From antique “Sportulam furunculus captat” to the W12 blockchain protocol for 2000 years
The entire volume of the non-profit sector now exceeds $1.5 trillion. And the main factors hindering its development is mistrust and frauds. Having solved these problems with the help of blockchain and IT technologies, the W12 team allows worthwhile, honest projects to attract even more funds and create even better things. The W12 platform is an evolutionary solution to the problems in the field of charity, which, in fact, have not changed over more than 2000 thousand years.
Sportulam furunculus captat (Antique Rome)
As an ancient form of charity, Sportula is described by the ancient Roman satirist Juvenal. Notable citizens handed out money, food and coal to poor people in the lobbies of their homes to common folk, who in return responded to them with cheers in public speeches. Each patron had their clients, who were issued rations. In order not to be mistaken, lists were kept. But the Sportulam furunculus captat, as the ancient Romans said, meant that a thief would always steal from another thief. The poor received a sportula several times from different patrons under different names by forging documents and simply not having the right to do so.
The main problem was the inefficient spending of funds due to a multitude of documents not synchronized with each other.
In W12, the movement of charitable funds is transparent, as it is recorded in a single public blockchain. At the same time, this registry is decentralized, and is updated simultaneously for all “patrons”.
Le second concile de Tours (Middle Ages)
In the Middle Ages, the organization of charity passed to the church. At the Second Council of Tour in 567, the bishops established a common European rule that all priests were obliged to help their poor so that they would not migrate to other cities. At the same time, the forerunners of charitable foundations were emerging. They were filled with mandatory church tithing from voluntary private and public donations. At least 1/4 of the amount was to be spent on the poor. This led to unexpected consequences, such as the explosive growth in the number of professional beggars and the enrichment of monastic orders, which were subsequently closed with ensuing seizure of property.
The main problem was the abuse of the benefactors and the needy.
In W12, non-earmarked spending will be immediately apparent in the public blockchain, since the benefactor will not be able to hide that they spent money on luxury, and not on good deeds. With the KYC procedure, the “professional beggars” are instantly filtered.
Patrons and their heirs (New ages)
Patrons who supported young talents and maintained shelters by the calling of their good hearts are one of the characteristic features of the New Age and the revival of Europe. Here we can already talk about the prototypes of private charity foundations with their managerial staff. In the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, a whole paragraph is devoted to the problems of such a model. People were usually engaged in charity upon reaching old age, when moving away from their main tasks. The noble ideas of an elderly benefactor were usually realized by unscrupulous bailiffs. In addition, after the death of the patron, their heirs most often immediately ended the charitable operations.
The main problem is that only a part of the funds allocated by the patron reached the intended goals, while the rest ended up in the pockets of the managers.
In W12, a detailed roadmap controlled by the donors will not allow simulating charitable activities. A transparent blockchain will make any attempt at withdrawing funds into the organizer’s pocket immediately evident.
Charity watch hall of shame (Our days)
The corporate charity was born in the US in the middle of the 20th century. This is now a global industry with millions of employees. Gigantic funds are in tough competition with each other in an effort to attract as many donors as possible. Large trustees use funds as a tool in the third world, as small donors have no control over the spending of funds at all. Charity watch chronicles the most outrageous frauds in the field of charity. The next name in the hall of shame is Lola Jean Amorin, the senior accountant of the NGO “The Arc in Hawaii”, who stole $7 million using fake checks from people with developmental disabilities.
The main problem is that giant corporations are as opaque as stone and bureaucratic, as well as vulnerable to fraud.
In W12, the smart contracts fully algorithmize the process of moving funds, thus eliminating the paper workflow. All transactions are recorded in a transparent public blockchain, in which everyone can easily track the spending from anywhere in the world. Making a change to such a registry is physically impossible.
The future of charity with W12
“In the 21st century, we can finally cure the shortcomings of charity with the help of technology by giving the industry a new lease on life. Imagine Kickstarter focused on social projects, where donors have a direct connection with projects, see the impact of their contributions and can return the unspent parts of the funds. This is how the W12 platform works.” explains Founder of W12 Oleg Sharpatiy.
How is this implemented?
Any charitable organization, social entrepreneur or volunteer can add their project to the W12 platform and uses the built-in tools (community, forums and chats, the ability to attach videos and photos, linking social networks, affiliate networks, etc.) to attract donations. Pre-payment is not required, as the fee for payments is 0% in W12 Tokens and up to 10% when using fiat and other cryptocurrencies.
What is needed?
Publish a detailed roadmap with key points. Gradually the project receives installments. Suppose $10 million has been collected to electrify a remote village with green energy. The first phase of implementation is the purchase of a prototype of solar panels. The philanthropist will receive about $300 thousand in the first installment. The remaining donations are deposited in a smart contract. The costs of solar panels are absolutely transparent, as they are recorded in blockchain.
Why we use public distributed ledger?
All the necessary documents and transactions are uploaded there. This data cannot be changed retroactively. The cost inconsistency will be clear at first glance. That is, if a philanthropist has spent money not on batteries, but on a new Range Rover, this will be very visible. To receive an installment for the second stage, the project must report on the implementation of the previous stage to donors. The entire system of voting and decision-making on the project is managed through the DAO and smart contracts.
What do the donors get?
Accordingly, the donors on our platform receive full transparency and mandatory feedback from projects, as well as the ability to evaluate and measure the benefits (the impact) of their investments. The W12 protocol offers several mechanisms for deciding whether or not a project has reached the main stages of its roadmap:
- each donor decides for themselves whether a key point has been reached
- this fact is determined by donors’ voting
- a decision on each stage in the project roadmap is made by 12 oracles
By using these models, the philanthropists depend on the donors and must report to them. The blockchain’s transparency and self-fulfillment of smart contracts guarantee the absence of fraud. All the technical details can be found in our White Paper.
“Our goal is to find the most useful projects for society and multiply their benefits a hundredfold. To do this, we combine non-profit organizations, social entrepreneurs, volunteers and donors on the blockchain platform, which ensures absolute transparency of the use of the collected funds.” summarizes co-Founder Andrey Granovskiy.
Join the W12 movement (Tg, Fb, Tw), donate with secure model and control the execution of roadmap. We will be rewarding the most active participants. To learn what fundraisers get on W12, click here.
