Cryptoast - Le média Crypto - Quand la crypto sauve le monde : révolution ou utopie ? (Avec Blockchain for Good)
The conversation highlights the potential of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies to improve transparency and efficiency in the humanitarian sector. It discusses how traditional remittance systems, like Western Union, charge high fees, which can be reduced using blockchain solutions. Blockchain can provide transparency in the use of donations, ensuring funds reach intended beneficiaries. Examples include decentralized identity solutions to help unbanked individuals access aid and the use of blockchain for tracking donations and ensuring they are used as intended. The podcast also mentions projects like EthicHub, which uses blockchain for agricultural financing, and Giveth, a platform for crypto donations, emphasizing the role of blockchain in creating more efficient and transparent systems for aid distribution.
Key Points:
- Blockchain can reduce remittance fees significantly, making more funds available to recipients.
- Decentralized identity solutions can help unbanked individuals access financial aid.
- Blockchain ensures transparency and traceability of donations, improving trust in humanitarian efforts.
- Projects like EthicHub and Giveth demonstrate practical applications of blockchain in financing and donations.
- Blockchain can streamline operations in NGOs, reducing costs and increasing efficiency.
Details:
1. 💸 Migrant Remittances: A Financial Lifeline
- Migrant workers send between $700 billion and $800 billion annually to their families back home, which is about four times the global humanitarian aid, highlighting their critical financial role.
- In countries like France, the cost of sending remittances through specialized intermediaries such as Monogram and Western Union ranges from 5% to 7% of the total amount sent, which can significantly impact the net amount received by families.
- The percentage cost of remittances can be higher in other countries, especially when sending money to less economically stable nations, underscoring the need for more affordable solutions.
- Remittances are a vital source of income for many families in developing countries, often surpassing other forms of international financial inflows and contributing to poverty reduction.
- The socio-economic impact of remittances includes improved education, health outcomes, and local economic development in recipient countries.
2. 🧩 Blockchain: Transforming the Charity Sector
- The charity sector faces transparency issues in fund allocation, leading to skepticism about the effective use of donations.
- Global humanitarian aid is valued at over $200 billion annually, highlighting the scale of financial transactions involved.
- Blockchain offers a solution by providing open, public data that ensures transparency and traceability of donations.
- Blockchain for Good is a non-profit association that promotes the use of blockchain in charitable activities by maintaining online directories and publishing educational reports.
- The association has been active for 6 years, facilitating interactions between researchers, entrepreneurs, and institutional stakeholders.
- Since 2013, blockchain projects have aimed to resolve issues in the charity sector by enhancing transparency and accountability.
- Projects utilizing public blockchains can effectively track the use of funds, ensuring donors that their contributions are utilized as intended.
- Specific projects like Alice and AidCoin have successfully implemented blockchain to track donations, enhancing donor trust and engagement.
3. 🔍 Enhancing NGO Transparency with Blockchain
3.1. Tracing Funds
3.2. UNICEF's Early Adoption
3.3. Challenges in Fund Distribution
3.4. Case Study: Kenya Red Cross
3.5. Decentralized Identities and KYC Requirements
4. 🌍 Community Empowerment via Local Currencies
4.1. Decentralized Identity Systems
4.2. Cryptocurrency Donations for NGOs
5. 🛠️ Ensuring Project Integrity with Blockchain
5.1. Blockchain Enhancing Transparency in NGOs
5.2. Decentralized Vouchers for Directed Spending
5.3. Tokenization of Local Currencies
5.4. Traceability and Impact of Donations
6. 🤝 Crypto-Driven Economic Empowerment
- Crypto projects in Kenya aim to provide alternative financial systems during economic crises, such as those caused by COVID-19, enabling transactions when traditional systems fail. This is crucial in a country where traditional financial infrastructure may not always be reliable.
- The focus is on creating tangible benefits for people in need, rather than merely showcasing blockchain technology. This means prioritizing real-world applications that can have an immediate impact on local communities.
- MRV (Measure, Report, Verify) processes are being used to ensure the integrity and continuity of projects, especially in carbon credit systems. This involves detailed tracking and reporting to maintain transparency and trust.
- NGOs are exploring phased funding approaches, distributing money in stages to ensure accountability and proper use of funds. This strategy helps prevent misuse and encourages sustainable project development.
- Blockchain frameworks like TR budget are being developed to improve transparency and traceability of external funds in developing countries. This can help donors and investors track the impact of their contributions more effectively.
- Satellite imagery is being considered to verify project developments, such as construction or agricultural progress. This innovative approach provides a reliable method for monitoring and validating the success of funded projects.
7. 🌱 Sustainable Agriculture: Ethic Hub's Impact
7.1. Ethic Hub's Technological Integration
7.2. Community Involvement and Financial Innovation
8. 💡 Giveth: Revolutionizing Donations
8.1. Overview and Impact
8.2. Platform Details and Functionality
9. ⚖️ Addressing NGO Efficiency and Costs
9.1. Increase in Projects and Decentralized Platform
9.2. Donor-Project Relationship
9.3. Transparency and Efficiency of Fund Allocation
10. 🌐 Facilitating Cross-Border Transactions
10.1. Cost Savings for NGOs Using Cryptocurrencies
10.2. Challenges of Traditional Remittances
10.3. Potential of Cryptocurrencies and Stablecoins
11. 🔗 Local Adoption: Lightning Network in Action
- The implementation of Lightning Network drastically reduces transaction commissions to as low as 0.3%, which is significantly lower than the current target of 3% by 2030 for financial intermediaries.
- The World Bank and international organizations are closely monitoring cross-border fund transfers to ensure reduced fees.
- Using Lightning Network, the potential to lower commission to 0.3% would maintain profitability while greatly benefiting both the sender and receiver of funds.
- Currently, cross-border transactions incur around 6% in fees, costing approximately $35 billion annually on $700 billion transactions.
- The convertibility of fiat money to stable coins and back remains a challenge, especially in non-banked regions, impacting the adoption of stable coins for remittances.
- Mobile money and electronic currency are reducing the need for cash, with potential for stable coins to be accepted by merchants, reducing friction in currency conversion.
- There is an ongoing project supported by the Cercle du Coin aimed at enhancing the adoption and utility of cryptocurrencies in financial transactions.
12. 📊 Blockchain for Good: Navigating Challenges
12.1. Blockchain Initiatives in the Congo
12.2. Blockchain for Good Organization and Bybit Alliance
12.3. Challenges with Bybit's Involvement
12.4. Strategic Responses and Future Outlook
13. 💡 Future Prospects for Charitable Blockchain Use
- Blockchain technology is poised to revolutionize the philanthropic sector by providing cost rationalization, enhancing fund transparency, and verifying fund usage, especially for large NGOs with significant operational expenses.
- An example of blockchain's impact is its potential to streamline human and financial resource management, enabling efficient allocation and management of resources through crypto tools.
- Decentralized identity solutions offer a promising approach to privacy and security challenges, as demonstrated by the Red Cross incident where 500,000 personal data records of refugees were hacked.
- Despite the clear benefits, operational implementation remains a challenge due to technological, regulatory, and organizational barriers that need addressing.
- Case studies of successful blockchain integration in philanthropy could provide actionable insights and strategies to overcome these challenges.