The Spanish Red Cross (Creu Roja) has launched RedChain, a brand new blockchain-based aid distribution system that guarantees real-time donor transparency without revealing the identities of the people receiving aid.
According to a press release shared with Cointelegraph, the platform, developed with Barcelona-based infrastructure provider BLOOCK and zero-knowledge certification firm Billions Network, goals to digitize “the complete aid lifecycle from donation to disbursement.”
It replaces paper vouchers and prepaid cards with ERC-20 utility credits issued on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain and delivered to a mobile wallet that will be used via quick response (QR) codes at participating merchants.
Beneficiaries' data, including names, contact information and case files, are stored completely off-chain in Creu Roja's own systems. The public blockchain serves only as a verification layer, anchoring hashes, timestamps and integrity proofs of transactions and non-personal information.
RedChain goals to separate transparency from identity
Donors and administrators can check when and where funds were allocated and spent, while the system is designed in order that no party can reconstruct individual identities from on-chain records.
Source: Creu Roja
A spokesperson for Creu Roja told Cointelegraph: “Donors can see aggregated, verifiable details about how funds are allocated and spent,” similar to how much was distributed inside a program and when disbursements occurred. However, “donors won’t ever see the identities of the beneficiaries or their personal circumstances.”
The spokesperson said that RedChain was “explicitly designed in order that transparency applies to flows and outcomes, not individuals, allowing the Red Cross to be “accountable to donors without compromising the privacy or dignity of its beneficiaries.”
Humanitarian donors are demanding verifiable aid flows
Creu Roja describes RedChain as a response to growing pressure on humanitarian organizations to exhibit that aid is achieving its intended purpose without turning vulnerable communities into data sources.
“People looking for help mustn’t have to make a choice from getting help and protecting their privacy,” said Francisco López Romero, CTO at Creu Roja Catalunya, within the press release.
Recipients receive digital funds in a wallet on their phone and pay at regular checkouts, making transactions indistinguishable from standard purchases and avoiding visible markers identifying someone as a recipient of aid.
“We give them a loan and so they can legally shop on the supermarket chain that follows our program,” the spokesman said. “No one will be excluded resulting from technical limitations.”
Blockchain as a public notary to assist
The system implements a hybrid trust model. ERC-20 tokens represent assigned aid, while spending records and eligibility checks remain in off-chain databases linked to on-chain evidence.
BLOOCK describes its role as operating a “blockchain as a certification layer” architecture, where cryptographic anchors detect tampering with internal records without ever publishing underlying data.
Lluís Llibre, CEO of BLOOCK, told Cointelegraph: “Since every relevant change in state is cryptographically anchored on a public blockchain, any subsequent change to internal records would immediately fail verification against the immutable on-chain evidence.”
He said the blockchain essentially acts as a “public notary,” confirming that an event has occurred without revealing the content or parties involved.
Billions Network, then again, provides the zero-knowledge permission layer to permit beneficiaries to prove their eligibility or authorization without revealing their identity or characteristics. The credentials are stored within the user's own wallet and never in a central identity registry.
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