đ This Week in Web3forGood
Ethereumâs Big Upgrade, Gitcoin 3.0, Trumpâs Crypto Scandal, and What Comes Next
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NYC was buzzing with crypto energy during Farcon 2025 last week. (For the uninitiated, Farcaster is a decentralized social media platform built on the Optimism network).
But hereâs the Farcaster news that weâre most excited about: the platformâs biggest-ever RetroPGF round is live. With 12 ETH from Base, Octant, and founder Dan Romero to start, community contributions are now open. Learn more about the round and how to contribute here.
Are you a Farcaster/Warpcast user? Drop up your name, so we can give you a follow.
WAGMI (we are going to make an impact!)
Whatâs Inside
đŁ Latest News
đ What Weâre Thinking About
đ Podcasts & Spaces
đ Opportunities & Calls to Act
đŞ Events
đĄ On Our Radar
⨠And one more thing
đŁ Latest News
MoneyGram introduces API to bridge cash and crypto with ease
Kucoin commits $2 Billion to "Trust Project" to strengthen confidence in crypto
Introducing Proof of Data Possession (PDP): Verifiable Hot Storage on Filecoin
Coinbase reveals x402 protocol to enable on-chain payments via HTTP
Global Policy, Regulation, and Adoption News
New Hampshire approves first state-level Strategic Bitcoin Reserve law
Texas House committee passes Bitcoin reserve bill for full floor vote
Stablecoin News
Celo's robust stablecoin ecosystem expands further with five new stablecoins
Meta in talks to deploy stablecoins three years after giving up on landmark crypto project
Visa Doubles Down on Stablecoins With Investment in Blockchain Payments Firm BVNK
đ What Weâre Thinking About
đ Gitcoin 3.0
The Gitcoin 1.0 era (2017-2021) featured a centralized company. Then, the Gitcoin 2.0 era (2021-2025) was characterized by an attempt to transform that company into a DAO. It didn't work. Now, Kevin Owocki, founder of the original platform, has ideas for the next era: Gitcoin 3.0. Hereâs the TLDR on his proposal (which is still subject to governance and open for debate): Gitcoin 3.0 would be a major evolution in how funding for public goods works in Web3. Instead of being run by a small group, it would essentially be powered by a broad network of communities who each get to run their own grant rounds using Gitcoinâs tools. The platform still would have a large pool of fundingâabout $22 million split between a community treasury and a matching poolâbut it would be moving away from a one-size-fits-all model. The idea is that, in the future, it would support multiple funding methods (not just quadratic funding) and would be focused on helping the Ethereum ecosystem solve its biggest challenges. Think of it as turning Gitcoin into a shared public infrastructure for funding the future of the internet. (@owocki)
đ¸ MoneyGram is unlocking crypto access for the cash economy
With MoneyGramâs new Ramps API, developers can now add cash-to-crypto and crypto-to-cash features to wallets, exchanges, and appsâno custom infra, no regulatory maze. One integration. Global reach. Powered by Stellar, USDC, and MoneyGramâs network, users can deposit in 30+ countries and withdraw in 170+. It's the worldâs largest off-rampânow just a few lines of code away. The goal? Bring crypto to 1.4 billion people still reliant on cash. Sandbox setup takes five minutes. This isnât just a feature drop, itâs a gateway to the digital economy. (PYMNTS)
â This canât happen on decentralized social media
When governments demand mass censorshipâlike India ordering X to block 8,000+ accounts including journalistsâcentralized platforms comply or face fines, jail time, or shutdown. Users lose access, with no recourse and no transparency. Farcaster is an example of how that model can be flipped: Your account, your posts, your followersâyou own them at the protocol level (@tednotlasso). No single app or authority can take them away. This isnât just about social media. Itâs about building a decentralized internet where free expression canât be switched off by decree.
đŚ Blockchain going mainstream?
Itâs giving... Wall Street but onchain? A wave of tradfi institutions are leaning into blockchain tech, not just for vibes, but for actual securities. Solana Policy Institute, Orca, and Superstate just proposed a framework for âSEC-compliant tokenized equitiesâ (The Block). Meanwhile, Robinhood is talking about launching a new blockchain platform that would let European users trade U.S. stocks directly (Bloomberg via The Block). Even banks are feeling the pressure: âWhoever wins the stablecoin race wins the deposit race,â said a U.S. fintech CEO to Cointelegraph Magazine. TL;DR: If youâre still pretending this is all just magic internet money... it's time to catch up.
â˝ď¸ Ethereum's big usability upgrade
Ethereum just rolled out Pectra, its most ambitious update since The Merge, and itâs a major win for usability (@ethereum). The standout feature? You can now pay gas fees in any token, not just ETH (The Defiant). That means no more awkward wallet juggling just to make a simple transaction. This upgrade also lays important groundwork for smart wallet functionality and makes life easier for validators (Blockworks, Decrypt). Vitalik Buterin has once again brought us one step closer toward what he called âmaking Ethereum as beautifully simple as Bitcoinâ (The Defiant). In a space often focused on backend improvements, Pectra is a welcome shift toward making Ethereum work better for the people.
đ˝ď¸ $TRUMP and the price of political access
Later this month, Donald Trump will host an exclusive dinner for top holders of the $TRUMP memecoin ( CryptoSlate, Decrypt). This isnât a campaign fundraiser. Itâs a new kind of political access, tokenized and sold to the highest bidder (Citation Needed). Is this just another spectacle? Either way, the ethical implications are very bad (Decrypt). The whole thing raises urgent ethical questions: What happens when public influence is tied to speculative financial assets? What does it mean when foreign actors can buy their way into the American political process?
Lawmakers are reacting. Rep. Ritchie Torres introduced legislation to ban politicians from profiting off memecoins and stablecoins (The Block). Senator Richard Blumenthal has opened an investigation into President Trump's crypto businesses. (Decrypt). Perhaps most frustrating to all of us over here advocating for all the benefits of blockchain tech is the fact that this whole thing is doing more to make crypto partisan. Some Democrats are pulling away from the space entirely. But abandoning the conversation is a mistake. As Austin Campbell writes (in his plea to Dems about the stablecoin bill), âI want crypto to benefit the people it's supposed to benefit: the unbanked, the underbanked, immigrants, people in the developing worldâ (@campbelljaustin).
This is a crossroads moment. The technology is here. The question now is what kind of political and financial systems we build around it and who theyâre designed to serve. We need clear rules, transparency, and a commitment to democratic values. And thatâs not what weâre getting with the $TRUMP memecoin dinner⌠but weâre not going to make progress in any other direction without bipartisan conversation and, ultimately, action.
Plus:
đ Win Ko Ko Aung, a global bitcoin adoption fellow at Human Rights Foundation, helps nonprofits operating under authoritarian regimes explore Bitcoin as a tool for financial freedom. In this newsletter from HRF, he shares how his personal experiences inform his work at HRF. (HRF Financial Freedom)
đŞ Treasury Flags Stablecoins as âCatalystâ for Shift in US Financial System. (The Defiant)
đ§ Will AI make blockchains conscious? (Blockworks)
At the Blockchain Baddies event during Token2049 in Dubai, women in Web3 shared how clarity, education and community are key to attracting more women into crypto. (Cointelegraph)
đ US Treasury Secretary expresses support for crypto bills at hearing. (Cointelegraph)
đ Podcasts & Spaces
Crypto Altruists Podcast - Episode 202 - Algorand: Blockchain Innovations for Humanitarian Aid, Sustainability, and Scientific Integrity
The Giving Block This Week in Crypto Philanthropy - Episode 45 - Wildlife SOS; hear about the organization's mission to rescue wildlife in India and their journey into accepting crypto donations.
The Human Layer - Episode 3 - When Money Flows, Builders Thrive; Graven from FlowState and SuperFluid DAO explores how streaming money could transform open source funding, creator support, and community resilience.
Frontera - MobileâFirst Stablecoins: Putting Dollars in Every Phone across LATAM | MarekâŻOlszewski Celo
đ Opportunities & Calls to Act
Apply: Aptos is hiring an Ecosystem Content Marketing Manager, US.
Apply: Milk Road is hiring a Macro Content Creator and Podcast Host.
Contribute: DWeb Camp Cascadia invites the DWeb community from the Cascadia region and beyond to participate in its first regional camp. Join 40 - 80 campers in an outdoor Canadian setting. This will likely be more outdoorsy camping than the California events. Respond to the call for interest with your availability and any ideas you have for the event.
Contribute: The Meta-Layer Initiative is an open, collaborative effort to define the desirable properties of a shared coordination layer for the decentralized web, responsible AI, and collective intelligence systems. The initiative is now in Phase Two of the Call for Input, open through June 30, 2025, and theyâre looking for contributions from people building, thinking, and dreaming at the edges of what comes next. Submit ideas here.
Learn: SheFi Season 14 begins this summer and applications are already open. Scholarships available.
Get $1000: If youâre a nonprofit, sign up with The Giving Block by May 15, 2025 and receive a $1,000 bitcoin donation.
đŞ Events
đ= New to the roundup this week
Virtual
N/A
IRL
AI x Biology Workshop 2025 is happening May 9-10 in Berkeley.
Protocol Labs x Filecoin Network Hub is happening May 12 in Toronto. đ
FIL Dev Summit 6 is happening May 12-13 in Toronto.
All Tech Is Human x Consulate General of Finland New York will host a curated gathering on strengthening multistakeholder collaboration in Responsible AI on May 21st in NYC.
Local-First Conf is happening May 26-28 in Berlin. đ
Stablecon is happening May 29 in NYC.
ETHGlobal Prague is happening May 30 - June 1 in Prague. đ
Responsible Tech DC is happening June 4 in Washington DC.
Global Blockchain Business Council Blockchain Central DC 2025 is happening June 11-13 in Washington D.C.
Funding the Commons: Berlin Forum 2025 is happening June 10 in Berlin.
Collaborative Finance Gathering is happening June 16-20 at The Commons Hub in Austria.
2025 Bitcoin Policy Summit is happening June 25 in Washington DC.
Impact Evaluator Research Retreat is happening June 26-July 10 in Iceland.
Ethereum Community Conference is happening June 30 - July 3 in Cannes.
ETHSafari 2025 is happening September 7-14 in Nairobi.
Progress Conference 2025 is happening October 16-19 in Berkeley.
Devconnect 2025 is happening November 17-22 in Argentina.
Recurring
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.
Hosting an event that youâd like to see listed? Reply here or send us a DM.
đĄ On Our Radar
The Greenway Collective is a sustainable community that bridges the gap between eco-conscious people and local green businesses. It links you to exclusive perks that make sustainable living convenient, affordable, and rewarding.
Atlantisâs Dynamic Greenpill NFT Collection helps transform actions into impact. Mint a Red Pill, complete challenges, and evolve it into a Greenpill loaded with real-world change.
Opening Bell by Superstate is a platform that enables companies to issue publicly registered equity directly onto blockchain networks like Solana and Ethereum.
LayerDrone is an open network and protocol, enabling anyone to contribute, access, and build on its imagery datasets, provided they follow established standards and guidelines. It marks a significant step forward in decentralized aerial data sharing and utilization.
⨠And One More Thing
The DWeb Community Calendar curates an overview of all the planned events that are on the DWeb communityâs radar. Add it to your own calendar or submit your own events.