Open source · DPG certification in progress · ISO 27001
Money, aid or resources to whoever needs them — no bank account, no smartphone, no internet — with real-time reporting and visibility of every delivery.
Across Shelter field pilots, 2024–2026. Includes the Nairobi 2026 pilot, whose results are not yet published.
Field training session, AidLink pilot, Nairobi · Video and photo: UNICEF Venture Fund
Reaches anyone
Real-time visibility
Backed by
The problem
Cash and voucher assistance now makes up a fifth of humanitarian aid, but the plumbing behind it was built for another era: correspondent banks, opaque fund flows and multi-day settlement.
15–30¢
of every aid dollar consumed by intermediary costs, by the most generous estimates
3–5 days
typical settlement time for a traditional cross-border humanitarian payment
Source: Xcapit analysis of AidLink and UNICEF humanitarian cash transfers (opens in a new tab)
How it works
Shelter is Xcapit's end-to-end infrastructure for distributing impact assets, from enrollment to the moment a person spends. It has been validated in field pilots in Cusco, Nairobi and Caracas, AidLink among them.
Register
Organizations enroll beneficiaries and create wallets in bulk from phone numbers only. Verification integrates with existing identity and registration systems.
Configure
Eligibility, amounts, schedules and restrictions are encoded as smart-contract rules for automatic, tamper-proof execution, on any EVM-compatible chain.
Disburse
Stablecoins (USDC, USDT) reach a non-custodial SMS wallet on any basic phone, with no internet or bank account. On-chain settlement takes under 2 minutes, tracked in real time.
Disburse
< 2 minon-chain settlement
Use
Beneficiaries pay at local shops and supermarkets with a one-time passcode by SMS, as in Cusco's markets and at FORUM in Caracas, or cash out to local currency through mobile money such as M-Pesa in Kenya. Every transaction is auditable, with no personal data on-chain.
Beneficiaries do not need a smartphone, an app or internet access.
See it on a basic phone
Every disbursement is recorded on-chain and can be audited through a public Dune dashboard. Personally identifiable information, such as names or phone numbers, is never stored on-chain.
Shelter plugs into your registration system and your last-mile provider, so you keep the partners you already work with.
Capabilities
01
Define eligibility criteria, distribution schedules and amount thresholds. Rules are encoded in smart contracts for automatic, tamper-proof execution.
02
Deploy on any EVM-compatible chain: Celo, Polygon, Arbitrum or private networks. On-chain settlement takes under 2 minutes, with full auditability.
03
Monitor every disbursement from initiation to beneficiary receipt, with live status, geographic distribution and anomaly detection.
04
Integrate with identity providers and registration systems. Support for biometric, SMS-based and document verification flows.
05
Connect to mobile money providers, bank transfers and cash-out networks. Designed for low-connectivity environments where traditional banking fails.
06
Generate audit-ready reports for donors, regulators and oversight bodies. Every transaction is immutably recorded with full provenance.
Shelter works across blockchain ecosystems. We choose the chain that best fits each deployment context.
Solidity
EVM networks
Polygon, Celo, Arbitrum, Ethereum. Production-proven smart contracts for high-throughput, low-cost disbursement.
Soroban
Stellar
Built for cross-border payments and financial inclusion, with native stablecoin support for remittance corridors.
Aiken
Cardano
Formal verification and academic rigor for high-assurance deployments, ideal for government and institutional programs.
Field pilots
Shelter has been tested with real beneficiaries in Peru, Kenya and Venezuela, with support from the UNICEF Venture Fund. If it works for people with the highest access barriers, it works for everyone.
A note on speed: on-chain settlement takes under 2 minutes. The full cash-out to M-Pesa in Kenya averaged 19 minutes, with 79.6% of transfers (39 of 49) completing seamlessly and the fastest in 1 minute.
Cusco, Peru · August 2024
A first field test of the SMS wallet with real purchases in the Plaza de Armas and local markets, with wallet messages in Quechua.
Cusco, Peru · 2024
UNICEF Venture Fund
Shelter in the AidLink pilot, with consortium partners Rumsan (beneficiary registration and blockchain infrastructure) and Kotani Pay (conversion to local-currency mobile money), operated by a local NGO after a 2-hour training.
Greater Nairobi, Kenya · December 2025
UNICEF Venture Fund
49 people with intellectual disabilities, identified by Advantage Africa, received USDC by SMS wallet and cashed out to M-Pesa. The UNICEF Venture Fund published the results on 10 March 2026.
“Operating in real humanitarian settings highlighted challenges related to infrastructure, connectivity, and coordination. These experiences reinforced that technology must remain simple, flexible, and context-aware.”
Caracas, Venezuela · April 2026
UNICEF Venture Fund
30 educators from the Virginia de Ruiz II school received $100 USDT each (total $3,000) in wallets created by SMS and redeemed them at FORUM supermarkets with their national ID.
“Walking through the FORUM aisles, I saw the joy on my colleagues' faces. Many were able to save the money they had set aside for food and finally buy something else.”
Nairobi, Kenya · 2026
A further field deployment in Nairobi.
Results coming soon
Redemption at supermarkets and local shops; exchange to local currency via M-Pesa in Kenya; funds earmarked for a defined purpose when the program requires it.
In the field
Moments from Xcapit field work with communities and partners.
Use cases
01
Distribute emergency aid, cash transfers and vouchers with full traceability and donor accountability.
02
Deliver social subsidies, conditional cash transfers and incentive programs with transparent disbursement and anti-fraud controls.
03
Manage employee benefits, CSR programs and community investment funds with automated distribution and compliance reporting.
Roadmap
From infrastructure proven in field pilots to a full platform for impact asset distribution at global scale.
UNICEF Venture Fund (opens in a new tab)
Funder and backer of the Shelter pilots
Stellar Development Foundation (opens in a new tab)
Backer of Shelter
Consortium partner of the AidLink pilot: beneficiary registration and blockchain infrastructure
Kotani Pay (opens in a new tab)
Consortium partner of the AidLink pilot: conversion to local-currency mobile money
Advantage Africa
Beneficiary identification in Kenya
Fe y Alegría
Pilot partner in Caracas
FORUM
Supermarket redemption in Caracas
FAQ
Stablecoins, native tokens and custom token standards on any EVM-compatible chain, including USDC, USDT, cUSD (Celo) and project-specific tokens for vouchers or conditional transfers. Stellar and Cardano deployments are also supported.
Shelter delivers to an SMS wallet and connects to mobile money providers such as M-Pesa, so beneficiaries can receive and use funds from a basic phone without internet access.
Yes. The core disbursement engine and smart contracts are open source, so other organizations can audit and build on the code. Digital Public Good certification is in progress with UNICEF.
AidLink is one of the pilots in which Shelter was validated, supported by UNICEF Venture Fund, with consortium partners Rumsan (beneficiary registration and blockchain infrastructure) and Kotani Pay (conversion to local-currency mobile money). In Cusco, Peru it reached 270 beneficiaries with over $15,000 distributed and on-chain settlement in under 2 minutes.
On-chain settlement takes under 2 minutes. The full cash-out to M-Pesa depends on the off-ramp: in Kenya it averaged 19 minutes, with 79.6% of transfers completing seamlessly and the fastest taking 1 minute.
No. Fund flows are public and auditable, but names, phone numbers and other personally identifiable information are never stored on-chain.
Further reading
Each solution can start with a focused pilot in one country and grow on the same infrastructure.
Plaza de Armas, Cusco, where the first SMS wallet purchases took place · Photo: Xcapit
