A modern application for giving back

There’s an adage that says that if you want to win the race you should start off by going as fast as you can, then gradually increase your speed. This is pretty much how development work at Horizon State has been going. We’ve ramped up the effort level over the past few months, and then even more so in recent weeks. Aside from the expected work on the Horizon State platform in preparation for an initial release in October, the development team has redoubled their efforts for an early release of our new charity application, Coinpocket.

Releasing this application first is important to us for a number of reasons, most significant is that it provides the sort of accountability we want to expose ourselves to in how we run the company.

What is Coinpocket?

Coinpocket is our way of publicly and transparently committing a portion of the revenue that passes through Horizon State to charitable organisations. As Horizon State receives payments, whether that’s in the form of HST (our utility token) or fiat (which is then converted into HST) — a percentage is committed to our charity wallet.

Roughly every six weeks, we will select a group of charities to be the recipients of those funds — but with a Horizon State twist. We’re not just going to divvy the funds up equally; we will run a blockchain based public vote, using Coinpocket to determine what percentage of the funds goes to each of the charities.

Coinpocket allows the public to review each of the charities (and what particular project they will be using the money towards) and then allows them to vote for their preferred charity. Once votes are cast they are committed to the blockchain. Once the election period closes, the votes are tallied and the crypto-assets from the charity wallet dispersed proportionally to the charities as decided by the voters.

As this lacks the significance of a government election, and to minimise barriers to participation, Coinpocket will use our lightest version of user authentication which limits votes to one per email address per vote cycle. At a later stage, when funding increases or other circumstances require, we might swap over to one of our more rigorous authentication protocols, but given the current effort-return ratio for now we’re taking a ‘charitable’ approach to voter authentication.

Can I be part of this great initiative?

Yes, we’ve created Coinpocket to ensure that every voice counts.

You can try it for yourself here: https://coinpocket.hs.app/

Why are we doing it?

When we first created Horizon State we decided that we would provide charitable organisations a mechanism for receiving donations from the new Crypto-economy in a way that was meaningful and useable. As time progressed, and through various interactions with the UN, we have found ourselves increasingly aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s). SDG-16 in particular represents the promotion of peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development. Achieving this goal requires greater equality amongst members of society, and donating a portion of our income to those who will actively use it for good, is a step in the right direction.

We’re keenly aware that there’s more to life than just banging out computer code. Helping others to protect or improve the world we live in, whether that be by extending healthcare where it is desperately needed, providing education where none exists, or making a difference to our environment is more than just the right thing to do — it’s our duty as human beings to do so when and where we can.

What charities are currently in the running?

The charities selected for the first round are:

a. Red Cross Australia

b. Street Smart Australia

c. Care for Africa Australia

Head over to Coinpocket and have a look at what they’re doing to make the world a better place. While you’re there why not indulge in a little voting? After all, we want to ensure that every voice counts.

Aside from allowing others to drop their ERC20 tokens into the charity wallet to be allocated as the voting public sees fit, we’ll also be allowing people to donate directly to their preferred charity’s Coinpocket wallet in the future. This way if you had a bad experience in the Arctic and really, really, hate Polar Bears and don’t want any of your own hard-earned tokens getting into their icy little paws, you’ll be able to donate directly to another charity. This will only be for donations above and beyond the normal wallet, and you’ll still be able to influence where the wallet goes in the public vote.

How is the donation divided?

We have created Coinpocket in a way that ensures everyone wins. Every vote counts, and the proportion of total amount of votes will go to charity you have voted on. All charities will receive a percentage of the total amount of HST available per campaign.

Pay to play, or just play?

So, will it cost you anything to be a part of this process? No, not at all. While we select the charities from among those we’re working with or from a list of applicants, in the end it’s up to our supporters to decide how the funding is distributed. The process is simple too. Jump onto Coinpocket, review the candidates, make your selection, complete authentication and we’ll record your vote. It’s as easy as that.

What happens at payout?

The Coinpocket wallet accepts HST, Ethereum, and all ERC20 tokens, so there will be a mix of currencies in the wallet. Providing a conversion to a single currency will make life easier for receiving charities. As part of the Coinpocket on-boarding process, charities stipulate the format in which they wish to receive their funds, whether that be a fiat preferred currency or a token.

Once all the votes are in and the proportional distribution of funds has been established, Horizon State will exchange each charity’s allotment of tokens into their preferred currency or token. This will then be distributed to the charity’s own wallet or bank account.

Since HST is our platform’s utility token, and several charities have expressed interest in using the Horizon State platform for interacting with their communities, some of the charities have already requested for their donations to be allocated as HST for use on our platform in the future.

Can I climb on-board and drop some crypto-assets in the charity wallet?

Indeed you can, starting next round. This first Coinpocket donation will be a full production-test of the code, so for this round we’re just working with the locked pile of tokens that were in the wallet on contract start date. In the future we’ll be upgrading the contract to handle growing balances as we receive contributions from individuals or companies who want to throw their hat in the ring with us.

Since our charity wallet accepts HST, Ethereum, and all other ERC20 tokens, there will be a mix of currencies in the wallet when distribution happens. At that point we’ll perform an exchange of the tokens in the wallet, at the current market rate, into whatever format or currency the charity stipulated when they signed up with us.

Since HST is a utility token we expect that some charities will want to keep their donation in that format for use on our platform. As mentioned above we’ll gladly allow you to donate HST, Ethereum, or any ERC20 token which will then be distributed in the charities preferred format.

You can donate by sending your HST, Ethereum or any other ERC20 token to this address:

0x0E5A4068491a95515dfA7F0467b761F64AB4c212

You can view our charity wallet here:

https://etherscan.io/address/0x0E5A4068491a95515dfA7F0467b761F64AB4c212#tokentxns

What about my charity?

If you have a registered and legally recognised charity, and you’d like to be in the running to receive a donation get in touch.

coinpocket@horizonstate.com