Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies in the humanitarian sector

Blockchain and the wider category of distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) promise a more transparent, accountable, efficient and secure way of exchanging decentralised stores of information that are independently updated, automatically replicated and immutable. The key components of DLTs include shared recordkeeping, multi-party consensus, independent validation, tamper evidence and tamper resistance (Rauchs et al., 2018). Building on these claims, proponents suggest DLTs can address common problems of non-profit organisations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), such as transparency, efficiency, scale and sustainability (Accenture, 2017).