From cryptocurrencies to mobile money applications, a key feature of many new financial technologies is the attachment of specific rules and conditions to the exchange of value, underpinned by data and enforced algorithmically. By making money \u2018smart\u2019 in this way, it is envisioned to afford entirely new financial infrastructures, services and interactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are a number of startups seeking to use blockchain technology to support more direct, accountable and transparent ways of giving to charitable causes. In many cases, these rely on the creation of automated and tamper-resistant \u2018escrows\u2019 where donations are held with a third party, before they are released or returned based on pre-defined rules and conditions. While some applications seek to use escrows to relate the release of funds to the achievement of certain milestones, or through measuring the impact of a charities\u2019 work, we chose to focus our inquiry on the \u2018first-mile\u2019 of donations, and donors own motivations for giving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We envisaged the use of escrows as a way for a donor to set up an individual \u2018programmable donation\u2019 with a charity. Each donation would contain an \u2018offer\u2019<\/em>: the value of the donation, and how it is withdrawn; specific \u2018conditions\u2019<\/em> that trigger the release of a donation; \u2018validator(s)<\/em>\u2019 who provide the data that informs the contract whether conditions are met. Lastly, donations would define a beneficiary<\/em> \u2013 the individual, cause or account who would directly receive the funds once released \u2013 and an expiry date, at which point any unreleased funds would be returned to the donor. The escrow as a mechanism to hold and release money underpins the attachment of conditions and validation. The donation serves as a contract between donor and charity, which is immutable, but requires funds to be pledged up-front by the donor. By supporting conditional and data-driven giving, this model opens up potentially radical new models of charitable giving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Smart Donations App is an ongoing development of this research. Through this blockchain-based app, it allows users to donate money directly to charitable causes with a number of conditions attached upheld with the use of smart contracts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example a contract may look like this,<\/p>\n\n\n\n I will donate \u00a3100 to an earthquake response fund which will be released if there is a significant earthquake anywhere in the world in the next 12 months. After 12 months, if there has not been an earthquake, then the donor has a number of options;<\/p>\n\n\n\n By working with a number of charitable partners, we are exploring the opportunities and challenges presented by this new approach to giving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n