Airbus' A-Cubed launches blockchain for non-profits
A-Cubed, the Silicon Valley outpost of Airbus, has launched an open source, public blockchain project aiming to assist charities and non-profits that are onboarding cryptocurrencies and smart contracts.
The Airbus Foundation, the European aerospace giant's philanthropic play, is the first to use the Ethereum-based blockchain technology developed by Heritage.
According to A-Cubed, Heritage will provide Airbus Foundation with a decentralised application to accept and manage cryptocurrency donations for itself and its partners.
"Many of the organisations that could benefit most from blockchain are denied access due to resource skill or knowledge gaps. Heritage wants to open these organisations up to a new class of donor," A-Cubed explained.
In addition to Airbus' own charity, animal welfare organisation HartSong Ranch Animal Sanctuary and the Museum of Art, Design, and Entertainment also participated in A-Cubed's pilot campaign, which consisted of an internal test of the donation platform.
Heritage is also working with Unicef for blockchain development.
Must read: The blockchain explained for non-engineers | Executive's guide to implementing blockchain technology
Fundraising and donations is the first use case for the Heritage platform, with A-Cubed seeking to implement the same technology for its internal business applications.
With its blockchain play, the company hopes to set a standard that non-profits can replicate to "continue to grow the ecosystem".
"By releasing this project as open source, the project seeks to set or contribute to standards in this emerging space," the company wrote in a statement.
"Charities are often constrained by a lack of resources that impacts the good they wish to accomplish. While they could greatly benefit from blockchain technology, they've often been overlooked. Heritage shortens their adoption gap and connects charities and cryptocurrency donors to accomplish their goals in new ways."
Heritage records donation data as an ERC-721 token owned by the donor. A-Cubed said that when a donation is made through Heritage, the donation is recorded along with the donor's Ethereum address and donation amount. Heritage can also record and issue donation certificate information for taxation purposes.
MORE ON BLOCKCHAIN
Unicef Australia turns to cryptocurrency mining for fundraising
The Hopepage will turn computer processing power into cryptocurrency for a new fundraising avenue for Unicef Australia.
Denmark considers blockchain a new weapon in the fight for human rights
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark has highlighted the potential for cryptocurrency to be used to transfer aid in a way less susceptible to corruption.
Blockchain won't save the world, but might make it a better place
Although blockchain's crypto-anarchist utopian dream is unlikely to be realised, it still promises plenty of benefits.
6 industries that are using blockchain to drive business value right now (TechRepublic)
Blockchain is already impacting companies across the finance, healthcare, and food industries. Here's how.