🌍 This Week in Web3forGood
🔦 Spotlight: Grant Orb
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This week, Celo kicked off RetroPGF0. For the uninitiated, that’s Celo’s version of retroactive public goods funding (yay public goods funding!). Need a refresher on what public goods funding is? We have the TLDR for you below 👇.
This RPGF round is extra special to us, because Web3ForGood is one of 89 projects participating. Don’t worry, we don’t need you to do anything. This week, Celo’s Public Goods Stewards will analyze and vote on the projects, and results will be announced next week at Celo Gather. Send us good vibes 💛💛.
On a more concerning note, Tornado Cash dev Alexey Pertsev was found guilty of money laundering by a Dutch court and given a 64-month prison sentence after developing open source software (OSS) for financial privacy, in spite of never taking custody of funds and never personally facilitating money laundering. As one X user put it: “Wow, 64 months for developing software, thats crazy [sic].” The implications for anyone developing OSS that could have unforeseen uses… are not good. The implications for open source innovation, in general, are also not good. Is there a place for privacy in Web3? It’s complicated. Pertsev has appealed the guilty verdict.
Remember when Crypto the Game happened last month and the winner donated the $200k prize to support Tornado Cash devs? People care a lot about this. As they should.
Thanks to everyone who sent us links to share this week. As always, our DMs are open. We love sharing your news.
WAGMI (we are going to make an impact!)
What’s Inside
🔦 Community Project Spotlight: Grant Orb
📣 Latest News
🔍 TLDR
📚 What We’re Thinking About
🔈 Podcasts
🚀 Opportunities & Events
📡 On Our Radar
✨ And one more thing
🔦 Community Project Spotlight: Grant Orb
This spotlight was written by Deepa of Crypto Good. Want to highlight a project that you or someone you know is working on in Web3ForGood? Reply here or send us a DM on X @w3b3forgood.
AI is Creating a New Breed of 10x Changemakers
AI enables changemakers to move fast and fix things. It frees up their time from operational hassles so they can 100% focus on their mission. For instance Grant Orb, an AI grant writer that writes grants in minutes, helps unlock funding without having to spend 30+ hours on grant writing. Also one does not need to be proficient in grant writing or english, democratizing access to funds.
With tools like Grant Orb, changemakers can reclaim their time to focus on real work.
We’re entering an era of 10x changemakers. AI gives people on a mission superpowers to do more and accelerate impact by 100x. Something we’ve never seen before.
AI + Impact
As I’m going deep into the AI space, building Grant Orb, I’m learning a lot about this fascinating new technology, Large Language Models (LLMs). I see big potential in how LLMs (commonly referred as Generative AI) can be applied to solve huge societal problems. AI is going to be revolutionary for people at the base of the pyramid. Access to healthcare, education, agricultural knowledge and expertise will get radically accelerated with AI available on the phones and designed for them. AI can help fix cancer, climate, discover new material and medicines, the potential is massive, we just need changemakers to start applying AI in everything they do.
I recently gave a talk to Techsoup Nonprofits on how changemakers can leverage AI to accelerate impact. A great watch if you’d like to understand Generative AI and it’s implications for the social impact space.
AI + Education
Salman Khan, Founder of Khan Academy published a new book on how AI changes education. In short, AI gives every child a personal tutor and every teacher a personal assistant. All one needs is access to this transformative technology. On that note, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI (ChatGPT) recently shared on a podcast the concept of Universal Basic Compute (similar to Universal Basic Income) which means that every person should get access to super intelligence.
For weekly updates on crypto for good, follow web3 for good substack. The team Sam and Abeera curates weekly news and happenings from the cryptosphere.
And as always if you have any questions feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter or here.
Until next time 🫡
📣 Latest News
89 projects passed CeloRPGF0 review and are eligible to earn a share of the 250,000 CELO
Optimism introduces Deployment Rebate, allowing anyone to launch on the Superchain effectively free
Bitcoin Charity, OpenSat Lands $2Million from Twitter Co-Founder
Nodle integrates with Filecoin, a strategic move to decentralize data storage
Uniswap Votes To Transfer Second 1M UNI Grant To DeFi Education Fund
Global Policy, Regulation, and Adoption News
Bitcoin miner marathon in talks with Kenya to help with its green energy ambitions
Biden blocks Chinese-backed crypto mining firm from land ownership near Wyoming military base
US Senate passes resolution overturning SEC crypto rule on banks
Project Updates
🔍TLDR: Public Goods Funding
Editor’s Note: We've noticed many readers have questions about terms used often in this newsletter. To help clear things up, we're introducing section, where we’ll explain various terms and ideas in more detail. If there's anything you're curious about, let us know!
Today’s topic: Public Goods Funding
Public goods funding in Web3 utilizes blockchain technology to innovate how communal resources (public goods) are financed. Unlike traditional methods reliant on government tax allocations, Web3 introduces and enables funding via decentralized systems like DAOs and smart contracts. These platforms enable community-driven funding models where participants directly influence resource allocation.
Platforms like Gitcoin Grants employ Quadratic Funding, emphasizing the number of contributions over their size. This approach democratizes funding, empowering small donors and reflecting broad community consensus. Other mechanisms like Optimism’s Retroactive Public Goods Funding rounds (RetroPGF) reward contributions to an ecosystem retroactively. RetroPGF has inspired a movement of ecosystems rewards contributors retroactively, like Celo and Filecoin. With platforms like EasyRetroPGF.xyz, anyone can can start a retro funding round for a community.
Blockchain’s transparency ensures all transactions are visible on a public ledger, boosting trust and participation by showcasing clear fund usage. This transparency, combined with decentralized control, enhances the efficiency and accountability of public goods funding, aligning incentives with community interests in a more inclusive, democratic way.
📚 What We’re Thinking About
👐 The benefits of using stablecoins to deliver humanitarian aid. (Devex and Visa)
🤖 AI as a catalyst for DeFi adoption. (Odisea Labs)
✅ We can innovate local elections to more intimately and accurately capture the political will of everyday folks through quadratic funding and voting. (Noema)
🎓 Learning Tokens represent the value of – and rights over – the transmission of knowledge. In a network society, education is the fundamental asset that develops human capacities to transform people’s minds. (Hyperledger Foundation and Global Blockchain Business Council)
📄 The U.S. Treasury Department wants to continue beefing up anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing efforts around digital assets, as part of its broader strategy to tamp down on illicit financing. (CoinDesk)
🌋 El Salvador mined 474 bitcoin since 2021 using volcanic geothermal power. (The Block)
🌀 What President Biden’s crypto politics might really be about. (Unchained)
👤 The $2.3 billion Tornado cash case is a pivotal moment for crypto privacy. (Wired)
🔈 Podcasts:
Crypto Altruism Podcast Episode 155 - Plural Energy - Changing the flow of money into renewable energy projects with blockchain
🚀 Opportunities & Events:
Apply: Metagov is hiring a Senior research engineer (Interoperable Institutions Initiative).
Apply: The Stellar Development Foundation is hiring a Social Content Specialist.
Apply: Giveth is hiring a Community Specialist.
Apply: The Algorand Foundation is hiring multiple positions.
Apply: Republic is hiring multiple positions.
Apply: The Center for Music Ecosystems is hiring a Freelance Researcher.
Apply: Eticas is hiring a Research Assistant, Ethics & Tech.
Volunteer: Celo Europe is seeking volunteers for Celo Gather.
Speak: DWeb Camp is accepting proposals for projects and talks until June 14.
Scholarship: Flow's Consensus Scholarship provides financial support for community members who want to attend Consensus on behalf of Flow.
Funding: Applications are open for the Giveth June QF round.
Funding: Metagov is seeking RFPs for Interoperable Deliberative Tools that “support new and existing tools for deliberation and governance.”
Fellowship: The Ethereum Protocol Fellowship provides a pathway for aspiring protocol contributors to make meaningful contributions to Ethereum.
Hack: Build with Celo: Transform E-commerce Experiences kicks off May 17. Build with Celo Hackathons is a monthly hackathon series that focuses on educating the community, fostering creativity, showcasing ecosystem partners, and overall bringing out great projects that will enrich the ecosystem.
Learn: SheFi empowers professional women to master Web3 in 8 weeks. Applications for Season 11 are now open. Scholarships are available.
Participate: Monthly Earth Day is a global event that happens on the 22nd every month, not just once a year. Get involved on May 22 and share on X to @HighlyArtistic with the hashtag #MonthlyEarthDay.
Events
🆕= New to the roundup this week
Attend: Ethereum Frontiers Africa is happening May 12 in Nairobi.
Attend: GBBC Virtual Members Forum with Block: Self-Custody, Technological Innovations, and Public Policy Implications is happening May 17 online. 🆕
Attend: IslandDAO is happening May 17 - June 14 on the island of Crete.
Attend: Celo Gather is happening May 24 in Berlin. 🆕
Attend: Reboot The Earth is happening May 20 - June 20 online.
Attend: Reboot The Earth is happening May 22-23 in Hyderabad.
Attend: Emerging Topics in Blockchain Law is happening May 23 online. 🆕
Attend: The Dark Side Of The Moon - crypto for good use cases is happening May 31 online. *SheFi community exclusive event* 🆕
Attend: Reboot The Earth is happening June 3-4 in Addis-Ababa.
Attend: Reboot The Earth is happening June 6-7 in Rabat.
Attend: The Kenya Blockchain and Crypto Conference 2024 is happening June 6-7 in Nairobi.
Attend: Governable Spaces: Democratic Design for Everyday Tech is happening June 8 in San Francisco. 🆕
Attend: LabWeek Field Building is happening June 10-16 in Healdsburg, CA. 🆕
Attend: Women in Digital Assets Forum 2024 is happening June 25 in Stamford, CT.
Attend: Decipher 2024, a retreat for teams actively building on Algorand, is happening June 26-27 in Barcelona.
Attend: Responsible Tech London: A Better Tech Future for Youth is happening June 27 in London. Application required.
Attend: SheFi Summit is happening on July 7 in Brussels.
Attend: EthCC[7] is happening July 8-11 in Brussels.
Attend: FIL Dev Summit @ EthCC is happening July 9 in Brussels.
Attend: Funding the Commons is happening July 24-25 in Tokyo.
Attend: DWeb Camp is happening August 7-11 in Camp Navarro, CA.
Attend: REBOOT: THE NEW REALITY is happening September 4-5 in San Francisco
Attend: This week’s upcoming X spaces focusing on using Web3 for positive impact in the real world (+ recordings), curated by @civilmonkey. 🆕
📡 On Our Radar
The Mayan Soul NFT collection on Celo supports the preservation & sustainable development of the Calakmul jungle by protecting biodiversity & promoting gender equality.
Humanity Protocol is a digital identity startup that scans an individual's palm, using an infrared camera, to note the unique composition of the person's veins. This information verifies someone's digital identity, which is stored using decentralized technology and zero-knowledge proofs to safeguard the information.
The Compass is a climate and nature tech newsletter brought to you by Climate Collective.
The Panama DAO exists to prove that a network state is a viable way to solve problems that have been neglected by nation states and that those in LatAm can push the boundary of human coordination innovation.
Nodle connects the world by using smartphones as nodes to create a digital trust network for social good.
Curio is a new component in the Filecoin ecosystem that aims to simplify the setup and operation of storage providers.
CryptoEconLab is a collective of research scientists unlocking crypto's economic challenges.
EtherMail's Email-as-a-Wallet (EaaW) solution reduces friction & creates a home for finances, transactions, communications, and identity in your inbox.
✨ And one more thing
Thanks, Deepa, for truly the ultimate compliment 💛