A Charity Blockchain Without a Charity Organisation

Lots of people give to charity but lots more don’t. Why is that? Some people don’t have the trust in a charitable organisation because there is lack of visibility on how their money is actually being spent. How can I really know for sure what my money is being used for?

Well now you can, the answer is a distributed ledger system such as a Blockchain. Think of it as a public statement of accounts which shows all the Debit and Credit movement of funds in real time accessible to anyone. It’s like opening up your credit card statement for the world to see every single purchase you make.

The way charities are run as organisations there are always going to be costs involved.

Charitable giving in 2015 was estimated to be around USD$373.25 billion. By some accounts the split on running costs to actual charitable expenditure is about 80/20. That means USD$74 billion goes to costs such as running costs and staff wages.

Oxfam spends 25% of its funds on wages and running costs!

How much more good in the world can be achieved if most of those costs go away?

What if 99% of what I donate goes to those in need?

This would solve some big problems

1. Lack of public trust
2. Transparency
3. Less operational costs
4. Direct connection with communities being helped
5. More funding to to those in need

Some people are already looking at incorporating Blockchain technology into their established charity organisation. What I am suggesting is to do away with the organisation completely.

So how can we do this?

This is my proposal for a decentralised charity ecosystem with no central organisation involved.

There are 3 parties involved in the system.

1. Donator — The person making the donation.
2. Case Worker- An experienced person who dedicates his/her time to worthwhile causes and receives compensation.
3. Beneficiary- The people in need who benefit from the donations.

A system where grassroots level funding can be achieved with case workers directly involved to help communities in need. The case worker doesn’t have to be employed by a bigger organisation anymore. They can be directly funded by donators. Donators can trust that their funds are being spent on the beneficiaries because all the transactions relating to purchases can be seen.

Having a trustworthy Case Worker is key and this may prove tricky. It would have to be someone with a strong social media presence to regularly interact with the donators through constant updates. There would have to be a strong vetting and verification process to bring these people on board.

The steps involved:

1. Donation with cryptocurrency directly into the blockchain public address.
2. Funds are held in escrow
3. A Case Worker assigns themselves to a cause
4. Donators have voting ability to release funds to the Case Worker. This is their salary.
5. Case worker receives in their possession a debit card linked to the crypto. It converts crypto to fiat currency when used. A company such as CoinsBank is building this kind of product.
6. The debit card is used to purchase items for beneficiaries in need.
7. A smartphone application built to display the blockchain transactions through an UI.