A Mobile Platform for Event-Driven Donations Using Smart Contracts

We demonstrate Smart Donations, a blockchain powered mobile platform and application that facilitates a novel model for real-time, condition-based donations using smart contracts. By leveraging the benefits of blockchain technology, Smart Donations empower donors to (i) attach conditions dependent on real-world phenomena to a donation, (ii) store funds in a secure, transparent and decentralised escrow, and (iii) automatically release funds to charitable organisations or particular projects once the donor's conditions have been met. We believe this mobile prototype demonstrates a compelling new approach to charitable giving that leverages dynamic pledge controls and considers new trust relationships between donors and NGOs

Analysis of web3 solution development principles

In the master's thesis, we researched the principles of Web3 solution development. We studied the blockchain and blockchain-related technology, development of the Web including all versions of the Web and the differences between them. We presented the popular technologies for Web3 development and the most common Web3 solutions with examples. With help of systematic literature review we explored the state-of-art technologies for Web3 solution development and proposed a full-stack for Web3. In the final part we implemented a proof-of-concept Ethereum decentralized application and compared it with equivalent concept of Web2 application. We proposed future work of researching other popular blockchain protocols like Solana or Polygon

Philanthropy on the Blockchain

Part 1: Security in Emerging SystemsInternational audienceOne of the significant innovations that came out of Bitcoin is the blockchain technology. This paper explores how the blockchain can be leveraged in the philanthropic sector, through charitable donation services in fiat currency or Bitcoin via a web-based donor platform. The philanthropic model is then used for a case study providing humanitarian aid for a community living in a challenging geographical environment with limited internet availability. An SMS based mobile payment system is proposed for provisioning the received donations using the existing GSM network, very basic mobile phones and One Time Password (OTP) security tokens. The proposed scheme is finally evaluated for security while discussing the impact it has on charities and donors

Sustainable Development Report: Blockchain, the Web3 & the SDGs

This is an output paper of the applied research that was conducted between July 2018 - October 2019 funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and conducted by the Research Institute for Cryptoeconomics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and RCE Vienna (Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development).Series: Working Paper Series / Institute for Cryptoeconomics / Interdisciplinary Researc

Sustainable Development Report: Blockchain, the Web3 & the SDGs

This is an output paper of the applied research that was conducted between July 2018 - October 2019 funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and conducted by the Research Institute for Cryptoeconomics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and RCE Vienna (Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development).Series: Working Paper Series / Institute for Cryptoeconomics / Interdisciplinary Researc

A Right Time to Give:Beyond Saving Time in Automated Conditional Donations

Smart Donations is a blockchain-based platform that offers users ‘contracts’ that donate funds to certain causes in response to real-world events e.g., whenever an earthquake is detected or an activist tweets about refugees. We designed Smart donations with Oxfam Australia, trialled it for 8-weeks with 86 people, recorded platform analytics and qualitatively analysed questionnaires and interviews about user experiences. Temporal qualities emerge when automation enforces conditions that contributed to participants’ awareness of events that are usually unconscious, and senses of immediacy in contributing to crisis response and ongoing involvement in situations far-away while awaiting conditions to be met. We suggest data driven automation can reveal diverse temporal registers, in real-world phenomena, sociality, morality and everyday life, which contributes to experiencing a ‘right time’ to donate that is not limited to productivity or efficiency. Thus, we recommend a sensitivity to right time in designing for multiple temporalities in FinTech more generally

Smart Donations:Event-Driven Conditional Donations Using Smart Contracts On The Blockchain

Recent work has questioned the largely unconditional nature of charitable donations and explored the value of conditional giving with contemporary donors. In this paper, we extend this work by exploring how to operationalise features of conditionality in charitable giving, situated in the context of large international non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Building on prior engagements with international aid organisations, we present design considerations and a conceptual architecture supporting real-time, conditional giving for individual and institutional donations. Our architecture leverages properties of distributed-ledger technologies (DLT) to empower donors to (i) attach conditions to their donation, (ii) store funds in a secure, decentralised escrow and (iii) automatically release funds once conditions are met. Unlike prior work that envisions radical disintermediation and the removal of intermediate NGOs using DLT, our work recognises the expertise of NGOs in tackling complex global problems and instead investigates compelling new way for charities to increase transparency and accountability by introducing dynamic pledge controls

Blockchain technology and the governance of foreign aid

Blockchain technology has been considered a vehicle to foster development in poor countries by promoting applications such as secure delivery of humanitarian aid, digital identity services, and proof of provenance. This article examines whether (and if so, how) blockchain technology can enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of foreign aid governance, thereby moving beyond completely anonymous contexts. Foreign aid governance is plagued by lack of credible commitments among states, which are further exacerbated by information asymmetries and which often undermine aid effectiveness. In this context, blockchain technology holds two promises. First, through the guaranteed execution of smart contracts, it can strengthen the credibility of state commitments, for example collective burden-sharing rules among a group of donors or recipient country compliance with policy conditionality in return for aid. Second, through leveraging prediction markets, blockchain technology can allay information problems related to the verification of real-world events along the entire aid delivery chain

The Future of Money as a Design Material

Abstract For many years the primary representation of value has been money. However complex we perceive its material, social and symbolic characteristics, money is now undergoing significant change as it becomes data. This paper explores the implications for design as a series of technological and regulatory shifts are taking place that are changing the representation of money into data. The paper anticipates that it won’t be long before personal bank accounts will be better understood to be personal data stores, and monies held within them are connected to data-driven systems to ‘pay’ for services that we require. By charting the changes that are taking place, and introducing a series of design case studies that make tangible the design opportunities, the paper suggests an emerging design space in which designers should anticipate new forms of money as an entirely new design material