For charity work, blockchain is more than a tool that enables more transparency and accountability. It is the true “proof of impact” of any charity campaign that could take place in the world right now!
As in any transaction, there are two parties to consider:
- Donors - those who have the desire to help by donating a small part of their wealth
- People in need - those who can benefit from these donations
Today, there are countless intermediaries who are offering their service (sometimes even for free!) of collecting and delivering the donation from the givers to the beneficiaries.
Regardless of these middle man taking their cut or not, the real problem is in providing real proof that the collected funds reached their promised destination.
We have laws in place to track the money but, and this is the biggest issue, the paperwork not only gets expensive but, in some cases, it can make it impossible for citizens of some regions to donate to a different part of the world. I won’t get into the world economy but censorship happens at all levels.
Blockchain is the perfect medium for this type of transaction. First, faster and cheaper transactions mean that givers are spending less money to make a donation and beneficiaries are getting the full amount. And you know that in most of the charity cases every single penny counts. Literally!
The real intermediary here will be the blockchain contract which takes only the transaction fee (~ a few cents.) That’s the cost, how about the speed? Each blockchain transaction happens in near real-time with a delay of only seconds.
Plus, did you know that charitable organizations need to provide annual reporting in order to stay on the good side of the law? Blockchain is a ledger in itself. Extracting a report of all transactions within a year can be done in seconds and without trust issues. Anyone can verify it at any time as the data is publicly available.
Source: kopernik.info
Highly visible and traceable transactions are the most attractive feature of blockchain. Donors and authorities are mostly concerned about having proof that the money reached its destination. With blockchain, we don’t need paperwork for that.
We don’t even need a third party to verify for us. Tracking the transactions in real-time is what blockchain explorer already do and they are open sources and free to use for anyone. Charities that will be using blockchain will be the only ones that will be able to provide this level of transparency to their donors.
Who’s using the blockchain’s transparency to help millions today?
The COVID pandemic affected us globally. There is no discussion that everywhere in the world right now you can find people in need of help. At the same time, it’s clear that in some regions of the world there are people who managed to keep their jobs and earn money while some regions got completely shut down.
The issue is that borders are getting closed making it impossible for charities from the more developed regions to reach those countries who are seeking help.
Cryptocurrency is the solution for easily transferring wealth across the globe and Binance Charity using it under the #crypto4covid campaign to help millions of people!
Based on their latest report, the Binance ecosystem was able to donate $3.3 million, all cryptocurrency worldwide, and around $1 million was collected from other donors that were able to contribute through cryptocurrency without any need of a paperwork.
Collecting cryptocurrency funds is just the first step. Blockchain is useful but somebody has to do the groundwork beyond the donations. Binance Charity used the funds to purchase more than 1.5 million personal protective equipment and distributed it to over 20 countries.
Places where without cryptocurrency the funds would never reach. Countries like Italy, Ukraine, India, Bermuda, Mexico, Peru, the US, Venezuela, Ghana, and many others received equipment ranging from N95 masks to professional-grade surgical masks and protective suits.
The global pharmaceutical industry is overwhelmed during this period. That’s where blockchain can help beyond collecting cryptocurrency donations. It can provide a transparent ecosystem for the entire pharmaceutical industry.
ClinTex is one of the most prominent projects in the space that aims to position itself as a solutions provider for the pharmaceutical industry, with a special focus on a pivotal point, clinical trials. Currently, the inefficiencies in clinical trials cost from $600,000 to $8M per day. With blockchain technology, these costs could be highly reduced.
The project team is building a platform to boost the speed and quality of clinical trials. Along with blockchain, predictive analytics powered by AI technology will solve the delays of clinical trials. Data collection can offset mistakes that, in time, are leading to costs of millions of dollars. The smart way of collecting and managing data is done through computation. The Clinical Trial Intelligence system by ClinTex can apply information solutions to optimize outcomes at a much more complex level than it is done now.
That’s needed not only to increase the efficiency of clinical trials but to handle the global demand before total collapse. 16 years ago, in 2004, only 3,294 trials were run annually. By 2013, annual trials raised to 23,000. At this rate, international trails will need better technology to handle the increased demand.
ClinTex is able to run this whole ecosystem by using CTi, an ERC-20 token based on the Ethereum network. Being on the Ethereum network the platform can assure the speed and the security such a system needs while having access to higher-end oracle solutions. ChainLink will be used within the platform along with Storj for encrypted decentralized data storage. With strong partnerships and possible high global demand, the idea of having clinical trials backed by an efficient process can become reality.
Besides Binance Charity and ClinTex there are many other projects that are doing good at a global level just because blockchain allows them to.
Crypto Charity Fund is one of the most popular cryptocurrency charity movements out there. Donors can register to be connected with various charities they might be interested in. It’s like a matchmaker between charities and donors. GiveCrypto was launched by the founder of Coinbase and it aims to help individuals living in poverty. Blockchain for Good is a non-profit organization where @TheCryptoDog is involved and it’s looking to improve the charity space by providing a framework for non-profit applications.
The list goes on and on! The main idea is that blockchain is changing so many industries but, right now, as we are trying to overcome the current pandemic, charitable movements and medical-related improvements should be the main focus for the best talent in the space.
I’m genuinely interested in what the projects mentioned above are building and I’m looking forward to finding more such applications. If you are one of them, building something awesome for the good of others, please let me know!