After building the infrastructure to accept donations through software like Venmo and PayPal along with digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum in 2019, the Salvation Army is set to have its highest donation totals for a third year in a row. 

The 156 year-old non-profit organization not only doubled its donations from 2019 to 2020, but is now on track to beat that number coming into the end of 2021, according to American Banker.

To get started, the Salvation Army introduced Kettle Pay, a program that allowed them to accept digital donations instantly at their Red Kettle donation sites. There are now 25,000 Red Kettle locations around the United States that accept these types of donations.

The Salvation Army is continuing to innovate their digital acceptance platform by partnering up with a Canadian fintech startup TipTap in 2,000 of its Red Kettle locations. TipTap’s technology will allow donors to give fixed amounts in any digital payments application of their choice, up to $20 through an NFC wired card.

“Lots of people don’t carry cash anymore, and our research shows that when you give people a simple digital approach to donate, organizations typically see a fourfold increase in the amount of money they’re collecting versus cash,” said Chris Greenfield, Tiptap’s CEO to the AB.

Donors who wish to contribute crypto currency can utilize Crypto Kettle, which is backed by crypto platform Engiven and allows charitable blockchain folks to make a dollarless contribution.

It is unclear how much the Salvation Army is currently holding in blockchain assets, as the organization claimed it was still too early in the process to share specific totals.

“The effect of adding various digital acceptance channels has so far increased total donations to the nonprofit by 100%, said Dale Bannon, the Salvation Army’s national community relations and development secretary for the U.S to AB. 

“It’s been a priority to expand our traditionally cash-based program to offer more contactless options to donors, and we’ve seen an incredible increase in the use of these tools over the past few years.”

If you had RadioShack on your 2021 DeFi bingo card, congratulations, you’ve won. The company announced that its “mission is to be the first protocol to bridge the gap in mainstream usage of DeFi” and it plans to do this, apparently, by launching a swap.

RadioShack wants to compete with the likes of Uniswap, a smart-contract-based crypto exchange where users can “swap” tokens without having to register on a formal exchange like Coinbase.

The business is a gold mine, according to RadioShack.

“The concept of a swap stands out first and foremost as the place of low-hanging fruit – fruit that is spinning off incredible levels of net profit,” the company said. “Profit not just from speculation like Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, but ones born out of trading fees. Some existing swaps like Uniswap or Sushiswap reportedly are doing $1-$7 million net profit per day! They are the current profitable forces of nature in the DeFi world.”

Use of a “swap” is how tokens issued by the ConstitutionDAO crowdfunding saga leaked out into the publicly tradeable marketplace, for example. What was supposed to be a “governance token” to vote on where a copy of the United States Constitution would be held, instead turned into a tradeable novelty asset (like pogs or baseball cards) with a soaring value, all because of decentralized swapping. More than $100 million worth of the novelty governance tokens stemming from the failed bid to buy the Constitution were traded just in the last 24 hours alone, according to Coinmarketcap.com.

“RadioShack DeFi is focused on the early majority,” the company said. “It will become the first to market with a 100 year old brand name that’s recognized in virtually all 190+ countries in the world.”