ZestCoin: Solving the Non-Profit Crisis Using Blockchain

Perhaps the most amazing aspect of blockchain technology is its adaptability which is perhaps also its biggest curse. It made possible literally thousands of new visions to empower different areas of our civilization but also left us lost in the middle of a foggy see of entrepreneurship. This is why I've always appreciated any effort of guidance and tried to do my part as well. With that purpose in mind, I would like to introduce you to ZestCoin: fixing the inherent problems of non-profits using blockchain technology.

I always prefer looking at non-profit world from the perspective of resource mobilization theory which divides the non-profit process into the sub-activities and makes it possible to see the role of each more clearly which in return makes it possible to see any manipulation or blockage more clearly. From this perspective, two issues strike the most: hierarchy and waste. The roles of financial funding and organizations cause inevitable hierarchy. All other assets-the human factor, morality, culture; with the unfortunate effect of post-modern paradigm, cause superficiality which empowers the hierarchy even further. This leaves the non-profit sector, or all social movements, defenseless against the effect of hegemony(basically whoever controls the money, media, organizations etc.) At this point I should explain superficiality. It simply means that contemporary social acts are only able to deal with issues with intentions of damage control which leaves them secluded working on their niche target and makes them unable to come together and challenge those issues at a more fundamental level to solve them altogether. This leaves non-profits swimming against the current with questionable overall efficiency.

As discussed widely in the Whitepaper, ZestCoin team makes a great case why blockchain technology can help non-profits and how they managed to perfect it in ZestCoin. If you are familiar with Point-of-Stake, you know that it operates on a voting mechanism where nodes vote for new blocks or blockchain updates. ZestCoin wants to use this mechanism to create a democratic process for organizational decisions. This cracks one end of the hierarchy dilemma. The other end, money, is also cracked as the funding comes automatically from block rewards as opposed to at-will communal or external funding. Freed from the shackles of hegemony, the participants of Point-of-Stake mechanism are going to vote on which projects to fund, then a part of the block rewards are going to be collected in dedicated wallets which are going to be exchanged into other currency and spent on the projects. Another power of blockchain technology that ZestCoin wants to utilize is the transparency. As the system works trustless with minimum need for interference, the risk of fraud becomes insignificant. An automatic system also lowers the organizational costs to minimum to none and with the energy-efficiency of Point-of-Stake mechanism, the overall costs are reduced to network activity, management and development.

The second part of the problem is what I call superficiality which empowers hegemony and causes waste. Obviously ZestCoin is not going to help with this issue from today to tomorrow as it is a major issue that requires participation of a large crowd which is going to happen as the "ZestCoin method" finds wider adoption. Freed from hegemony and operational distractions, an independent peer-to-peer network offers a great chance to bring more people together and prompt them to work on issues on a more fundamental level. If you want to see it for yourself: check the ZestCoin Website and join the community on ZestCoin Discord Channel