A Transparent, Distributed, and Secure Crowdfunding Platform Based on Blockchain

Crowdfunding refers to a way of raising funds from individuals and/or firms for business purposes. Conventionally, it is a manual process, in which, the collected fund is available with a single entity (firm or an individual). In such cases, it has been observed that the funds could be diverted elsewhere or misused. Online crowdfunding platform powered through blockchain technology brings in transparency and accountability to such transactions, which could possibly improve the scale of business since more and more people would now like to fund the ventures as each individual is aware of the utilization of the funds. The blockchain technology builds upon the Industrial Internet (Industry 4.0), a transparent and secure environment for the people and the transactions. In this chapter, one such application based on blockchain technology is proposed that has the potential to improve the security and reliability of the transactions. Since the control in blockchain-based technology is decentralized, it effectively addresses the monopoly over the funds and improves the accountability of the one who is making the investments.