WHAT IS BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY?

Blockchain is a technology based on chaining data blocks. These cannot be changed without breaking the integrity of the entire chain. As is the case with databases, data is recorded onto the blockchain in a digital format. This technology is streamlining the process of recording transactions and tracking funds in a business network.

Assets in these blocks can be tangible (houses, cars, money, properties, etc.) or intangible (intellectual property, patents, copyrights, trademarks, etc.). Trading in a blockchain network is lowering the risk and costs for all involved parties.

Blockchain is most known for its key role in cryptocurrency systems where it is the foundation for keeping safe and decentralized transaction records. Blockchain technology’s biggest innovation is decentralization that is ensuring data record safety and creating trust without relying on a third person.

“As soon as I heard about blockchain technology I immediately knew how important it is and that it can fundamentally transform philanthropy as it can help to finally achieve 100% transparency,” said Ana Lukner Roljić, Truhoma’s founder.

WHAT DOES DECENTRALIZED MEAN?

Imagine that a company owns a server cluster with 10,000 computers that are hosting a database with all the data regarding customer accounts. This company also owns a warehouse where all these computers are stored. It has complete control over all data on those computers. But what happens if this warehouse loses electricity or if its internet connection is lost? What if it burns down? In any case that data is lost or damaged.

Blockchain makes it possible to distribute data in a collection among multiple nodes at different locations where none of these nodes is providing more than 50% of computing power. This not only creates data redundancy but also ensures consistency of stored data.

IS IT REALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO CHANGE BLOCK DATA?

If someone tries to change a record in one of the database instances, other nodes are not changed. Therefore, if only one user manipulates the record, it is easy to find the node with incorrect data.

Even if someone wanted to convince the entire network that data was changed, this would not be possible as individual data keepers are rewarded for fair functioning of the network. In this way, no individual node can change the data in the network.

Changing past block data is not impossible, but it can only happen with networks that are not truly decentralized, meaning that one entity is providing more then 50 per cent of network’s computing power. Truhoma is not and will not be using such blockchains in the future.

WHAT IS TRUHOMA?

At its core, Truhoma is not a charity, but a provider of innovative solutions that are bringing 100% transparency, traceability and efficiency into philanthropy. Truhoma’s vision is a transparent and decentralized philanthropy. It is the first provider that is using blockchain technology to connect charities, donors and donees.

Truhoma uses the Bitcoin cash decentralized network. It is essentially a Bitcoin chain fork that is enabling much cheaper transactions and is supporting tokens, compliant with the SLP (simple ledger protocol) protocol. Our future goal is to become blockchain-agnostic. This means that Truhoma would be recording data to multiple trustworthy blockchains.

“Through Truhoma donations flow from 1) donors to 2) selected charity projects or individual requests and then via 3) delivery service providers to 4) donees. Platform is showing donations anonymously according to their status on the blockchain and not in the internal database,” stated Miha Ravšelj, blockchain developer at Truhoma and Spartan Solutions.

WHY AND HOW IS TRUHOMA USING BLOCKCHAIN?

Trust level in charities is dropping. Those who wish to help are placing trustworthiness of charities before actual donations. Donors are finding it important to know where their donations are going and how they are used.

“Trust is the foundation of cooperation, especially when it comes to charitable causes. We believe that blockchain technology can create a total trust in charities with its transparency and traceability,” said Dejan Roljić, Truhoma’s board member and the CEO and founder of Eligma.

Blockchain technology enables us to ensure transparency and traceability of what donation was made, what was the donated amount, the reason for which it was donated, which package was purchased and when the donee confirmed the package delivery. Key data and information are visible to all and transparent and traceable as such.

“With other charities nothing can be really checked, which creates doubt. Truhoma is enabling complete verifiability which takes away any doubts,” explained Ana Lukner Roljić.

Data, published on the blockchain, is anonymized with chain addresses representing donors, projects or individual requests, webstores and donees in accordance with legislation for protecting personal data. Every donor gets assigned a chain address when he makes a donation. That means that only chain addresses are public and personal data is safely stored in Truhoma’s database. This makes it possible to conduct an external check of how Truhoma operates and prove its database integrity by using its blockchain protocol or records on the blockchain.

“Standard web applications are usually using their own databases that are internal and offer limited access. This kind of databases are usually not publicly accessible and its past data can be changed. This is why we decided to use blockchain technology as an extra layer to ensure data integrity. It is enabling maximum transparency for the general public and not allowing past data to be changed by design,” added Miha Ravšelj.

Blockchain technology used by Truhoma is making it possible to compare “hashes” from the public blockchain with “hashes” from Truhoma’s database to make sure they are compliant. This data can be checked by anyone that wishes to do so.

As with most new technologies blockchain still falls in the domain of technically savvy enthusiasts which makes it not as understandable to most people that are not using it regularly. It is one of Truhoma’s most important tools for ensuring transparent philanthropy, so we decided to present it in a much more understandable way.

To do so, a friendlier depiction of donation steps that are recorded on the blockchain is displayed on our blockchain tracker for every donation. Anyone can review it and see what donation steps have already been completed. Two examples are displayed and explained below - one for a financed individual request and another for a finished project.

The financed individual request clearly displays the order of steps that are recorded to the blockchain in a much more sophisticated format. Once the Truhoma platform confirms that the donation for the selected request was received, it automatically creates an order and sends it to our merchant partner. They prepare the package and pass it to the delivery service that delivers the package. Truhoma sends a short text message with the question whether the package was received to the donee. Once the donee confirms delivery, the donation is complete. Donor receives a notification that the donee confirmed the delivery. That ensures that all donations indeed create a closed loop involving donors and donees.

You can review the request above at this address.

The project graphical depiction clearly shows how the value of all donations is split into individual packages and then rejoined in the last column showing packages, whose delivery was confirmed by donees. Sum of all project donations equals the sum in the column with packages whose delivery was confirmed. This proves that all received funds were indeed used to buy and deliver packages.

You can review the mentioned project at this address and the Completed project section on the Donation tracker page includes data on all projects, carried out through the platform.

We are of the opinion that blockchain is the technology of the future and that we can leverage this simpler display to better explain it to the public and show its benefits that can play a crucial role in building 100% transparent, traceable and efficient philanthropy.

“Truhoma is ‘’a living project’’ that is constantly being developed, expanded and upgraded. This is also the case for blockchain and other innovative technologies that will always ensure transparency and trust.” were Ana Lukner Roljić's final thoughts.