AID:Tech - blockchain to trace international aid

by Startacus Admin

AID:Tech - The lowdown on the startup that's using innovative blockchain technology to create transparency in international aid...

A huge 30% - $1.1 trillion - of international aid goes missing every year. It just vanishes before it reaches its intended destination and the donors are unable to track it. This is obviously a terrible state of affairs, on multiple levels. So what can be done to make the process of international aid more secure?

Dublin startup AID:Tech has the answer: blockchain. For a quick breakdown on what blockchain is, have a look at this article. Due to the nature of blockchain, donations in the form of money or vouchers can be sent via the AID:Tech platform with unalterable records. This means it can bypass fraud and corruption and theft and go straight to where it is meant to be.

Using AID:Tech, donors can not only trace their money to the charity, but they can also see where it went after that, and what it was spent on. Although at first glance this may seem a little 1984 meets Minority Report, it actually means that there is total transparency in things like international aid, making scandal and wild accusations and outright lies about what is being done with aid easily sorted out.

The seed of the startup was planted when one of the AID:Tech co-founders ran a 151-mile marathon in Morocco and raised $122,000 for charity. But when he called to make sure that money had reached its destination, no one could tell him where it went. Just like the aforementioned 30%, it had simply vanished.

The UN has a set of Sustainable Development Goals, backed by 193 countries with the aim of solving them by 2030, which AID:Tech can also assist with. For example, one of them is to reduce the fees of sending aid across borders - which can even be over 20% - to under 3%. It can also make a huge difference to health and well-being, with another of these goals being to end preventable deaths of newborn babies. Blockchain can help with this using smart contracts and by distributing healthcare entitlements. They are already doing this in Tanzania with a Holland-based partner.

AID:Tech were winners of the top startup award at the recent GovTech summit in Paris, organised by PUBLIC and recently won not only the IT and Fintech Award, but also the overall Innovation of the Year Award at the Irish Times Innovation Awards 2018. They add these to their Global Game Changer Award from #CitiT4IChallenge.

It really goes without saying that all of this is extremely worthwhile, and we are excited to see the continued growth and success of AID:Tech.

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Published on: 25th November 2018