Blockchain-based Giftcoin to provide greater transparency for donations
Howard Lake | 5 December 2017 | News
Giftcoin is a blockchain start-up that aims to enhance transparency and trust in charities by enabling donors to track where their money goes.
The cryptocurrency begins its own fundraising efforts this week with registration for its token sale beginning on 11 December.
The latest entrant to apply the blockchain to charitable giving will, its founders claim:
Advertisement
- enable charities to showcase the value of their donations
- ensure donors can track where their money goes
- provide a new way of accepting frictionless cryptocurrency donations
- collect micro-donations for charity e.g. through rounding-up payments
- lower transaction fees for donations to charity
London-based Giftcoin’s platform has been designed specifically to enhance the way people donate. Donations made on the platform are converted into the Giftcoin cryptocurrency, allowing the subsequent path of the contribution to be tracked from end-to-end using blockchain, while providing reliable proof of transactions.
It will then send donors a notification when their gift is spent and inform them about how their money has been used.
Social media sharing options are built in to the process, inviting donors to share the fact they’ve just given via Giftcoin and thereby likely promoting further adoption of the cryptocurrency.
You can read GiftCoin’s whitepaper which sets out its business plan, roadmap and technical specification.
The GiftCoin team
GiftCoin’s founders include Alex Howard, who created UK charity The Optimum Health Clinic, and Tim Bichara, co-founder of fintech start-up Q App, which last year was acquired by Yoyo Wallet.
Alex Howard, co-founder of Giftcoin said: “As the founder of a charity myself, I am all too familiar with the difficulty that charities face in connecting with the public and building trust. I firmly believe that transparency is key to solving this problem, and blockchain is the tool that will deliver it.”
Tim Bichara, co-founder, added: “It is imperative that charities acknowledge the need to redefine their relationship with the public, particularly younger groups. Giftcoin gives donors a level of transparency that is not currently offered in the sector. It also encourages repeat donations and helps charities build better relationships with supporters.”
The GiftCoin team is being advised by three charity sector specialists:
- social innovator Jon Duschinsky. He said that “I believe Giftcoin, by completing the circle between giving and the spending of donations, has the potential to trigger a new and much more effective wave of social giving.”
- Lady Astor of Hever, who has raised funds for 20 years for The National Austistic Society and others, says: “Giftcoin is a revolutionary concept for charitable giving that shows the route from pound to project. This is exactly the kind of transparency revolution the charitable sector needs in the 21st century.”
- former Daily Mail women’s editor Shirley Conran OBE
Charity partners
Charities that already signed up to the platform include Ourmala, Enhance the UK, and The Optimum Health Clinic Foundation, a charity set up Alex Howard.
Timescale
The funds raised from Giftcoin’s token sale via its Initial Coin Offering (ICO) will be used to develop a prototype product, which is scheduled to be released in May 2018. From there, the team will work with a select number of charities to develop the platform further, before releasing the full product in September of next year.
Registration for Giftcoin’s token sale opens on 11th December and the ICO itself starts at 09:30 EST (2.30pm GMt) on 12 January 2018.
WATCH: The Giftcoin story unfold
More charity blockchain initiatives
- Charitable cryptocurrency Wishcoin to generate funding for charities (22 September 2017)
- Blockchain startup offers transparency tool to track donations to charity (4 May 2017)
- Blockchain-based Gigagiving to fundraise through an ICO (6 October 2017)
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.