The Spanish Red Cross (Creu Roja) has launched RedChain, a blockchain-based aid distribution system designed to provide real-time donor transparency while protecting beneficiary identities. Built with Barcelona-based infrastructure provider BLOOCK and zero-knowledge credential firm Billions Network, the platform digitizes the aid lifecycle from donation to disbursement.
RedChain replaces paper vouchers and prepaid cards with ERC‑20 aid credits issued on the Ethereum blockchain. Credits are delivered to a mobile wallet and redeemed at participating merchants via QR codes. Beneficiary data — names, contact details and case records — remain entirely offchain in Creu Roja’s systems. The public blockchain serves only as a verification layer, anchoring hashes, timestamps and integrity proofs of transactions rather than personal information.
Donors and administrators can audit when and where funds are allocated and spent using aggregated, verifiable onchain proofs, while the system is designed so no party can reconstruct individual identities from onchain records. A Creu Roja spokesperson said donors can see program-level distributions and timestamps, but will never see beneficiaries’ identities or personal circumstances. RedChain was explicitly designed so transparency applies to flows and outcomes, not to individuals, allowing accountability without compromising beneficiaries’ privacy or dignity.
Creu Roja frames RedChain as a response to growing demands for humanitarian organizations to prove that aid reaches its intended purpose without turning vulnerable people into data sources. Francisco López, project lead at Creu Roja Catalunya, said people seeking assistance should not have to choose between receiving help and protecting their privacy. Recipients get digital credits in a phone wallet and pay at normal checkouts, making transactions indistinguishable from standard purchases and avoiding visible markers that could identify someone as an aid recipient. Creu Roja says the system is designed so no one is excluded due to technical limitations.
RedChain uses 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,” where cryptographic anchors make tampering with internal records detectable without publishing underlying data. BLOOCK CEO Lluís Llibre said every relevant state change is cryptographically anchored to a public blockchain so post‑hoc modification of internal records would fail verification against immutable onchain proofs. In this way the blockchain functions as a public notary, confirming that an event occurred without revealing its content or parties.
Billions Network supplies the zero‑knowledge credential layer, enabling beneficiaries to prove eligibility or authorization without disclosing identity or attributes. Proofs are held in the user’s wallet rather than in a centralized identity registry, preserving privacy while allowing verifiable access to aid.
