin amount for the volunteer in her R Wallet and sends the transaction off by authenticating it with a swipe. The R Coin is instantly moved to the wallet of the volunteer.
The R Coin
We designed the R Coin to run on a private Ethereum network. This means, that the R Coin is not available for public trading which ensures that it remains stable and non-susceptible for speculation-driven currency volatility.
For a stateless people that are deprived of any official identity, creating an ID on a blockchain with financial potential could mean a lot more than volunteer rewards. It is exciting for us to be part of this pilot and we are curious about the outcome at the end of the year! Creating the R Wallet and thereby supporting the Rohingya case is a great opportunity to demonstrate how blockchain technology can enable inclusion in many ways.