When it comes to blockchain and crypto in particular, various objections are raised to them, such as those concerning the use by criminals, which have no value or are of no use at all.
In over 10 years we have seen how these objections leave the time they find and are based on erroneous preconceptions of a short-sighted narrative relating to this sector, effectively making shit out of everything, treating everyone and everything in the same way.
But the reality is very different from how some hypocritical media portray it, and in fact, cryptocurrencies are also used for charity as they are an excellent channel for donations since we can trace all the movements.
In this case, we will take the example of the donation campaign promoted in Ukraine, how this works and whether we can trace the funds, whether what we find written is true or not and we will see the various necessary and fundamental steps.
Partnerships with exchanges and crypto projects
Before a charity campaign can start to accept crypto donations, the level of approach to this world must be assessed, which for various reasons never finds trained people within the promoter, and therefore requires external support.
Often those who are not in the sector rely on an external exchange that can act as a container for the various cryptocurrencies that will be sent by the donors, and in the case of Ukraine, this choice fell on the FTX exchange.
Other partners could then be necessary for the effective management of the funds, i.e., people in the sector who have the task of transferring or converting these sums according to the instructions of the promoter to allocate the funds to buy goods and services of various kinds.
The preparation of addresses
Once we have technical support behind us, we receive the addresses that we will have to communicate to users, so just send the funds to that address and we will be able to see the various transactions and also the balance they contain.
In a traditional system, there are usually the common channels represented by the bank details, those of the credit card, some online payment services such as PayPal, instead of with crypto the channels are determined by the reference crypto, and this means that we can increase the input channels more than exponentially.
What if we want to donate NFTs?
Also in this case there are no problems, as it is sufficient to always prepare an address to receive NFTs and then in that case it will be the campaign that will sell them on the various marketplaces to obtain a direct donation in this way.
Or there is some collaboration with some collection where the pieces sold from that collection will contribute to the noble cause, and in fact, even the Ukrainian countryside allows this type of solution.
For example, the campaign for Ukraine, in addition to having traditional systems, also allows you to send several different cryptocurrencies, as many as 16 currently and therefore also reach a wider user base, as some people have more assets than crypto rather than that single asset and therefore it will be easier for the donee to send crypto they already own rather than converting it into another one accepted by the campaign.
Check address balances
Now that we also have the addresses, we just have to check the various balances to actually see how much we collect from time to time and then publish the data on some web page and our social networks to make known the actual collection of funds. In this case, on the page dedicated to fundraising for Ukraine, we see that it has collected 450 BTC, over 9 thousand Ethereum, and so on, but one might wonder if these data are reliable or not, but this is where the blockchain comes to us as we can take the address of the donation and check ourselves if those data correspond to the truth.
For example, on the site, we find that 450,639 BTC and 9407,059 ETH have been collected, now we take the addresses of BTC and ETH and check the funds that have been sent:
- On BTC here we can see thanks to a block explorer that exactly 450.63941802 BTC have been collected, so the data is correct
- On ETH here we can see thanks to a block explorer that exactly 9407.05939 have been collected and once again the data are correct to the hundredth
Fund management
Well, the campaign is a success, we are receiving the funds and everyone can see how much we have collected so far, so maximum transparency on every level, but the last step is missing, which is to spend these cryptocurrencies.
As we said at the beginning, those who are not in the sector rely on well-known experts and platforms, as they also need a team to manage these funds, and to do so two paths can be followed:
- Pay suppliers of goods and services directly in crypto
- Convert cryptocurrencies into fiat first, and then pay the various suppliers of goods and services
This aspect should be emphasized as not all suppliers will accept crypto from the other side and there may be resistance to accepting these assets, and therefore some campaigns prefer to liquidate the funds to obtain fiat, which will then be used to pay the various suppliers.
And it is no coincidence that Ukraine has chosen this path as the most convenient and also because it allows them to easily convert into the currency of their choice, regardless of what they receive as income, which would still be expensive on a traditional level for the various commission’s exchange of currencies.
And here the cycle is over because let's not forget that, especially those who had invested in these assets in the past, several people have enough crypto and capital, and some of them can spend and invest in supporting campaigns like this, and it also allows them to act in total simplicity and even in pseudo-anonymity, so they can also maintain a certain level of confidentiality.
So the next time you see a campaign that accepts crypto or wants to launch a charity fundraiser, it's good to keep crypto in mind as a cheap, transparent, and fast solution, compared to traditional models.
For Italian readers, here is the video with an overview of the process: