IBM, Global Citizen Seek Blockchain Ideas to Transform Humanitarian Aid

IBM and Global Citizen are issuing a challenge to the world's developers: use blockchain to revolutionize how donations are made to humanitarian causes.

Developers taking part in Challenge Accepted will use IBM's Blockchain Platform Starter Plan to build a network that encompasses all aspects of the donation process.

Stepping back, the UN and other assistance groups have previously explored using blockchain to track aid to impoverished areas.

In what is perhaps the most notable trial of its kind to date, the World Food Programme, the food assistance arm of the United Nations, tapped the ethereum blockchain to authenticate and record disbursement transactions.

"Blockchain can provide clarity on not only who is donating, but how money and supplies flow through organizations that provide aid - such as tracking a gallon of water purchased by an organization to the location where it was delivered," he wrote.

Kathryn Harrison, who leads product management for the IBM Blockchain platform, told CoinDesk that the initiative grew out of internal conversations earlier this year about the "Opportunities to use this technology in areas that we can do some pretty substantial social good."

Harrison also framed the challenge - which runs from May 15 to July 14 - as part of the wider work being done at IBM on the blockchain front.

Harrison said some of the projects may be listed in the IBM Blockchain Platform, opening up those templates to other users - and winners could potentially take their projects further through IBM's Garage workspaces.

The challenge is an opportunity for developers looking at aid-focused uses of blockchain to advance their ideas - but as Moss contended in his blog post, there's a bit more at stake here.

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