How We Are Combating Charity Corruption with Blockchain
When you hear the word charity, you probably think of big industry players like the Salvation Army, Red Cross, YMCA of the USA, or the European Union’ Humanitarian aid. On a smaller scale, one may put celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Brad Pitt, or Geoffrey Beene into consideration. These are just a handful among hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of entities that act selflessly to provide funds, goods, or services, and incite activities that echo remarkably around the world.
Increased Doubts in Charities
Recent years have proven, however, that people’s trust in charities has been on the decline . Why’s that? People are sadly losing hope of their donations being delivered to whom they should be — and that’s a rightful point. While blockchain is still a relatively new technology, commonly being (mis)associated only with cryptocurrencies, its intrinsic values have already demonstrated plausible outcomes within the charity sphere.
Transparency, immutability, trust — these are the core values blockchain can provide.
Transparency? Check. Intermediaries? Cut. Corruption? Begone!
Transparency, as the core aspect of blockchain, can be utilized in accepting and issuing donations more quickly and confidently. Through an immutable public ledger, donors can view and track how their donation is being used — from the transaction itself to its concrete usage. Considering blockchain’s decentralized character, charities could secure their donations through cryptography, and more specifically, smart contracts.
These would ensure that donors, recipients, and charities act in accordance with a pre-defined set of requirements, eliminating corruption and misconduct. Our team has recently released a describing the benefits blockchain technology brings worldwide. The team explains the technology and applications in layman terms and of course share their thoughts on the future. Check it out!
In recent months, there have been many exhilarating talks of a new, game-changing asset that could impact the dynamically paced blockchain industry, called non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Could there be a possible tie between NFTs and charity in a time to come? Think of it as a token which could only be redeemed for a single, specific service. Combined with all the features of trust and transparency blockchain offers, these could work as “coupons”, possibly to be redeemed for specific types of groceries, clothes or other services. Additionally, NFTs could prove useful as prevention against explotation of donations by the recipients.
As for intermediaries, banks and other financial institutions that offer third-party economic services for charities can often epitomize a lot of decrements to the money that’s being donated. Cutting back intermediaries that have control over a charity’s funds can prove beneficial in the long run — avoiding middlemen that may financially manipulate and deviate from the charity’s initial plans.
And what about corruption? Regrettably enough, this displeasing aspect crops up in almost every area of life. This alone makes governments and other legal entities encourage anti-corruption measures that do not always perform efficiently. However, countries like Estonia and Russia have already put blockchain into practice to curb corruption , track voting and lower the chance of tax evasion. This proves that there are several ways blockchain could lead an effective fight against this unfavorable demeanor even in charity — by fully employing transparency and rightfully giving back trust to benefactors.
A New Champion on The Block
You might’ve caught a glimpse of our latest charity-based project, Token 4 Hope . It is safe to say that Token 4 Hope has successfully demonstrated blockchain’s usability in the charity sector. The whole process went more than smoothly, with more than 10,000 EUR having been distributed among 47 households in Vienna, Austria. This is where we managed to apply the advanced features DCore can offer — speed, transparency and high-level security.
At DECENT, we’re all about solving real-world issues like lack of transparency and trust, which are so coveted in the charity industry today. Even outside the charity sector, DCore showcases many advantages that can be seen with our other projects and use cases. By utilizing the power of DCore, we believe that blockchain can become the leading technology solution the world needs today.
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Originally published at https://decent.ch on April 26, 2019.
