🌍 This Week in Web3forGood
What are prediction markets? 📈
gm gm,
Are you feeling extra called to take action to make the world kinder, more thoughtful, and better for more people? 💚 Kernel, a nine week fellowship program that emphasizes peer learning and deep conversations, is actively seeking applicants for its next block, which begins in early 2025. Both of us are alums, and we’d love to see more Web3ForGood community members there. You don’t have to be actively working in Web3 to apply; the only prerequisite is an eagerness to learn from one another 💭. Apply here with our referral link, and feel free to DM us to learn more about our experiences.
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This week feels heavy for many, ourselves included. We typically cover a broad range of policy news each week, and much has been shared in the last few days about how the results of the U.S. election will impact the future of Web3. While the news in this regard, so far, seems to be mostly positive for wallets, we can’t help but ponder, at whose expense? Our focus here, as always, remains on how Web3 technology impacts social impact initiatives. The fact is, it remains to be seen how that will play out.
This week, we will not be sharing speculative policy predictions. We will let you read your election-related stories elsewhere, and instead, we’ll be focusing on what we do best — continuing to share positive stories, helping you to think critically, and educating where we can. Our TLDR this week is about Prediction Markets, a term that we know has been popping up in the news lately. However you feel about them, it's important to understand them.
No matter what is in store for the future, we hope that you remember, we are all responsible for building it 🌱.
Stay kind. Stay curious. Have fun at Devcon. And wish Mento a Happy Birthday.
WAGMI (we are going to make an impact!)
What’s Inside
📣 Latest News
🔍 TLDR: Prediction Markets
📚 What We’re Thinking About
🔈 Podcasts & Spaces
🚀 Opportunities
🎪 Events
📡 On Our Radar
✨ And one more thing
📣 Latest News
Build on Bitcoin joins the Superchain ecosystem to bridge Bitcoin and Ethereum DeFi
Crypto firms including Robinhood, Kraken launch global stablecoin network
Mento announces the approval of the first decentralized local currency stablecoin in Colombia #cCOP
Global Policy, Regulation, and Adoption News
Project Updates
🔍TLDR: Prediction Markets
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.
In the news this week:
What are Prediction Markets?: Imagine using the collective knowledge of thousands of individuals to forecast future events, from elections to climate trends. This is the concept behind prediction markets, where users trade shares based on real-world outcomes. A popular example is Polymarket. Blockchain underpins Polymarket, ensuring transparency, security, and tamper-proof predictions, with fair, automatic payouts for users.
Each event on a prediction market like Polymarket has multiple outcomes, and each outcome can be bought or sold as a "share." For instance, in the bet "Will Candidate X win?," if you believe they will, you buy shares. If you're correct, you receive a payout based on your shares.
Polymarket functions like a stock exchange, but instead of stocks, users trade predictions. Share prices reflect the collective belief in an outcome's likelihood. If many believe Candidate X will win, the price of "yes" shares rises, indicating a higher probability.
Why does it matter: Prediction markets are popular because they tend to be quite accurate. By letting many people place bets based on their own knowledge, these markets capture a "wisdom of the crowd" effect, which often predicts outcomes better than experts. For example, prediction markets have been known to forecast elections more accurately than polls.
TLDR: Prediction markets are platforms where people can buy and sell "shares" that represent the outcome of future events, like who will win an election. In these markets, people place bets based on what they believe will happen. If their prediction is correct, they earn a profit; if they’re wrong, they lose their stake. Platforms like Polymarket use blockchain for fairness and transparency, leveraging crowd insights for accurate forecasts.
📚 What We’re Thinking About
🚀 How crypto is quietly revolutionizing philanthropy. (Salon)
✨ 5 innovative blockchain projects transforming social impact and community engagement. (ZyCrypto)
💦 Mercy Corps Ventures and Stable Foods launched a pilot offering Irrigation-as-a-Service (IaaS) to smallholder farmers in rural Kenya that will test the business viability of borehole irrigation subscription services, leveraging IoT tech to reduce water use. (Mercy Corps Ventures)
🔮 What Vitalik Buterin’s six futures for Ethereum mean for users. (DLNews)
🔗 Defining the foundational elements of the Superchain and Optimism. (@Optimism)
🔵 The Left does NOT hate crypto. (The Blockchain Socialist)
🌱 “The true power of AI isn't in serving those already well-off, it's in uplifting billions who need it most.” (Accelerating Good)
🌅 A long-term view of crypto policy. (a16z crypto)
🔈 Podcasts & Spaces
ReFi Podcast - Season 4 The Regeneration Nexus - Episode 7 - dMRV Innovation for Climate Resilience with Kennedy Ng'ang'a
Crypto Altruism Impact on Optimism - Episode 5 - Optimizing Impact Evaluation of Web3 Public Goods, ft. LauNaMu of Metrics Garden
Green Pill - Season 6 - Episode 9 - The Emergence of AI/LLMs in Web3 Grants: Exploring AI-PGF and Beyond W/ Code
The Giving Block - Episode 24- This Week in Crypto Philanthropy Podcast.
Upcming spaces to join:
ReFi Podcast- S4 Ep7 Community Discussion- dMRV Innovation for Climate Resilience is happening TODAY November 8. Episode discussions will happen every week on Fridays at the same time.
Climate Coordination Network X Spaces happen weekly, every Thursday. Learn more and join.
@civilmonkey’s Curated X Spaces focus on using Web3 for positive impact in the real world (+ recordings). Learn more and join.
🚀 Opportunities & Calls to Act
Apply: Valora is hiring a Full Stack Engineer.
Apply: The Mento Ambassador Program invites passionate and driven individuals from Africa, LATAM, and Asia to spread the word about Mento and become a vital part of Mento Labs' mission to bring financial stability and inclusion to communities around the world.
Funding: Apply for Octant Community Fund grants Round 2 through Nov 22.
Funding: Prezenti Mint grants round offers grants for the Celo Community via three different funding pools that offer the right fit for each stage of a project.
Hack: OOO web3 Marketing Hackathon w Giga is a marketing hackathon for creatives. Join IRL in Bangkok or virtually on Sunday November 10.
Build: The Filecoin Orbit University Challenge is a competition for university blockchain organizations to propose and design decentralized AI applications leveraging the Filecoin network.
Learn: The Responsible Tech Mentorship Program by All Tech Is Human is a free program that helps build the Responsible Tech pipeline by facilitating connections and career development among people trying to break into the field, career changers, and practitioners.
🎪 Events
🆕= New to the roundup this week
Virtual
Metagovernance Seminar: Change Is in the Cards: Governance Transitions in Open Source Communities is happening November 13.
Algorand Foundation’s Community Town Hall: The Stakehouse is happening November 13. 🆕
IRL
LabWeek Web3 is happening November 7-13 in Bangkok.
Funding the Commons x Earth Commons Bangkok is happening November 8-9 in Bangkok.
(un)StableSummit is happening November 10 in Bangkok. 🆕
Settlement Day is hosted by Celo Foundation happening November 11 in Bangkok.
FIL Bangkok: DePIN Meets AI is happening November 11 in Bangkok.
Fintech Is Femme Leadership Summit is happening November 12 in San Francisco.
Code n' Corgi: Filecoin Builders Night is happening November 13 in Bangkok.
ETHGlobal Bangkok is happening November 15-17 in Bangkok.
Project Liberty’s Summit on the Future of the Internet is happening November 21-22 in Washington DC. 🆕
Boston Institutional Digital Assets Forum 2024 is happening December 3 in Boston.
Oasis Oncahin is happening January 30 - February 2 in Nassau, Bahamas.
ETHDenver is happening February 23 - March 2 in Denver.
Recurring
Monthly Earth Day is a global event that happens on the 22nd every month, not just once a year. Get involved on November 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
Payd offers gig workers and businesses in emerging markets a streamlined way to receive, manage, and spend their earnings by providing a stablecoin-powered, digital banking solution with cUSD (Celo Dollar) and cKES (Celo Kenya Shilling) stablecoins on Mento. Payd allows freelancers to receive payments globally in cUSD and spend locally with cKES, circumventing the high fees and lengthy transaction times of traditional banking.
✨ And One More Thing
what is the best way to send a possible contribution of content for web3forgood. We have paper that has recently been published that would be a great fit Reimagining Power: How Web3 Can Transform Social Impact https://pub.superbenefit.org/reimagining-power-how-web3-can-transform-social-impact