Introducing Hypergive — Secure digital food wallets for homeless or hungry people in your community

Powered by Ethereum

We want to help the people around us who don’t have enough to eat.

But there are two main things that get in the way of giving money to the people we pass every day on the street.

First, we’re generally a cashless society at this point. Even if you want to give to someone on the street, you usually only have a debit or credit card with you.

Second, for better or worse, recipients don’t always use that money for buying food and other necessities of life. Unfortunately this drives cynicism, donor fatigue, and inhibits capturing the full spectrum of generosity.

We were determined to find an healthier, innovative way to help. That’s why we created Hypergive. Hypergive helps solve these problems using the Ethereum blockchain by tackling donor cynicism and leveraging common payment methods to provide secure, digital food wallets for homeless and hungry people in your community.

How it works

CareCards are crowdfunded by communities on the Hypergive web site. People can donate with common payment methods such as a credit card, debit card, Paypal account or any currency supported by ShapeShift. Hypergive is also compatible with registered charities so donors even receive a tax receipt.

We work with the partner organizations on the ground in a community, who issue CareCards to people in need. Each CareCard has a QR code containing the address and private key of an Ethereum smart contract. The contract holds the balance remaining on the card, management functions for the partner organization, and the cardholder’s picture so they can be validated at the time of the transaction.

The cardholder brings it to a participating retailer, who scans it with the Hypergive terminal app.

The app queries the Ethereum smart contract for validation and the cardholder’s photo pops up on the screen so that the clerk can verify their identity. This prevents trading or theft of cards.

A retailer processing a transaction with a Hypergive CareCard

The transaction is approved, and the person receives their food. Transactions settle automatically in the retailer’s local fiat currency, sent to an account of their choice through any supported method such as EFT or Paypal.

The smart contract that each food wallet is based on has measures to protect the integrity of the system and allow it to be managed at the community level, including daily spending limits, de-activation and value recovery if it’s lost or stolen.

Screen from the Hypergive partner organization dashboard

Summing it up

Hypergive —

• Ensures donations are spent on food
• Uses common payment methods for donation, redemption and settlement
• Gives donors a tax receipt
• Gives more dignity and choice to those in need

Next steps

• We’ve just added 2 developers to our growing team and we’re working away on the pilot version of the platform.
• We need your help. Join us in piloting Hypergive worldwide in cities and communities near you. Visit hypergive.com to get involved. You can also email us at hello@hypergive.com. We’d love to connect with as many potential partners and supporters as we can as we grow our ecosystem. Know someone we should talk to? Introduce us!
• Share your thoughts on Hypergive — Please leave a comment below. And if you enjoyed this article please consider sharing it in your networks and giving this article a clap!

The Hypergive team accepting the 2017 Year of Giving Award at the World Government Summit in Dubai. From left: Brian Jeffcock, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Scott Burke, Andrew Redden.

Hypergive is a project of BlockCrushr Labs in Halifax, Nova Scotia.