UN Denies Involvement in Green Blockchain Project EcoBit

The United Nation has denied claims that it was involved with a Malaysian blockchain project called EcoBit, according to reports.

Local news source Malaysian Insight reported on July 5 that the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in the country said it "is not involved and does not have any partnerships with Ecobit" – a blockchain project that claims to address environmental and carbon emissions issues and which closed an initial coin offering (ICO) just last month.

While the cached Google search result for the company still states that its "Phase 1" project is "under the United Nations Collaborative Program," its landing page on EcoBit's website is now unavailable, as is the team information page.

UNDP communications analyst Ahmad Hafiz Osman told the news source that EcoBit had also used UN logos without permission in promoting its forest carbon-offset project in Malaysia's Kelantan state. The logos were allegedly taken down days before the UNDP issued a letter to EcoBit.

According to Tokenmarket.net, the board advisor of EcoBit is Tang Too Siah, who is also the CEO of Climate Protector Sdn Bhd, a Malaysian carbon credit firm. Both EcoBit and Climate Protector were recently red-flagged by the country's central bank on June 23 as "companies and websites which are neither authorized nor approved under the relevant laws and regulations."

However, Kelantan state has previously agreed to a 30-year carbon credit offset deal with Climate Protectors, under the Reduced Emission from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) program for Kelantan's forest preservation, and suspicions have emerged on social media that the state government has been illegally collecting money through the two companies.

Following the news, according to The Star Online, Kelantan head of state Ahmad Yakob denied the allegation and urged investors in the carbon trading program to lodge reports with the police. The report further indicated that, when contacted, Tang said a press statement would be issued shortly.

Kelantan forest image via Shutterstock