Cryptocurrency and charity – a match made in heaven?
It’s important to remember the positives that crypto and blockchain tech brings to the world
Cryptocurrency has seen its fair share of negative publicity over the past few years, with much of it being warranted if we’re honest. This is usually down to bad actors within the space, rather than any particular nefarious issues with the technology itself.
Amid all of the initial coin offering (ICO) scams and get rich quick schemes it’s important to remember the positives that cryptocurrency and blockchain technology brings to the world.
Such as its impact on charity.
A reduction in costs
Many charities are faced with the same issues that individuals and businesses have to deal with when partaking in the transfer of finances, even if some financial institutions provide charitable organisations with fee waivers.
Unless a charitable organisation has offices in different countries, it’s often difficult for them to accept donations on a worldwide basis. The procedures that are involved in processing payments from different countries and different banking systems using different currencies is a huge hindrance.
Cryptocurrency can change all of that, opening up charitable organisations to a much larger global audience.
As banking fees are removed altogether, replaced with the much smaller costs attributed to dealing with cryptocurrency we can see those who donate to charity being able to rest assured that more of their money is reaching its intended target, rather than being subjected to fees and costs.
Transparency is key
Blockchain technology can also open the doors for a higher level of transparency than ever seen before.
A criticism of many charities is how and where donations are used, with the exact information often not being easy to find.
Blockchain can change all of that, providing an immutable and transparent avenue for charitable organisations to prove to their donors that their money is being used both wisely and honestly.
This even opens the doors for donors not only to donate and know where their funds are going, but they can also earmark their particular donation for a specific aspect of the charities work. Using the technology every single transaction will be recorded, allowing all donors to rest assured that as much of their contribution as possible is being spent in areas that they wish to see it spent.
Not only does cryptocurrency and blockchain facilitate charitable donations from members of the public, but many of the major players within the industry are doing their fair share of charitable work themselves.
Crypto philanthropy
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced last year that his philanthropic venture, GiveCrypto.org, hopes to raise its total funds to $1 billion over the next few years, with somewhere in the region of $4 million raised already.
We’ve also seen the likes of Ripple donate millions in XRP to schools, while newcomer Atronocom is working with Operation Rescue to donate 10% of transaction fees to the children charity that operates in emerging markets like Brazil.
As Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong commented last year: “People who invested early in crypto have amassed an enormous amount of wealth in a relatively short amount of time. Yet, the reputation of the crypto community has been dominated by images of ‘bros in Lambos’, whose antics get a lot of attention.
“This doesn’t represent the best of our community. Most people I respect and know in the crypto ecosystem believe we have a responsibility to help this technology reach a much wider audience.”
Crypto and blockchain technology is a relatively new player on the world stage, but it’s already working for the greater good.
By Aubrey Hansen
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