Thoughts on Crypto Exchanges, Charities and Foundations
At www.domitai.com, a crypto exchange in Mexico, we are discussing ways of setting up a foundation and doing charity especially since we are operating in a country that shows healthy economic growth but still has many of its citizens facing poverty.
As my first corporate job at www.nokia.com was in competitive intelligence, I always start by looking at competitors and I write down their thinking. Here are some notes from Changpeng Zhao at Binance from his first writing on the topic in 2014:
Topic 1: simple, cross-country, anonymous
“A few other properties of bitcoin will greatly benefit charity organizations as well. One, transactions are simple. One only needs a public address (like this: 1P3LfDBhaKct65PZhb1wPBgXn8ngxEtnMH) to send money. Two, bitcoins are borderless. Anyone in the world can donate to anyone else, regardless of country, language and banking barriers. Three, anonymity can easily be offer to the donators.”
As remittances are definitely a key topic for us at Domitai, the phrase above is extremely important and valid to us. Especially because we could enable huge savings compared to companies like Western Union that grab even 10% of transfers from hard working Mexicans in US to their families back in Mexico.
I really respect how open Changpeng Zhao has been about the lack of execution of the 2014 plan as well as his commitment to the topic, as he wrote a recent update.
Topic 2: education on using crypto is needed
“Last Mile Issue In order to track the funds all the way, the Ultimate Beneficiary will need to have crypto wallets themselves. Either BCF or our Charity Partner will need to educate the users on how to use a crypto wallet, and potentially how to convert crypto to fiat. Binance Academy is more than happy to fund the creation of videos for education. In the simplest form, this will likely require the Ultimate Beneficiary to have a smartphone or computer, and internet access. (This may be tough for certain regions of the world, where donations are needed the most.)”
The importance of education is extremely important for us at Domitai as well.
Topic 3: ID verification is needed
“ID & Privacy To combat fraud, a certain level of ID verification will be required. We could use existing KYC solutions used by exchanges (expensive and cumbersome), plus a network of Certified Volunteers who can check on the beneficiaries periodically, possibly randomly assigned by the platform. A certain level of disclosure of ID information (first name) to the public will be needed to ensure transparency. At the same time, privacy of the ultimate beneficiaries needs to be protected to a certain extent. This will require a multilevel permissioning system. A group of Certified Volunteers can be randomly assigned by the system to do verifications of the beneficiaries. This can be done in person or remotely using video calls if necessary. These certified volunteers will have access to full ID information on the beneficiaries.”
We definitely need more personal, less stringent and less robotic ways to verify identity especially given the demographic we are dealing with when doing charity.
Looking forward to add more thoughts on the subject as I look at how other crypto exchanges and blockchain companies have been handling their charity activities. I did meet once Francesco Nazari Fusetti from Aid Coin but not sure if he will reply because I’m from Southern Italy and he’s from Milan 😂🇮🇹
Here is more info on Aidcoin from a presentation at an Italian Conference:
Data on poverty in Mexico
