The Spanish Red Cross (Creu Roja) has deployed a new blockchain-based aid distribution system, RedChain, that promises real-time donor transparency without exposing the identities of the people receiving assistance.
According to a release shared with Cointelegraph, the platform, developed with Barcelona-based infrastructure provider BLOOCK and zero-knowledge credential firm Billions Network, aims to digitize “the entire aid lifecycle from donation to disbursement.”
It replaces paper vouchers and prepaid cards with ERC‑20 aid credits issued on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain, delivered to a mobile wallet that can be used at participating merchants via quick response (QR) codes.
Beneficiary data, including names, contact information, and case records, is kept entirely offchain in Creu Roja’s own systems. The public blockchain is used purely as a verification layer, anchoring hashes, timestamps and integrity proofs of transactions rather than personal information.
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Donors and administrators can audit when and where funds were allocated and spent, while the system is designed so that no party can reconstruct individual identities from onchain records.
A spokesperson from Creu Roja told Cointelegraph, “Donors can see aggregated, verifiable information on how funds are allocated and spent,” such as how much was distributed within a program and when disbursements occurred. However, “what donors will never see are the identities of beneficiaries or their personal circumstances.”
The spokesperson said that RedChain was “explicitly designed so that transparency applies to flows and outcomes, not to individuals, allowing the Red Cross to be “accountable to donors without compromising the privacy or dignity of its beneficiaries.”
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Creu Roja frames RedChain as a response to mounting pressure on humanitarian organizations to demonstrate that aid reaches its intended purpose without turning vulnerable communities into data sources.
“People seeking assistance shouldn’t have to choose between getting help and protecting their privacy,” said Francisco López Romero, CTO at Creu Roja Catalunya, in the release.
Recipients will receive digital credits in a wallet on their phone and pay at normal checkouts, making transactions indistinguishable from standard purchases and avoiding visible markers that signal someone as an aid recipient.
“We grant them credit, and they can purchase, in line with regulations, at the supermarket chain that adheres to our program,” the spokesperson said. “No one can be excluded due to technical limitations.”
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The system implements a hybrid trust model. ERC‑20 tokens represent allocated aid, while spending records and eligibility checks remain in offchain databases linked to onchain proofs.
BLOOCK describes its role as operating a “blockchain as a certification layer” architecture, where cryptographic anchors make tampering with internal records detectable without ever publishing underlying data.
BLOOCK CEO Lluís Llibre told Cointelegraph, “Because every relevant state change is cryptographically anchored to a public blockchain, any post-hoc modification of internal records would immediately fail verification against the immutable onchain proofs.”
He said that, essentially, the blockchain functions as a “public notary, confirming that an event occurred without revealing the content or the parties involved.”
Billions Network, meanwhile, provides the zero‑knowledge credential layer so that beneficiaries can prove eligibility or authorization without disclosing their identity or attributes. Proofs are held in the user’s own wallet rather than in a centralized identity registry.
