\section{Goals}\label{goals}
The goal of this thesis is to assess how donations currently work, and to
develop and implement a protocol, that aims to improve and standardize how
donations are verified and conducted. The Donau system should be implemented as
free software.

One of the main goals of the Donau is to protect the privacy of donors, while
they should still be able to deduct their donations from taxes. The donor
should be able to do so without revealing more information than needed to the
tax authority.

The tax authority should be able to easily verify all donations from a donor by
scanning a QR-Code.
This QR-Code is generated by the donor and should contain all the proof needed
to deduct all donations of the year from taxes.
Because the receipts are centralized in one place, in the donor's wallet, the
donor does not have to worry about storing or loosing the receipts. In
addition, by submitting the donation receipts to the Donau the donation
receipts will be stored by the Donau. This should be a significant improvement
in user convenience for both the donor and tax authority.

The Donau should prevent donation fraud with fake, expired or third-party
donations. As it should maintain a list of recognized charities, in order to
prevent donations from non charitable organizations. The Donau should keep
track of the total amount of the donation receipts issued for each charity, to
enforce donation limits according to local law and to prevent donation fraud.

The goals described above boil down to the following:
\begin{itemize}
  \item Protect the donors privacy and still be able to deduct the amount from
    the taxes.
  \item Make donations verifiable by simply scanning a QR-Code.
  \item Improve the user convenience for both the donor and tax authorities.
  \item Prevent donation fraud with fake, expired or third-party donations.
\end{itemize}

