🌍 This Week in Web3forGood
Government-backed memecoins?
gm gm,
Web3 continues to push boundaries in social impact, with Layer 2 solutions making blockchain more accessible and affordable for real-world applications. New funding is fueling decentralized social networks, marking a shift toward user-owned platforms, while humanitarian organizations explore blockchain for digital rights, financial inclusion, and data sovereignty.
From verifiable credentials for displaced communities to on-chain climate initiatives, Web3 is proving its value beyond speculation—yet skepticism remains. One major hurdle? The steep learning curve. The space still demands technical know-how, and UX challenges persist. It’s improving, but let’s be honest—even we struggle sometimes!
The question is: Can Web3 move past this to onboard the average person?
👉 Have thoughts? Know of a Web3 project tackling these challenges?
WAGMI (we are going to make an impact!)
Any typos or mistakes are a result of this intro being written by Humans, not AI :)
What’s Inside
📣 Latest News
🔍TLDR: Memecoins
📚 What We’re Thinking About
🔈 Podcasts & Spaces
🚀 Opportunities & Calls to Act
🎪 Events
📡 On Our Radar
✨ And one more thing
📣 Latest News
Global Policy, Regulation, and Adoption News
Hong Kong officially recognizes Bitcoin & Ethereum as part of its investment visa program
North Carolina becomes 20th US state to introduce legislation for a Bitcoin reserve
US and UK decline to sign international agreement for ethical AI
Project Updates
🔍TLDR: Memecoins
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.
In the news this week: Central African Republic President Faustin-Archange Touadéra has launched a meme-coin in a bid to raise the profile of the country, which is one of the world's poorest.
Central African Republic debuts memecoin managed by state-owned mineral firm
Central African Republic Memecoin Briefly Rockets to $900 Million, But Red Flags Remain
What are memecoins? Memecoins are cryptocurrencies that start as jokes or internet memes but often gain real value because of online communities. Think of Dogecoin—the one with the Shiba Inu dog meme that started as a joke but ended up with Elon Musk tweeting about it and sending its price soaring. These coins don’t usually have deep technical use cases like Bitcoin or Ethereum, but they thrive on community hype, social media trends, and internet culture.
Memecoins are often cheap and highly volatile, meaning their prices can skyrocket overnight or crash just as fast. They’re driven by viral moments, influencers, and sometimes sheer randomness. Unlike traditional cryptocurrencies focused on tech or finance, memecoins are powered by memes, humor, and speculation.
Why do people love them? Because they’re fun, accessible, and sometimes surprisingly profitable. Buying a memecoin can feel like joining an inside joke that might just make you money. But be careful—while some people have made fortunes, others have lost big when the hype faded.
TLDR: Memecoins are fun, internet-driven cryptocurrencies that start as jokes but can gain real value thanks to online communities and viral hype. 🚀😂
📚 What We’re Thinking About
🔎 Looking back at Octant's funding to open source in 2024. (Open Source Observer)
🪙 Mercy Corps Ventures partnered with Project Lydian to pilot stablecoin-enabled grants for civil society groups and NGOs, demonstrating greater efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and security over traditional methods. (Mercy Corps Ventures)
📜 The new Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act lays the groundwork for a new era of American exceptionalism, says Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, of New York. (CoinDesk)
🏠 Berlín, a city of 20,000 people, is home to El Salvador’s second Bitcoin circular economy. (CoinDesk)
🌐 Inside the race to archive the US government’s websites: Amid takedowns of various government sites and databases, several organizations are working to preserve vital climate, health, and scientific data before it’s gone for good. (MIT Technology Review)
👤 “I tested ChatGPT’s deep research with the most misunderstood law on the internet.” It got the facts right but the story wrong. (The Verge)
🌑 The untold story of a crypto crimefighter’s descent into Nigerian Prison: Tigran Gambarayan pioneered modern crypto investigations. Then at Binance, he got trapped between the world’s biggest crypto exchange and a government. (Wired)
🤖 An AI chatbot told a user how to kill himself—but the company won’t “censor” it: While not the first to suggest suicide, researchers say its explicit instructions—and the company’s response—are striking. (MIT Technology Review)
💵 What would it mean to put all US spending on the blockchain? (@KobeissiLetter)
🔈 Podcasts & Spaces
Crypto Altruists Podcast - Episode 191 - Purpose For Profit - Tokenized Lending, Real-World Assets, and Onchain Impact Investing for Affordable Housing
Crypto Altruists Trailblazers of Octant - Episode 5 - Octant & CCN - Accelerating Climate Action with Web3 Funding and Coordination Mechanisms
The Blockchain Socialist - Alternatives to VC, Digital Governance and Public AI with Josh Tan
Planet Money - The 'Crypto Wizard' vs. Nigeria
🚀 Opportunities & Calls to Act
Apply: Coinbase is hiring an Experiential Marketing Associate.
Apply: Interplanetary Talent Services (IPTS) connects visionary organizations and top talent in Web3. They have several open positions across the Protocol Labs ecosystem.
Contribute: Filecoin is seeking Filecoin Ambassadors to onboard users into the Filecoin ecosystem.
Funding: Check out GG23 Community Rounds Eligibility Criteria, application period Feb 5-23.
Hack: The Public Goods by Design Hackathon is a first-of-its-kind virtual, design-only hackathon in Web3, happening from March 14 to March 16.
Hack: Filecoin AI Blueprints is a 4-week hackathon to build decentralized AI data infrastructure, launching on March 17th.
🎪 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
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.
<d/acc day> is happening March 13 in Berkeley, CA. 🆕
Funding the Commons is happening March 15 in San Francisco.
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
CxAI is an initiative from the Celo Foundation harnessing AI's transformative potential to accelerate the onchain economy across the Celo ecosystem.
Ecocertain.xyz is a space for the community to launch their own ecocerts.
✨ And One More Thing
