Tuesday 8 December; 10:00-13:00
Designing the future of charity donations through the use of smart contracts
This masterclass is run by researchers from Edinburgh University and offers you the opportunity to explore the future of charity donations which can be personalised and controlled through the use of blockchain-backed smart contracts. These contracts give a donor the opportunity to donate money which is held under specific conditions. Once these conditions are met, the contract is carried out and the money is released to the charity.
The masterclass will start with a brief introduction to a smart contract and how it can be used to personalise and control the release of charity donations.
The workshop will then move to Miro (an online collaboration whiteboard) where we will work through an example of how a contract could be written and personalised by a donor.
You will then be split into small groups where you will develop your own vision for a smart donation. What event will trigger the release of money held in escrow, how long might the contract last, and how do you
The world isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, so the second half of the workshop will focus on the dark side of smart donations. Groups will swap ideas and try to come up with ways in which people and organisations cheat the system for their own gain.
The workshop will finish with a discussion exploring under what conditions does society start to trust a smart contract, and how we can implement those conditions to a dumb digital system.
Prof Chris Speed is Chair of Design Informatics at the University of Edinburgh where his research focuses upon the Network Society, Design for the Digital Economy, and The Internet of Things.
Dr Chris Elsden is a post-doctoral research associate in Design Informatics at the University of Edinburgh. Chris is primarily working on the AHRC Creative Informatics project.
Jonathan Rankin is a researcher in the centre for the decentralised digital economy and the acting programme director for Product Design at the university.