Abstract
One of the significant innovations that came out of Bitcoin is the blockchain technology. This paper explores how the blockchain can be leveraged in the philanthropic sector, through charitable donation services in fiat currency or Bitcoin via a web-based donor platform. The philanthropic model is then used for a case study providing humanitarian aid for a community living in a challenging geographical environment with limited internet availability. An SMS based mobile payment system is proposed for provisioning the received donations using the existing GSM network, very basic mobile phones and One Time Password (OTP) security tokens. The proposed scheme is finally evaluated for security while discussing the impact it has on charities and donors.
Highlights
Bitcoin is a decentralised cryptocurrency system which works on a peer-to-peer network, using blockchain technology [8, 18]
A report by the UK Charities Aid Foundation [10] identifies that for charities, blockchains can increase transparency, openness and trust whilst reducing transaction costs and providing new opportunities for fundraising. We explore this by introducing a generic blockchain based philanthropic model that uses a web-based donation platform where donors can choose which charity projects to support, through donations in Bitcoin or fiat currency [17]
3.1 Bitcoin Transaction Methods We propose that donations can be used by the charity for donation provisioning and subsequent Short Message Service (SMS) payment processing via one of two Bitcoin payment methods: Multi-Signature Addresses and Smart Contracts
Summary
Bitcoin is a decentralised cryptocurrency system which works on a peer-to-peer network, using blockchain technology [8, 18]. The charity will maintain hosted Bitcoin Wallets for registered users: back-end payments are done via multi-signature Bitcoin transactions to enhance security: more advanced services can be offered using Smart Contracts via the Rootstock platform [2] This allows the charity to provide feedback on how each individual donation was used (donation transparency), along with secure, cheap and speedy transactions and an infrastructure that can be used for donation provisioning. This generic philanthropic model is applied to financial aid distribution in offline geographical environments such as warzones, disaster areas and economically deprived areas of the world where the basic technological infrastructure necessary for a blockchain solution is not available. BitGive Foundation’s (GiveTrack) allows donors to trace Bitcoin transactions (donations) in real time [5] Bitcoin solutions can benefit both charities and donors as follows: 1. Donation transparency: by using Bitcoin addresses for donations there is a publicly available audit trail detailing exactly where a particular donation went
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