🌍 This Week in Web3forGood
We believe
gm gm,
Girl, the tariffs. As we write this late Thursday, they’re (mostly) off, and markets are up. Yesterday they were on and markets were down. Who knows what tomorrow will bring. Whatever it is, let’s be real for a second: chaos and uncertainty ain’t it for builders.
With our inbox and feeds flooded with the constant back and forth of market fluctuations, we couldn’t help but feel a little bit off for a sec. What are we even doing here??? *Deep breath.*
Look, AGI is fast on the way, and in that world, blockchain technology will be the only way to verify proof of humanity or human truth. For that reason alone, we need this tech.
But to bring it down to earth a little bit: We believe, like really believe, in blockchain technology, and we want you to believe in it too. Trustless systems. Democratized access to the global financial system. Tokenized impact. Public goods funding. All of it. All of it makes the world better for humans, and it’s all made possible with blockchain technology.
If you work at an organization that wants to make the world better for real humans, whether that's a small nonprofit or a big government institution or something in between, sure, keep scrolling past the crypto market ups and downs, but don’t give up on crypto. Don’t give up on blockchain. We need this tech, and we need you to care about it too.
Whew, that was deep! We’re starting to feel the itch to bring back long-form interviews with builders, what do you think?
WAGMI (we are going to make an impact!)
P.S. GG23 — that’s Gitcoin Grants Round 23, for the uninitiated — is happening now. From dev tools to infra, open source software powers this ecosystem. Fund what matters.
What’s Inside
📣 Latest News
📚 What We’re Thinking About
🔈 Podcasts & Spaces
🚀 Opportunities & Calls to Act
🎪 Events
📡 On Our Radar
✨ And one more thing
📣 Latest News
Regen Network adds seamless credit card payment integration for Regen Marketplace
Mastercard Partners With Kraken to Enable Bitcoin Payments at 150 Million Merchants in Europe
Global Policy, Regulation, and Adoption News
Pakistan appoints Binance founder CZ as strategic crypto advisor
Pakistan turns to bitcoin miners, AI data centers to use surplus power
South Korea’s National Pension Service Eyes Blockchain for $890B Fund's Transactions
Ukraine floats 23% tax on some crypto income, exemptions for stablecoins
New York bill proposes blockchain study for election record security
U.S. SEC Staff Clarifies That Some Crypto Stablecoins Aren't Securities
Project Updates
📚 What We’re Thinking About
🤝 Blockchain for Funding Humanitarian Efforts
First reported by Politico, a recently leaked memo indicates that the U.S. government might be exploring issuing U.S. funding for humanitarian efforts on a blockchain (Politico, CryptoSlate). While we disagree with this administration’s handling of USAID and the process by which it’s generally blowing up systems without regard for human lives, we’re curious to see where this goes. Stellar Blockchain is making its pitch as to why it's the right choice for the future of government spending -- yes, it’s self promotional, but actually a good overview of how the blockchain<>government relationship could work. “Traditional financial rails are costly and inefficient, making blockchain an attractive alternative for government organizations seeking better fiscal management. (CoinDesk).
🪙 Stablecoins
Would it be 🌍 This Week in Web3forGood without a stablecoin update? There’s always something going on, once again highlighting that this is a big space to keep watching. This week, Chris Dixon of a16z even weighed in: “Stablecoins are our first real shot at doing for money what email did for communication: make it open, instant, and borderless” (a16z crypto).
On the policy front: the GENIUS and STABLE acts are making their way through the Senate and the House, respectively. Here’s how they’re the same and where they differ (The Defiant). While legislation is advancing, it’s not all smooth sailing (CryptoSlate, Unchained). Meanwhile, the SEC has officially said that dollar-based stablecoins are not securities, essentially giving the green light to stablecoin assets that meet a narrow definition of what’s within its jurisdiction (CoinDesk). Notably probably excluded? Tether, the largest global stablecoin by volume which accounts for the majority of the world’s stablecoin supply (CoinMarketCap). Tether may develop a US-only stablecoin to comply with the new rules (CoinDesk).
All of this raises the question: can non-USD stablecoins compete? Most stablecoins, including the two clear market leaders, are dollar-based. So can stablecoins based in other currencies gain traction? (CoinDesk). “Privileging U.S.-based stablecoin issuers over issuers abroad is shortsighted and will stifle innovation,” says MoonPay CEO Ivan Soto-Wright (CoinDesk). We agree.
🧫 Grants Experimentation
“GG23 will feature an experiment in configurable AI politicians - basically different AI politicians which represent different constituencies that battle out how to distribute a $25k matching pool. Each AI politician is completely configurable via Github, and the tooling for the round will make it easy to explore different value sets. As the round progresses, you will be able to see how each AI agent gains/loses support over time. In GG23, there is scheduled to be a $25k funding pool distributed to open source projects via this mechanism. This is a great practical example of Vitalik’s vision of AI as the engine, humans as the steering wheel". (@owocki)
🌱 Scaling-Up Anticipatory Cash Transfers
In 2023, MCV launched a bold pilot with Fortune credit, Shamba, and DIVA Protocol to test a new way of delivering aid using blockchain-powered smart contracts and remote sensing data to deliver anticipatory cash transfers to pastoralist communities in Kenya before drought strikes. Now, they’re expanding the pilot to further demonstrate how stablecoins and blockchain technology can deliver humanitarian relief faster and more efficiently than traditional methods. (Mercy Corp Ventures)
Plus:
👩💻 You Built It. Now Get Paid. Ethereum’s Devansh Mehta on Fixing Open Source Funding. (HackerNoon)
🌳 Making Ecocapital: Institutions for Aligning Economic and Ecological Systems. (SSRN)
🔎 Inside North Korea's Favorite Crypto Laundering Tool: THORChain. (CoinDesk)
💸 China and Russia embrace Bitcoin for trade as US financial influence comes under scrutiny. (CryptoSlate)
🏦 Is Bitcoin’s future in circular economies or national reserves? (Cointelegraph)
🌐 What we missed at Schelling Point. (@Gitcoin)
🌏 Rene Reinsberg explains how Celo is driving real-world stablecoin adoption with 600K daily users and $3.5B in monthly volume. (Stable Summit)
🤖 Model Plurality: Current research in “plural alignment” concentrates on making AI models amenable to diverse human values. But plurality is not simply a safeguard against bias or an engine of efficiency: it’s a key ingredient for intelligence itself. (Combinations)
🔨 Ethereum Must Prioritize Real-World Growth: Aligning Ethereum’s expanded capacity with real-world growth, user-centric product innovation, and rigorous demand generation, Ethereum can transform abundant blockspace from potential into a thriving ecosystem of real world usage. (@owocki)
🔈 Podcasts & Spaces
Crypto Altruists Podcast - Episode 198 - Pesabase - Revolutionizing Remittances: Delivering $8.5M to Last Mile Communities with Stablecoins
Crypto Altruists Podcast - Episode 197 - Xcapit - Crypto for Global Impact - Blockchain, AI, & the Future of Sustainable Development
Crypto Altruists AutoPGF - Episode 3 - Funding Climate Action with Crypto: How Stablecoins are Powering a Greener Future
Crypto Altruists AutoPGF - Episode 2 - Can Stablecoins End Extreme Poverty? Inside Glo’s partnership with GiveDirectly
ReFi Podcast - Season 4 The Regeneration Nexus - Bonus - From Green Rush to ReFi Realism with David Fortson and Sandra Ponce de Leon
🚀 Opportunities & Calls to Act
Apply: Stellar Development Foundation is hiring for a number of roles.
Apply: Uniswap Labs is hiring a Community Manager - LATAM.
Apply: The Ethereum Foundation is hiring a Project Manager.
Apply: Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society welcomes applications for its 2025-2026 fellowships.
Learn: SheFi Season 14 begins this summer and applications are already open. Scholarships available.
Learn: In the Greenpill Dev Guild workshop Mastering CharmVerse: A complete workshop for online communities, Xandra Dozet from CharmVerse walks you through everything you need to know about setting up, using, and navigating CharmVerse like a pro. Whether you're managing grants, connecting with builders, or bringing new ideas to life, this workshop will equip you with the skills to maximize your impact.
Watch and Learn: Funding the Commons San Francisco talks are now on Youtube.
Build and Learn: The Protocol Labs Developer Guild (PLDG) grows the impact of open source contributors to Protocol Labs & Web3 public goods projects.
Create and Earn: ambassador programs for content creators.
Hack: Mento’s Global Stablecoin Hackathon is looking for projects that use Mento's local stablecoins & can benefit from MiniPay's global distribution.
Contribute: Help create the local ReFI toolkit.
Incubate: Base Batches is a global program for builders creating the next wave of onchain apps.
Accelerate: Edge City’s Long Journey Residency is a launchpad for misfits, outliers, and builders of the absurd.
Funding: Filecoin ProPGF prototype is a pioneering on-chain funding program designed to support the development of public goods within the Filecoin ecosystem. This new initiative builds on the success of RetroPGF and aims to create a more transparent, decentralized, and community-driven approach to funding critical projects.
🎪 Events
🆕= New to the roundup this week
Virtual
ReFi Podcast’s Regeneration Nexus Reflections is happening April 11 TODAY. 🆕
Let’s GROW Live is BACK. Tune in 24/7 to unite & GROW the Regen movement now through April 16. 🆕
Mento’s Global Stablecoin Hackathon is happening now through May 2. 🆕
Funding the Commons’ Public Goods Town Hall #8: PGF Infra Showcase is happening April 22. 🆕
FIL Dev Summit 6 Virtual Kickoff Sessions are happening April 23. 🆕
IRL
AthenaDAO’s ADLabs London Pop-Up is happening April 12 in London. 🆕
The Decentralised Science Conference 2025 is happening April 12 in London. 🆕
DWeb Meetup Bay Area— How Do We Build the Digital Commons of Tomorrow? is happening April 15 in San Francisco. 🆕
Crypto Capitol - ETHDC II is happening April 24 in Washington D.C.
AI x Biology Workshop 2025 is happening May 9-10 in Berkeley.
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.
Stablecon is happening May 29 in NYC.
Global Blockchain Business Council Blockchain Central DC 2025 is happening June 11-13 in Washington D.C.
Funding the Commons is happening June 14-15 in Berlin (no link yet, but follow FtC for updates).
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. 🆕
ETHSafari 2025 is happening September 7-14 in Nairobi.
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 April 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
Etheruemlocalism.xyz bridges digital innovation with real-world impact through community-driven initiatives, enabling resilient and sustainable local economies powered by blockchain and peer-to-peer technologies. Tools and mechanisms like quadratic funding, local stablecoins, and decentralized governance and finance expand Ethereum’s utility beyond digital spaces to create tangible local impacts.
Filecoin ProPGF prototype is a pioneering on-chain funding program designed to support the development of public goods within the Filecoin ecosystem. This new initiative builds on the success of RetroPGF and aims to create a more transparent, decentralized, and community-driven approach to funding critical projects.
The Human Rights Foundation's (HRF) Financial Freedom Report is a weekly newsletter that focuses on the role money and banking play in the civil liberties and human rights struggles of those living under authoritarian regimes, highlight how new monetary inventions like Bitcoin can help secure more personal freedom for people even in the darkest dictatorship; showcase real use cases from around the world, and feature new tools and applications that can protect financial freedom.
Regen Network is teaming up with Sustainability Science & Gross-Wen Technologies to develop a carbon credit methodology for algae-integrated wastewater treatment.
Octant announced the projects selected together with Climate Coordination Network (CCN) for their climate round.