Introduction
Cryptocurrency news has been primarily focused on getting, not giving. But there is a plethora of cryptocurrencies beginning to focus on charitable giving, and this trend is a good sign for nonprofits and charities across the world as the power of blockchain is now available to them.
UNICEF Australia recently launched "The Hopepage" which lets you donate computing power. This translates into crypto donation for their Australian branch. Over 3000 people have already donated using this site. The site is powered by Coinhive's JavaScript based mining tool. This isn't UNICEF's first attempt to use Cryptocurrencies to gather donations. In February, they launched Chaingers.io which asked users mine Ethereum to help Syrian kids.
Clean Water Coin helped raise for the philanthropic Charity:Water and deliver clean water to the families around the globe. And Pinkcoin, a philanthropic coin enabled investors to donate and get returns on their investments.
Yet another addition to the Crypto Charity space is the "crypto-foundation". Pineapple Fund is one such fund, which was setup by an anonymous donor who was looking to give away 5,057 bitcoins. The website states the motto as “Because once you have enough money, money doesn’t matter.” So far a whooping $56 million has been donated to 56 curated charities.
This could further down the road lead to Distributed Autonomous Foundation similar to DAO. An entity like that would be governed by a collective of shareholders who have written down the rules on smart contracts. You could also see the rise of a charity exchange where tokens exclusive to charity could be traded.
The Vantage Network
UNICEF Australia recently launched "The Hopepage" which lets you donate computing power. This translates into crypto donation for their Australian branch. Over 3000 people have already donated using this site. The site is powered by Coinhive's JavaScript based mining tool. This isn't UNICEF's first attempt to use Cryptocurrencies to gather donations. In February, they launched Chaingers.io which asked users mine Ethereum to help Syrian kids.
Clean Water Coin helped raise for the philanthropic Charity:Water and deliver clean water to the families around the globe. And Pinkcoin, a philanthropic coin enabled investors to donate and get returns on their investments.
Yet another addition to the Crypto Charity space is the "crypto-foundation". Pineapple Fund is one such fund, which was setup by an anonymous donor who was looking to give away 5,057 bitcoins. The website states the motto as “Because once you have enough money, money doesn’t matter.” So far a whooping $56 million has been donated to 56 curated charities.
This could further down the road lead to Distributed Autonomous Foundation similar to DAO. An entity like that would be governed by a collective of shareholders who have written down the rules on smart contracts. You could also see the rise of a charity exchange where tokens exclusive to charity could be traded.
The Vantage Network
The Vantage Network is a Contribution Tracking Platform that lets donors track where every penny is spent. This tracking is down to a transaction level which helps build donor confidence and trust in nonprofits.
Vantage utilizes the power of blockchain to provide traceability and transparency. This is a win for both donors and nonprofits. The donors get to track their donations without worrying about the technology underneath, while the nonprofits can effectively use blockchain to provide transparency without changing their business model.
How does Vantage differ from Charity Coins
The Vantage Network is a very different from other charity coins. While on the outside they all appear to be serving the same purpose, Vantage does the job better. The biggest difference is that Vantage Network allows you to track the spending of your donations down to transaction level.
Vantage utilizes the power of blockchain to provide traceability and transparency. This is a win for both donors and nonprofits. The donors get to track their donations without worrying about the technology underneath, while the nonprofits can effectively use blockchain to provide transparency without changing their business model.
How does Vantage differ from Charity Coins
The Vantage Network is a very different from other charity coins. While on the outside they all appear to be serving the same purpose, Vantage does the job better. The biggest difference is that Vantage Network allows you to track the spending of your donations down to transaction level.
The heart of the Vantage Network leverages Vantage Token on the NEM blockchain for recording and tracking the use of funds. The Vantage Network will interface with the Digital Asset Management Platform via the Vantage Network API to leverage certain third party decentralized technologies, e.g., IPFS for storage of files, images, documents.
Vantage also provides tools for forensics. Any third party auditor may view all transactions by a Fundraising Entity since all transactions are essentially a public record. Auditors may also download the ledger for third-party auditing and analysis, providing an added element of transparency that can be provided to prospective Donors.
Vantage can also be easily integrated into any current and future fundraising platforms. Donors can contribute money to nonprofits without having to first own cryptocurrency, and can track their donations using a tracking ID, similar to tracking a package. When nonprofits sign up with Vantage Network they are offered a Vantage Donation Point, which is basically a code snippet which could be placed on fundraising landing pages and social media to solicit Donors. Each campaign gets its own unique IDs using the Vantage API which interfaces with aforementioned Digital Asset Management Platform. All this technology is simplified as a code snippet which the nonprofit has to just copy and paste wherever he wants to display the donation point.
Vantage is currently in the process of setting up a certification process called “Vantage Verified” which is ICO regulation for fundraising entities and ICOs. This would help provide self-regulation in the marketplace, reducing the risk of overreaching government regulation in the future.
Vantage Network is also actively pursuing Machine Learning to understand the sector better. With algorithms deployed on data collected, they would let nonprofits benefit future campaigns. Use cases range from finding out which donation points are most effective by demographics like Age, Gender and Location. You could also track patterns in contributions with insights like what time and day lets you raise the most or which medium is best to run campaigns on. The possibilities are endless.
Conclusion
While opportunities are abound, there are many hurdles to cross for crypto charity space.
Crypto donations and Blockchain frameworks are still new and untested in the nonprofit space, and there is a lack of awareness and enthusiasm among donors and philanthropies. But with startups like The Vantage Network we could see a change, as they drive innovation and adoption in the sector.
Vantage also provides tools for forensics. Any third party auditor may view all transactions by a Fundraising Entity since all transactions are essentially a public record. Auditors may also download the ledger for third-party auditing and analysis, providing an added element of transparency that can be provided to prospective Donors.
Vantage can also be easily integrated into any current and future fundraising platforms. Donors can contribute money to nonprofits without having to first own cryptocurrency, and can track their donations using a tracking ID, similar to tracking a package. When nonprofits sign up with Vantage Network they are offered a Vantage Donation Point, which is basically a code snippet which could be placed on fundraising landing pages and social media to solicit Donors. Each campaign gets its own unique IDs using the Vantage API which interfaces with aforementioned Digital Asset Management Platform. All this technology is simplified as a code snippet which the nonprofit has to just copy and paste wherever he wants to display the donation point.
Vantage is currently in the process of setting up a certification process called “Vantage Verified” which is ICO regulation for fundraising entities and ICOs. This would help provide self-regulation in the marketplace, reducing the risk of overreaching government regulation in the future.
Vantage Network is also actively pursuing Machine Learning to understand the sector better. With algorithms deployed on data collected, they would let nonprofits benefit future campaigns. Use cases range from finding out which donation points are most effective by demographics like Age, Gender and Location. You could also track patterns in contributions with insights like what time and day lets you raise the most or which medium is best to run campaigns on. The possibilities are endless.
Conclusion
While opportunities are abound, there are many hurdles to cross for crypto charity space.
Crypto donations and Blockchain frameworks are still new and untested in the nonprofit space, and there is a lack of awareness and enthusiasm among donors and philanthropies. But with startups like The Vantage Network we could see a change, as they drive innovation and adoption in the sector.
