Institute of Art Design + Technology
Dún Laoghaire

Patrick Carmody 

BSc [Hons] Creative Computing

I'm Patrick Carmody, a Creative Computing student with a passion for web development. My final year project focuses on blockchain technology, a relatively new sector with lots of potential. I developed my full-stack web-development skills with this MERN stack application.

BlockAid - A Decentralised Crowdfunding Platform

BlockAid is a decentralised charity crowdfunding platform that uses Smart Contracts on the Polygon blockchain to allow users and charity organisations to accept cryptocurrency donations.

Donors use their Ethereum wallet browser extension (e.g. MetaMask) to interact with the website and donate to charitable causes. Charities and individuals wishing to raise money can create fundraiser pages where they can view their progress and withdraw cryptocurrency.

Smart contracts written in the Solidity programming language are deployed to the blockchain when a crowdfunding campaign is created. All transactions are publicly viewable on the blockchain.

This MERN stack application uses React.js to create a front-end website, that uses the Ethers.js JavaScript library to connect to the blockchain, as well as the 'wagmi' React hook collection and Web3Modal to connect to the users wallet and create transactions. There is an Express.js API running in the Node.js server that can save and retrieve data from a MongoDB database.



Blockchain Development: Exploring Blockchain Technologies Through the Development of a Decentralised Crowdfunding Application

The aim of this project is to explore the integration of Ethereum blockchain technology into a MERN
stack application, and to examine the available options for developers.

This application is a platform for both users and organisations to accept cryptocurrency payments through crowdfunding campaigns. It enables donors to connect their browser based Ethereum wallet and easily contribute cryptocurrency to charitable causes.

The thesis outlines the design and implementation of the application, as well as examining existing applications and literature. Smart contract development is discussed and resulted in the development and deployment of a crowdfunding smart contract, along with a full-stack web application that interacts with it.