Charitable cryptocurrency Wishcoin to generate funding for charities
Melanie May | 22 September 2017 | News
A new cryptocurrency to benefit charities has been announced. Wishcoin is designed to generate a new source of funding for charities and a new method of giving to them.
Following a successful ICO (initial coin offering), the altcoin will help develop a new fund which aims to make its first grants within a few months.
Wishcoin is based on Ethereum, the open source, blockchain-based distributed computing platform featuring smart contract functionality. It becomes a competitor or alternative to existing altcoins like Bitcoin, but its founders expect that its charitable focus will make it distinct.
Wishcoin co-founder Robert McLean
Wishcoin co-founder Robert McLean said: “Wishcoin’s entire identity is shaped around the charity sector, providing an innovative way to raise funds for good causes”. The altcoin has been in development for the past year. McLean added that its launch was timely given the challenges faced by charities, from greater demands for their services to likely limitations on fundraising communications that will result from the full implementation of GDPR in 2018.
He said: “Wishcoin has been perfectly timed to assist charities that will be struggling to adjust throughout this period and provide them with a new fundraising source”.
Wishcoin Foundation
Half of the total coin-cap will be held by the Wishcoin Foundation, a new organisation which will operate a set of secure, multi-trustee accounts designated solely for donations to charities.
Any charity that receives a pledge of coins is expected to find it in their interest to promote and adopt the coin, resulting in its wider use. As well as individual users, Wishcoin’s founders expect the altcoin to be accepted and used by companies that support charities.
Anyone with a MyEtherWallet.com account can send or receive Wishcoins.
Like other altcoins, Wishcoin will have a strictly limited number of coins at the outset. It will be limited to 500 million coins until 31 October 2028. Thereafter 20 million coins, 4% of the coin cap, will be released and added to the Wishcoin charitable fund.
ICO
The Wishcoin sale price has been set at $0.10 for its initial coin offering. This will begin on 14 November 2017 at 12.00 GMT.
According to Coindesk, which tracks blockchain token sales and initial coin offerings, ICOs have generated $1.8 billion in the first eight months of 2017, more than 10 times the amount in the whole of 2016.
Wishcoin’s founders expect that the altcoin will be listed on cryptocurrency exchanges by the end of the first quarter of 2018. They then plan to expand the adoption of the coin, and the Foundation’s charitable activities, internationally.
Wishcoin founders and advisers – (l-r) Robert McLean, Mal McCallion, Joleon Lescott, Howard Lake, and John Davies.
UK Fundraising’s Howard Lake has advised the Wishcoin team. He said: “I’ve been looking for a while for an opportunity that applies recent financial technology developments to benefit charities on an ambitious, possibly exponential scale. A successful Wishcoin is poised to make that positive impact”.
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Other charitable blockchain initiatives
- Start Network tests blockchain technology for foreign-aid-distribution (3 August 2017)
- Blockchain startup offers transparency tool to track donations to charity (4 May 2017)
- RNLI’s early experiences of accepting Bitcoin donations (11 September 2014)
- CAF report considers value of Bitcoin to charities (6 May 2015)
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.