ALMs for the…. Everyone https://medium.com/@dragonchain/alms-for-the-everyone-c1216461bf71Nearly ten years ago, sites like Kickstarter and GoFundMe used the Internet and social networking tools to popularize the concept of “crowdfunding,” radically redefining project funding towards a more grassroots, direct, distributed model. Today, the Seattle based start-up, givewithnothing.org, is preparing to launch a system which could provoke an even more profound transformation in the world of charitable giving.
By using blockchain to increase transparency and accountability at all levels of giving (from the direct to the institutional), givewithnothing.org hopes its ALMs marketplace will increase overall confidence in charitable giving, while also expanding the universe of givers through the new types of contributions blockchain smart contracts enable.
The effort is pioneered by three well established tech industry veterans, Paulo Avelar, William Palmer and Filip Hantson, who’s collective corporate backgrounds include companies like Microsoft, Nintendo, T-Mobile, AT&T and Goldman Sachs among others. This business management experience is evident in their recently released white paper, which provides a detailed discussion of current problems in charitable giving, the structure of GWN’s upcoming ICO and an extensive road map for exactly how the ALMs marketplace will roll out and operate.
All in for ALMs. How Trustless Transactions WorkThe crux of the GWN approach is to create a distributed marketplace for charitable giving, which uses blockchain-held smart contracts for what it calls “trustless charity transactions.” In this model, the network itself is the trust, rather than a third party, since it provides an open, transparent system for verifying transactions. The network also holds a system for accountability which ties the disbursement of funds to specific actions or outcomes.
For its part, GWN verifies participating marketplace charities for things like identity and legal compliance. It also operates an internal exchange of its token (the ALM) for fiat, or other digital currencies, that can be spent outside the marketplace.
The white paper outlines this process in great detail, but broadly speaking, here’s how it works:
GWN screens and registers charities to the marketplace, assigning them ERC-20 wallets capable of holding ALMs (the GWN tokens). Contributors purchase and hold ALMs (using various fiat and digital currency), which can then be designated for specific charities and charitable purposes. Funds are held in escrow until those predefined conditions are met, at which time a smart contract releases them to the charity for conversion to fiat or or digital currency via the GWN exchange.