🌍 This Week in Web3forGood
the future of financial resistance
gm gm,
If it feels like crypto headlines lately are all IPOs, political stunts, and tradfi takeovers... we get it. But that’s not the whole story. In fact, this week brought a wave of reminders about why this space really matters, and who it's really for.
🌍 In Zambia and across the continent, young Africans are using blockchain to solve real-world challenges, from inflation to internet access, through grassroots innovation and decentralized tools.
🛰️ The Human Rights Foundation just announced its latest round of Bitcoin Development Fund grants: 800 million sats going to 22 projects that build censorship-resistant infrastructure and financial tools for people living under authoritarian regimes. Just a few highlights:
SudaBit is building Sudan’s first local Bitcoin on/off-ramp amid war and hyperinflation
Stringer News uses Bitcoin and nostr to help war reporters and activists publish outside state-controlled media.
Seedsigner makes secure, DIY hardware wallets accessible in surveilled economies.
Bitcoin Month is teaching youth in the Global South how to use Bitcoin for savings and uncensorable payments.
These projects don’t make mainstream media headlines, but they’re shaping the future of freedom tech.
That’s the throughline this week. Across the world, people are building with purpose.
And that’s what keeps us grounded and fired up.
WAGMI (we are going to make an impact!)
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
Human Rights Foundation Donates 800 Million Satoshis To 22 Worldwide Bitcoin And Freedom Projects
FIFA Teams Up With Avalanche to Build Its Own Blockchain, Expanding Web3 Ambition
Global Policy, Regulation, and Adoption News
Stablecoin News
Conduit raises $36M for stablecoin, fiat cross-border payment network
USDC issuer Circle seeks IPO under ‘CRCL’ with Goldman, JPMorgan support
Reports & Project Updates
Epoch 8 & Our Bigger Roadmap via Octant
The State of ReFi 2025 via Carbon Copy
📚 What We’re Thinking About
🌱 Blockchain’s real-world revolution in Africa is already here
While the West debates regulation, young Africans are using blockchain to solve real issues, from inflation to internet access, through grassroots innovation, stablecoins, Bitcoin mining, and decentralized WiFi. Governments remain cautious, but “The need is there. The tech is here” (The Clear Crypto Podcast).
🫖 UK politics, onchain
Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, is the first European political party accepting crypto donations, which it does via Radom, a UK-based VASP-licensed payment platform (CoinDesk). The average crypto donation? $6,000, over 30x the typical fiat amount. Inspired by Trump’s $18M crypto haul, Farage says he’ll make the UK a crypto hub if elected PM. The move also follows Farage’s 2023 “debanking” controversy, which sparked national debate on political discrimination in financial services.
🛑 IMF wants El Salvador to stop buying Bitcoin
The IMF says El Salvador must freeze its Bitcoin stash as part of a $1.4B loan deal, directly clashing with President Bukele’s BTC-first vision (CryptoSlate). Bukele isn’t budging. Despite IMF pressure, the country added 8 more BTC last week, bringing its holdings to over 6,190 BTC (worth $674M with $200M in unrealized gains). The IMF wants El Salvador out of the Chivo wallet and to cap crypto involvement, citing macroeconomic risk. But Bukele’s team calls it the path to “economic miracles” and capital market growth. The showdown continues…
🪙 Is crypto going mainstream a good thing?
Circle’s gearing up for a $6.7B IPO (Decrypt), BlackRock’s buying 10% of the company (Watcher.Guru), and regulators are watching every move. Just last week, Circle froze $58M tied to the $LIBRA memecoin scam (The Defiant). Depending on your perspective, that’s either crypto growing up or crypto getting co-opted. There’s a real conversation to be had here: compliance is necessary, but when stablecoins start acting like banks (freezing funds, leaning on regulators, IPO-ing with Wall Street backing), do we lose what made them powerful in the first place? The bigger question isn’t just about Circle. It’s about who gets to build the future of money, and who gets left behind. As Mojito put it: "We’re entering what might be called the Alignment Era, phase where crypto is no longer just a challenger to the traditional financial system, but an active participant in shaping it." Let's make sure we’re aligned with freedom, not just frictionless compliance.
📊 Carbon Copy’s 2025 State of ReFi report
… is a must-read for anyone building toward a regenerative, more resilient future. ReFi isn’t just a buzzword, it’s an evolving ecosystem of public goods, built from the ground up. The report makes the case for why it matters now more than ever. A few highlights:
DePINs are booming. From community-owned solar to decentralized water networks, ReFi is moving off-chain and into the real world.
Funding is still the bottleneck. Projects need new capital models that go beyond grants and speculation.
Culture shift is needed. The report urges the space to move from abstract ideals to grounded, local, tangible, and measurable impact.
Plus:
🪮 Inside the Discord Community Developing Its Own Hair Loss Drugs: HairDAO is a “decentralized autonomous organization” trying to cure hair loss. (404 Media)
🧠 Why Bitcoin may not have been possible in the ’90s: Decentralized money was a “very unpopular goal” when concepts were proposed in the ’90s, said Nick Szabo. (Blockworks)
🌐 Regulatory Equivalence in Blockchain Systems: The Role of Public Values and Legitimacy. (Public Governance and Emerging Technologies)
💳 Vitalik suggests Ethereum as a secure digital payment backup as Sweden and Norway shift back to cash. (CryptoSlate)
🔈 Podcasts & Other Recordings
Crypto Altruists AutoPGF - Episode 4 - Decentralizing Humanitarian Aid: Crypto-Powered Global Impact with Stellar and Coala Pay
The Giving Block This Week in Crypto Philanthropy - Episode 49 - Outright International
Oslo Freedom Forum 2025 - Freedom Tech Track
🚀 Opportunities & Calls to Act
Apply: Etherealize is looking for a Marketing and Social Media Lead
Apply: The Ethereum Season of Internships offers a coordinated collection of paid, fully remote summer internships across the Ethereum ecosystem. This initiative creates pathways for the next generation of contributors to connect with Ethereum projects and apply their diverse skills in development, research, design, marketing, finance, legal, and more. If you're a leader in the Ethereum ecosystem interested in developing pathways for new talent, you can become a host organization.
Learn: The 3 Percent Club Summer Program 2025 is a free and comprehensive 12-week journey into Web3, AI, and cloud.
Join: The Collective Intelligence Project’s Global Dialogues is a platform to bring the world’s voices into the development and governance of AI. Submit your vision for a chance to win up to $10,000.
Hack: PL Genesis Modular Worlds is a global hackathon from Protocol Labs to accelerate breakthroughs in the foundational layers of the internet.
Learn: SheFi Season 14 begins this summer and applications are already open. Scholarships available.
🎪 Events
🆕= New to the roundup this week
Virtual
Regen Network Monthly Community Call is happening June 5. 🆕
IRL
ETHGlobal Prague is happening May 30 - June 1 in Prague.
3PercentHacks - Build Session #NYTechWeek is happening June 5 in NYC. 🆕
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.
ETHGlobal Cannes is happening July 4-6 in Cannes, France. 🆕
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 June 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
All 22 grantees from the latest round of latest round Human Rights Foundation’s Bitcoin Development Fund. 800 million satoshis will be allocated to the projects, which support open-source development, educational initiatives, mining decentralization, and privacy tools for human rights advocates living under authoritarian regimes across Latin America, Africa, and Asia. The grants also further promote decentralized events and communications, ensuring dissidents can connect, communicate, organize, and transact without censorship.
Leather (Bitcoin wallet) is now on mobile.
TapStack turns everyday merch into programmable experiences.
AUX is a collaborative take on internet curation.
Any Problem is No Problem is a 90-minute documentary film by award-winning filmmakers Alyssa Fedele and Zac Fink, produced by the Oscar-nominated team at Actual Films. As scandals shake the crypto industry in March 2023, a group of ambitious web3 entrepreneurs are selected for a prestigious tech incubator. With just three months to refine their businesses, sharpen their technology, and perfect their pitches, they prepare for Demo Day—the defining moment where they lay it all on the line before a room full of potential investors. The founders navigate personal struggles, confront past traumas, and discover a sense of community in their shared pursuit of innovation. Shot in a vérité style, interwoven with intimate interviews and dynamic visuals, the film challenges assumptions about the world of crypto. It offers a rare, human-centered glimpse into the dreamers and idealists striving to build the future of the internet.
✨ And One More Thing
“A new survey conducted by @DCGco and @HarrisPoll finds that 75% of Americans say AI would benefit more people if it wasn’t controlled by a handful of major players. AI needs decentralization.” - @BlockchainAssn. Read the full thread.