Blockchain Tech is Bringing Honesty Back to Charities

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The beauty of blockchain technology is that it brings transparency and honesty to transactions.

Today I want to focus on how this new technology can drastically improve the honesty, efficiency, effectiveness of charities.

I first became familiar with Griff Green after the DAO attack, I’d referenced his articles on Medium many times to be sure I could get a hold of my Ether Classic. As it turns out, in addition to donating his time to help users of Ethereum, Griff Green also began a blockchain-based charity, so let’s check it out.

Giveth is a blockchain-based, open source platform built on the Ethereum blockchain.

It serves as a place to bring people together. It’s for those who have causes and goals towards community improvements, and it’s for those who want to help see that those goals come to fruition.

If you want to donate to a cause on Giveth, you will be connected to those individuals who are putting in the work, giving you a much more clear and honest look at directly how your donations are helping.

All too often the big name nonprofit foundations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation or the American Red Cross are less than transparent about what they do with the funds raised through donations.

This just emphasizes the need for honesty for the good of those who need help, and for those who can provide it.

Also a really great aspect of Giveth is that it is open source, meaning that if one cause discovers a successful way to meet their goal, this method can be shared with others on the platform to help them achieve success as well.
So keep and eye out for Giveth if you’re looking for a way to contribute to an honestly good cause, or if you want to organize fundraising for a cause to benefit others.

There are other projects that have community at its core, one of these is pretty new, it’s called SmartCash.

There has been a bit of activity involving cryptocurrency in Venezuela, with some community members from Dash organizing educational conferences. SmartCash is also focused on helping Venezuelans in a number of ways.

In a nutshell, Smartcash is very focused on community governance, and community funded projects.

Because it is so new, the proposals are mostly focused on promotion of Smartcash, but I was quite happy to see that one proposal is designed to distribute roughly 600 meals once a week for a month. They will also be educating the locals there about the benefits of cryptocurrency and how they can invest with their local currency.

If you haven't already, be sure to check out the video to hear from Aaron, the man who developed this Smartcash proposal and his motivations for doing so!

Additional Reading/Sources:

Giveth website
Giveth Wiki
Griff Green on Medium

Bill & Melinda Gate Foundation Truth

American Red Cross Truth

Smartcash website
Roadmap
SmartRewards
SmartHive Governance Portal (Voting on Proposals)
Smartcash TipBot for Steemit

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Thank you for mentioning my post about @smartbot! :]

Tipped @heiditravels 1000 SMART! Comment @smartbot help to claim. Currently the price of SmartCash in the market is $0.021 USD per SMART. To find out more about SmartCash, please visit https://smartcash.cc.

@smartbot help

You can use the following commands:

  • balance - displays your current wallet balance
  • address- displays your deposit address
  • withdraw <address> - withdraws your whole wallet balance to specified address
  • tip <nick> <amount> - sends the specified amount of smartcash to nickname
  • terms - displays terms and conditions for using @smartbot

@smartbot withdraw ShG1DZ5DKeh3XjiVtS9f7uqm9uYQYXWKaR

@heiditravels: 999.99 SMART has been withdrawn from your account to ShG1DZ5DKeh3XjiVtS9f7uqm9uYQYXWKaR. You have been charged 0.01 SMART withdrawal fee. Transaction 010a9ce802eb58e1245c2919365cc382de0c375682b91a0a205b15f83956becc is now completed.

Withdraw 1000

Withdraw ShG1DZ5DKeh3XjiVtS9f7uqm9uYQYXWKaR

Wow! Thank you, I very much appreciate it :)

Your welcome. You need to start your comment with @smartbot even when you reply to the bot! I don't think your withdraw command went through... Also, please check out my latest post about SMART's web wallet which was just released to the wild if you have some free time :]

Ooh gotcha. Thanks, I'll take a look at the web wallet too.

In Venezuela we try to evade the central government at every opportunity, since they have totally controlled the financial system and the entire economy. Inflation exceeds 1000% and it is impossible to acquire dollars, for that reason people have seen an escape from the government the crypto-currencies.

How much is a bitcoin currently in Venezuela.

You can see it here http://www.bitven.com/, although the market price may fluctuate depending on buyers and sellers, I usually sell and buy bitcoin at the market price of https://localbitcoins.net/. Currently a Bitcoin in Venezuela is about 127,308,529.27 Bolívares. at the beginning of the year the bitcoin cost about 2 million bolivars if I remember correctly, for you to appreciate the
difference.

I noticed that in Venezuela and Zimbabwe bitcoin price is significantly high. For example a bitcoin is about 7000$ in Zimbabwe. I think I will have to open accounts in those countries.

Thanks

Yes, the problem is that if you open an account in one of these two countries, you will not really be able to purchase any goods and services, unless you want Venezuelan oil, haha, and if you buy bolivars, the only way you can later to buy dollars, it is changed again by bitcoin.

So there are no bureau de change services.?

They only serve to sell, and the government buys them at a price lower than that offered in the market. It may be possible to acquire another type of currency other than dollar, euro or pound, such as the Yuan, but you will never win with the offered rates.

@smartbot tip @vieira 3000

Tipped @vieira 3000 SMART! Comment @smartbot help to claim.

@smartbot help

You can use the following commands:

  • balance - displays your current wallet balance
  • address- displays your deposit address
  • withdraw <address> - withdraws your whole wallet balance to specified address
  • tip <nick> <amount> - sends the specified amount of smartcash to nickname
  • terms - displays terms and conditions for using @smartbot

@smartbot withdraw ShmBNEVKaNJ3oN8qBjpTfxdMRN8e3Ug1vz

@vieira: 2999.99 SMART has been withdrawn from your account to ShmBNEVKaNJ3oN8qBjpTfxdMRN8e3Ug1vz. You have been charged 0.01 SMART withdrawal fee. Transaction ee39a968868eeb2c0834ed77a893d0eda86d058c5f68938ca49f122a4f695aac is now completed.

What is that? Other cryptocurrency?

Don't forget to claim it, its more than a few bucks :D

Oh, thanks! I'll investigate more about her. Thank you very much.

Yessum!

https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/smartcash/

Watch the video, thats kind of what it was 1/2 about :p

@smartbot help

You can use the following commands:

  • balance - displays your current wallet balance
  • address- displays your deposit address
  • withdraw <address> - withdraws your whole wallet balance to specified address
  • tip <nick> <amount> - sends the specified amount of smartcash to nickname
  • terms - displays terms and conditions for using @smartbot

its sad to see whats happening to all the people of Venezuela, I am Mongolian and when i was kid we used to watch this Venezuelan soup opera called -carasusia/it translates dirty face- . i still have this awesome image of Venezuela being diverse, hot and sexy. I really hope that you guys actually find ways in crypto currency tech and liberate your country from tyrany and be the first state to financially governed by the people and show the people of the world that it can be done. Many fights infront of you but luckely technology is here to aid you and many people of the world with you.

its not venezuela alone most 3rd world countries suffer the same fate, but with the growth of crypto things are changing

I do not really believe that they earn too much, in Venezuela they put in prison and they persecute the miners of criptodivisas as well as all those that work with this technology, although there is no legislation in this respect. That is, we use crypto-currencies, but we do it discreetly.

SmartCash is living up to its name and should be one to watch if it can continue pushing proposals that change lives for people who need cryptocurrency the most!

Tipped @fliesflyfast 100 SMART! Comment @smartbot help to claim.

@smartbot help

You can use the following commands:

  • balance - displays your current wallet balance
  • address- displays your deposit address
  • withdraw <address> - withdraws your whole wallet balance to specified address
  • tip <nick> <amount> - sends the specified amount of smartcash to nickname
  • terms - displays terms and conditions for using @smartbot

withdraw SPyxWbLxN7K71Ra2BrJsjW5qEFvi5AfhQ4

@fliesflyfast: 99.99 SMART has been withdrawn from your account to SPyxWbLxN7K71Ra2BrJsjW5qEFvi5AfhQ4. You have been charged 0.01 SMART withdrawal fee. Transaction a04aaa213775349880a5281c5074ae820aabcf63c1e2cc3d6f7df7397257deea is now completed.

Thanks @decentralizd - I'm a member of the Slack and see you around all the time helping others.

Thank you for the info ... much needed charity transparency

Awesome stuff @heiditravels great informative post here. Thank you for all the hard work. Just shared this to all my crypto groups on fb and twitter. SmartCash is doing so many good acts around the world and this is just the beginning. Here in the Philippines things are tough but not compared to some of these other places.....Anyway working on a video about SmartCash right now....Almost finished.

Is good to see the blockchain changing lives.

Resteemed and upvoted. Love the ideas of Giveth and SmartCash @heiditravels .

It sad when alot of good charities out their need to turn to 3rd party fund raising companies, to raise some funds. And most the time they make big profits, only to pay for a new lambo.

Will be waiting for giveth crowdsale and promoting SmartCash also.

I be watching their feeds and sharing them.

Thank you for sharing these two.

your such a smar cooki :)

Great post. Sharing to raise awareness.

I realy like that they are using blockchain for good causes

Upvoted

"The young woman" is the author of this post, a human being, and not eye candy. Your comment comes across as quite sexist. And stupid.

This just emphasizes the need for honesty for the good of those who need help, and for those who can provide it.

I love the honesty part of it

That can only be a good thing.

This deserves some attention. Upvoted and resteemed :]

Really enjoy your posts and YouTube Channel

Hi Heidi, you're doing a great job. Always looking forward to read your post and watch your great videos. Here is a post that I wrote few days ago: https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@juanete20/my-crypto-youtubers-teachers

There haven't been a greater thing than Blockchain for a long time! Love to see what the blockchain can make possible.

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Great Post. Thanks! Are you familiar with sites like charity navigator and do you know if any of these have been able to get themselves listed there?

Great article!

As a sidenote: bringing honesty, but not only to charities, IMHO. Maybe I'm naive, but considering the rule of "mutual interest" and the unworthy nature of scams and stuff, almost every money-related area can become much more genuine.

To an extent, I can see it on Steem, too.

Nice, I honestly haven't thought about this application before. Do you know if there is anything similar to Kiva where somebody can fund a project through a short term loan of crypto and monitor through the blockchain?

I remember those days where the DAO was our first experiment with a built in contract and the hype around it to really scale only for the fork to occur, those were dark days where a lot of people sold where holding would have seen far greater returns.

I am with you that blockchain transactions will make charities accountable to their users in ways that are usually not mentioned such as how large balances might not be used and left to stagnate or how wages and salaries and expenses are broken down into various components.

The increase of transparency through big data sets is one way that we can move forward in this generation to increased accountability while retaining some elements of privacy or electoral systems.

Love what you do, how you do it, and the energy you bring with it @heiditravels! Keep on blockchain-ing on :) Following, upvoted, and re-streemed. #awesomeness

What amazing news.

Smart cash is the future for sure !

That's a huge application.

I've just found out and wrote about https://exsulcoin.com/ . This might be very important tool to educate and give work to refugees and help them recover from crises in the future.

Greetings from the Philippines. I think cryptocurrency as a whole has vast potential in helping out those who lack the financial resources and tools especially in countries that has inefficient distribution of wealth such as ours. I saw the potential of cryptocurrency, learned about it and since then have been reaping the benefits of knowing and how to earn from it. One of my favorite crypto that i started to learn is steemit with its delegated proof of stake. Very community driven much like smartcash. I am quite excited about Smartcash as well. Well be keeping an eye on this one. Good thing I chance upon your post. THanks.

Thanks Heidi...i will need to check that out for our charity @steemph
Though it's outside steemit, we can learn from it as we need support to make our initiatives possible. Ta!

WOW . PLZ UPVOTE ME. AND FOLLOW ME. THX

hlw vote and comment and follow me ok i also you okkkkkkk

You are the beauty of the blockchain, Heidi ;)