Chinese Ministry Taps Blockchain for Higher Visibility in Philanthropy

A top-level Chinese government agency in charge of social services is planning to adopt blockchain to upgrade its current charity tracking system to bring greater visibility of public donations.

China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs released an action plan for 2018 to 2022 on Monday, which outlined several areas where it aims to tap internet technologies to improve the transparency of social service activities.

One part of the plan, which relates to charity organizations, indicates the ministry will make a decision on the exact blockchain solution to be used for upgrading the current system by the end of 2018. It further eyes a full completion by 2020.

The top-level administration notified provincial and municipal agencies in the plan that the blockchain network will integrate existing government charity databases at all levels with online donation services operated by the private sector.

In this way, the data on charity donations made through all sorts of services will become visible to the public in a more timely and distributed fashion.

Currently, besides traditional charity organizations, internet giants such as Alibaba and Tencent also weighed in by launching their own donation services via mobile applications.

For instance, Ant Financial, the payments affiliate of Alibaba, has already been using blockchain to bring visibility into donor histories, charity disclosures, and other relevant information, as previously reported by CoinDesk.

The move also comes at a time when China’s charity activities have been entangled in controversy as online scandals over the past years led to the public’s distrust over the system.

Donation image via Shutterstock

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