🌍 This Week in Web3forGood
Attacks on the humanitarian sector, an opportunity for Web3
gm gm,
It’s been a heavy week for those working in social impact and international development. The U.S. has long been the world's largest humanitarian donor, but recent budget cuts are slashing aid programs that millions rely on. Refugee assistance, disaster relief, and gender-based violence (GBV) support programs are now at risk—just as global crises escalate.
For those on the ground, this isn’t just about numbers on a budget sheet; it’s about fewer food rations, stalled medical supplies, and weakened support for displaced communities.
A System Under Strain— and an Opportunity for Web3?
As governments retreat from funding, decentralized, borderless funding mechanisms could step in. Web3 offers new models of community-driven aid:
Crypto Philanthropy & DAOs: Blockchain-powered giving platforms, like Gitcoin Grants and Endaoment, allow direct contributions to grassroots initiatives—without reliance on slow, bureaucratic intermediaries.
On-Chain Transparency: Every donation can be traced on-chain, reducing fraud and ensuring funds reach those in need.
Decentralized Economic Models: Stablecoin-based Universal Basic Income (UBI) and micro-grants can provide financial stability to vulnerable populations.
What Comes Next?
Traditional humanitarian funding is in crisis. But in this gap, there’s potential for innovation—where decentralized networks, collective funding, and cryptographic trust models could redefine how we deliver aid.
The question is: Can Web3 step up before the safety net collapses?
👉 Have thoughts? Know of a Web3 project tackling these challenges?
WAGMI (we are going to make an impact!)
🚨 P.S. The Giving Block released its 2025 Annual Report on Crypto Philanthropy. The 73 page report is full of interesting facts and recommendations. We’ve summarized some key findings that stood out to us below. Scroll to the very bottom for more.
Any typos or mistakes are a result of this intro being written by Humans, not AI :)
What’s Inside
📣 Latest News
🔍TLDR: Real World Assets (RWA)
📚 What We’re Thinking About
🔈 Podcasts & Spaces
🚀 Opportunities & Calls to Act
🎪 Events
📡 On Our Radar
✨ And one more thing
📣 Latest News
Tokenized Real-World Assets Hit All-time High of $17 Billion
Tether Bringing USDT to Bitcoin Opens Up Fast Payments and DeFi
Global Policy, Regulation, and Adoption News
Coinbase Receives Approval to Launch Crypto Services in the UK
Hong Kong’s SFC proposes expanding crypto regulatory staff in new fiscal budget
India reviewing crypto position due to global changes, senior official says
Russia plans to create mandatory registry for crypto mining equipment
Senator Hagerty pushes new stablecoin bill for clearer US crypto rules
US Crypto Czar David Sacks: We are evaluating a US Bitcoin Reserve
SEC launches new Crypto Task Force website to "provide clarity" for crypto laws
Elizabeth Warren Pledges to Work With Trump to End Debanking of Crypto Firms
Project Updates
🔍TLDR: Real World Assets (RWA)
New to Web3? Welcome! TLDR is where we offer a simplified explanation of a term used often in this newsletter or a big topic in the news this week. If there's anything you're curious about, reply and let us know.
Editor’s Note: This series is written with the summary support of ChatGPT.
RWA in crypto stands for Real World Assets, which means taking things from the real world—like houses, gold, stocks, or even art—and putting them on the blockchain. Imagine you have a basketball card that’s super rare. Normally, you can trade it with friends, but what if you could also trade it online as a digital version that proves you own the real one? That’s what RWA does with big things like property, company shares, or even loans.
With blockchain, these real-world things can be turned into tokens, which are like digital ownership slips. These tokens can then be bought, sold, or borrowed against, just like crypto coins such as Bitcoin or Ethereum. But instead of just being digital money, these tokens represent actual, valuable things in the real world.
Why is this cool? It makes owning and trading expensive things much easier. Normally, if you wanted to invest in real estate, you’d need a lot of money. But with RWA, you could buy a small piece of a building with just a little cash—kind of like buying part of a pizza instead of the whole thing.
It also makes things faster. Instead of waiting weeks to sell a house or a stock, blockchain lets you do it instantly with secure, digital proof.
TLDR: RWA in crypto is about bringing real-world money, businesses, and assets onto the blockchain, making them easier to trade, own, and use in a digital world! 🚀
📚 What We’re Thinking About
🌍 Africa is the key to crypto mass adoption: Africa’s unique challenges and vast potential drive crypto innovation, potentially catalyzing global adoption and refining blockchain technology for everyday use. (Cointelegraph)
🌴 El Salvador’s Bitcoin experiment is a lesson for developing nations who aim to seek out economic autonomy by making crypto legal tender. (Cointelegraph)
🐉 Degens and Dragons: How Octant is changing the lore and landscape of public goods funding in Web3. (The Fuzzy Cow Podcast)
🤖 The global struggle over how to regulate AI. (Rest of the World)
🌐 Why decentralization matters, and needs incentives. (a16z crypto)
💥 A Young Man Used AI to Build A Nuclear Fusor and Now I Must Weep. (Core Memory)
🔗 The Algorand Foundation believes its quantum-resistant blockchain could be a backbone of government operations. (CryptoSlate)
🎤 Reflections on the Third ReFi Podcast S4 Miniseries: Tools to Scale Impact. (ReFi DAO)
🪄 How decentralized finance is transformed by emerging crypto regulation, real world assets, and stablecoin adoption. (HTX Ventures)
🔈 Podcasts & Spaces
Crypto Altruists Podcast - Episode 190 - Web3 Founders’ Playbook: Expert Advice from Top Crypto Innovators
Crypto Altruists Trailblazers of Octant - Episode 4 - Greenpill Dev Guild - Scaling the Regen Movement with Web3 Coordination Tools
The Blockchain Socialist - How to Die a Good Death with Sarah Friend
🚀 Opportunities & Calls to Act
Apply: Mugshot is hiring a Community Manager.
Apply: Regen Network is hiring a Full Stack/Front-end Software Engineer - Mid-Level.
Funding: The Obol Collective is providing 1M OBOL Tokens to reward public goods. This marks a milestone moment for the Obol Collective, beginning to reward projects which strengthen and promote the Obol Collective’s Decentralized Operator Ecosystem and its ability to scale decentralized infrastructure networks like Ethereum. The funding is designed to reward tangible impact while creating strong incentives for sustained innovation and collaboration by the community.
Funding: The Ethereum Foundation is sponsoring the Pectra Proactive Grant Round support Ethereum ecosystem in preparation for the upcoming Pectra network upgrade. This grants round has 200k in total available funds. Proposals are due February 23rd.
Participate: Are you part of a social media platform or major tech company? The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with support from All Tech Is Human, invites you to participate in its Action Coalition on Information Integrity in Elections.
🎪 Events
🆕= New to the roundup this week
Virtual
Climate Coordination Network is partnering with Octant for Epoch 7 Climate Round and will be hosting X Spaces spotlighting various projects over the next few weeks (the first was yesterday with Kokonut Network - listen to the replay). Keep an eye out for an announcement for dates/times for the series from @climate_program.
@civilmonkey’s Curated X Spaces focus on using Web3 for positive impact in the real world (+ recordings).
IRL
FEMHACK [NYC]: All-Female Hackathon is happening February 8 in NYC.
AI & Society House @ Paris AI Action Summit is happening February 9 in Paris. 🆕
Web3 Mixer: Cocktails & Convos hosted by The Celo Foundation, along with our partners Mento Labs, cLabs, Haraka, Clixpesa, Mercy Corps Ventures, Fonbnk, Kickstarter, Pretium Finance, MiniPay, and Celo Africa Dao is happening February 11 in Nairobi. 🆕
Africa Tech Summit is happening February 12-13 in Nairobi.
General Forum on Ethereum Localism is happening February 21-23 in Boulder, CO.
ETHDenver is happening February 23 - March 2 in Denver.
Policy Week by Blockchain APAC is happening March 10-14 in Sydney.
The Stable Summit is happening February 26 in Denver.
SheFi Summit is happening February 26 in Denver.
Schelling Point is happening February 27 in Denver.
Ethereum San Francisco Week 2025 is happening March 10-16 across San Francisco.
Funding the Commons is happening March 15 in San Francisco. EARLY BIRD TICKET DEADLINE IS THIS MONDAY 2/10.
2025 Decentralized Tech Summit is happening April 2 in Washington D.C. 🆕
Paris Blockchain Week is happening April 8-10 in Paris. 🆕
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.
Collaborative Finance Gathering is happening June 16-20 at The Commons Hub in Austria.
ETHSafari 2025 is happening September 7-14 in Nairobi. 🆕
Recurring
Monthly Earth Day is a global event that happens on the 22nd every month, not just once a year. Get involved next on February 22 and share on X to @HighlyArtistic with the hashtag #MonthlyEarthDay.
Hosting an event that you’d like to see listed? Reply here or send us a DM.
📡 On Our Radar
The Decentralization Research Center (DRC) is a 501(c)(4) social welfare non-profit that advocates for decentralization as a fundamental characteristic of emerging technologies.
Regen Ledger is a public Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain application built with Cosmos SDK. Regen Ledger provides the infrastructure for ecological assets and the verification of claims.
Citation Needed is a newsletter that features critical coverage and regular explainers of developments in the cryptocurrency industry and of issues in the broader technology world.
✨ And One More Thing
The Giving Block released it’s 2025 Annual Report on Crypto Philanthropy.
The 73 page report is packed full of interesting findings and recommendations. Here are some of the things that stood out most to us:
Over $1 billion in cryptocurrency donations were made in 2024, the highest annual total recorded.
The average crypto donation in 2024 was $10,978, a 386.33% increase from 2023.
Over 70% of Forbes’ Top 100 Charities now accept cryptocurrency donations, marking a 25% increase from the previous year.
Stablecoins processed nearly $30 trillion in transactions in 2024—exceeding Visa and Mastercard combined.
Rapid Response Fundraising: Crypto proved effective in emergency response efforts, with over $100 million raised for Ukraine relief in 2022 and similar contributions continuing in 2024.
AI Integration: 2024 marked the first AI-led crypto donation, signaling the potential for automated, data-driven philanthropic strategies.
Crypto donors tend to be younger (20s–30s), wealthier, and highly philanthropic, often holding long-term crypto investments.
The education sector received the largest share of crypto donations (16.02%), followed by health & medicine (13.38%), children & youth (9.86%), and animal welfare (9.64%).
🤝 Are you a nonprofit keen to act on what you’ve learned from this report? We highly recommend you get in touch with Givepact and learn more about their new API, which enables companies to embed crypto donations directly into their platforms. Let us know if we can help connect you.