Over the last couple of years, charitable initiatives have been on the rise all over the world, such that global relief efforts have increased by a sizable 2.7% between 2020 and 2021 alone. To put things into perspective numerically, last year Americans doled out a whopping $484.85 billion in charity. Of this number, corporate organizations accounted for $21.08 billion while non-profit foundations accounted for $90.88 billion.
While philanthropy is on the rise, it should be noted that there currently exist a whole host of issues that plague today’s charitable systems. For example, traditional charities offer limited means of donating money, with most platforms not allowing individuals to donate digital assets. Furthermore, there are also other issues — including high transfer fees and delays — that plague most philanthropy ecosystems in the market today.
Lastly, another major problem worth highlighting in this regard is that a lot of the money being donated to charities often goes unaccounted for, sometimes as much as 60% – 70%. Not only that, there have been numerous cases in the recent past where non-profit organizations have turned out to be total scams. To this point, the state of New York recently prosecuted an individual who was able to get the I.R.S. to approve 76 fake charities, often despite glaring red flags of potential fraud.
Crypto to the rescue
As the digital asset market has continued to grow quite exponentially over the course of the last 4-5 years, so have crypto-based donations. This is due to the fact that, unlike fiat assets, cryptocurrency donations are totally immutable in nature and therefore cannot be banned by a single regulatory body. Additionally, when compared to traditional avenues such as bank-to-bank transfers (e.g. SWIFT), crypto transactions are not only much faster but also cheaper.
To this point, just recently a massive forum of anti-war proponents proceeded to send a whopping $200+M worth of Bitcoin and Ethereum to Ukrainian authorities to help with their local relief efforts. Not only that, some of the biggest charities in the world have noted that since 2020, more and more people are pursuing their philanthropic activities using cryptocurrencies, with Fidelity Charitable noting that during 2021, it received donations of approx. $330M in digital currencies.
A better relationship between donors and charities can also be promoted by blockchain technology. Greater awareness of how money is dispersed and spent could catalyze philanthropic efforts.
One platform that allows users to make seamless crypto donations is Philcoin. In essence, the project can be described as an award-winning philanthropic movement that seeks to devise a global interactive ecosystem using an IoT (Internet of Things) framework — thereby allowing its users to earn revenue while using the platform’s extensive suite of products and services.
To put it another way, Philcoin’s purpose is to give back to those in need, primarily by establishing the world’s largest community of philanthropists. Using its future-ready framework, the platform can help the world’s unbanked community (currently estimated to be 1.7B) gain access to quality financial services while also providing users with equal opportunities — especially when it comes to generating digital wealth.
Philcoin makes use of smart contracts that have been well audited and demonstrate a high level of transparency, whilst fulfilling the purpose of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that were established by the United Nations General Assembly back in 2015.
Another initiative in this regard is Global Income Coin, a crypto non-profit that seeks to help individuals based across any part of the world with a universal basic income of $1 per day. The project has gained a lot of traction recently and has even been able to raise $2M worth of funding from Sid Sijbrandij, the co-founder and CEO of GitLab Inc.
The future looks good
The crypto sector is primed to keep growing at a monumental rate, with one report suggesting that the total valuation of this space will rise to a staggering $32T within the next five-odd years. Therefore, with more and more money making its way into this market, it is reasonable to assume that more and more people will employ digital currencies for their personal charitable efforts. Blockchain can change the way giving happens. It shall be quite intriguing to see how this niche market continues to evolve from here on out.
