31/This Week in Web3forGood
🌍 Coinbase's cyptophilanthropy efforts, Public Nouns, Gitcoin's Grant Protocol, impactMarket updates, Bogotá events
GM GM,
We hope that this was a good week for all. As always a lot happening in Web3 space that caught our eye, but a there a few particular pieces that we wanted to highlight.
We LOVE public good funding mechanisms. You may or may not be aware of Nouns and its various forks; Nouns is a generative NFT project on the Ethereum blockchain where one noun is auctioned every 24 hours, forever and the money goes into the treasury. Each noun is an irrevocable member of Nouns DAO and entitled to one vote in all governance matters. This has proven to be a strong mechanism for continuous funding alongside a simple, yet effective governance framework.
Public goods are essential but also notoriously difficult to fund. Thus, Public Nouns has forked Nouns and replaced all heads with memetic representations of public goods, as an experiment in continuous public goods funding. All ETH from Public Noun auctions goes direct to Public Nouns DAO, where one Public Noun equals one vote. Public Nouns DAO members curate and fund public goods project, and WE ARE HERE FOR IT!!! To learn more about it, check out this GreenPill episode where Kevin Owocki talks to the team behind Public Nouns. And speaking of public goods funding, Gitcoin introduced its grants protocol, which will allow any community to launch its own grants program that incorporates community decision-making!!!
On a more sombre note, this week’s Deep Dive depicts our take on Coinbase’s cryptophilanthropy efforts; definitely a cautionary tale amidst all the excitement around cryptogiving.
P.S: Sam did a Twitter space with the The Life You Can Save and Crypto for Charity on Doing Good with Crypto, check it out here.
P.P.S: Sam is going to be in Bogota - let us know if you’ll be there!
WAGMI
What’s Inside
🕊 Tweets of the Week
📣 Latest News
🌊 Deep Dive: A cautionary tale for cryptophilanthropy
📚 What We’re Thinking About
🚀 Opportunities
📡 On Our Radar
🕊 Tweets of the Week
📣 Latest News
World of Women hosts a charity auction to support Women in Iran.
STEPN partners with The Giving Block to give back to the community
impactMarket launches new products and services to unlock opportunities and human potential
🌊 Deep Dive: A cautionary tale for cryptophilanthropy
If you’re an old reader, you are probably aware that crypto philanthropy is of great interest to us but this piece by Leo Schwartz on Coinbase’s efforts really depicts the numerous ways that it can go wrong. TLDR: Coinbase created GiveCrypto in 2018 as a billion dollar fund to distribute crypto to those greatly in need through local “ambassadors”. However, the logistical struggles of operating it and mismanagement, led to the project being abandoned and locals in Venezuela and DRC being exploited. While well-intentioned, it does raise questions particularly when you are trying to reach users who are not familiar with crypto in emerging markets. As stated by Kevin Owocki in the article, “If you’re giving crypto to places where there’s not even infrastructure where they can use it, then that just feels like an act of self-promotion to me.”
While it was set up with altruistic motives, this really brings into question such projects particularly when they might be targeting more vulnerable individuals and even exposing them to scams. This also brings up similar questions as were asked of Sam Altman’s WorldCoin and the processes it followed to recruit users.
While we have the success of the Giving Block and Endaoment as cryptophilanthropy platforms, Coinbase’s experience serves as a cautionary tale, particularly when initiatives are led by companies without much experience in philanthropy.
📚 What We’re Thinking About
Accion Venture Labs shared its v1 thesis on Web3 and financial inclusion. There's lots of opportunities out there, but an ecosystem of user protection and governance is just as important - if not more - than the technology itself. (Accion Venture Labs)
The first ever #OFP Forest Project Deep Dive is LIVE! Forest Project Deep Dive: Greener Communities Program (Open Forest Protocol)
Pilot Launch | NFTs Fueling Affordable, Climate-Smart Housing in Mozambique (Mercy Corps Ventures)
impactMarket’s monthly bulletin shares details about their move to a Human Empowerment protocol and more updates about product, partnerships, and much more. (impactMarket)
Celo Pilot Tests Whether Quadratic Funding Can Be Used to Encourage Donations to Build Financial Inclusion (Celo & impactMarket)
A DAO has been established to represent the interests of Web3 and DeFi users when regulations and policies are being decided. (Cointelegraph)
The promising impact of Web3 on data privacy and security. (Technode Global)
Climate Collective’s recap and high-level takeaways from CeloConnect in NYC: Unlocking high quality, verifiable climate action in focus as global communities gathered in NYC. (Climate Collective)
Young Lebanese are driving a crypto ‘revolution’ as banks go bust. “It’s funny when people say crypto isn’t real because what we found out in Lebanon is that this digital currency is 100 times more real than the dollars we have in the bank.” (LiveWire)
Dallas schools are using NFTs to boost student engagement. (Government Technology)
Regulate Web3 Apps, Not Protocols. (a16z crypto)
Could blockchain interoperability usher in Globalization 3.0? (Treehouse)
Stanford researchers designed new standards for reversible transactions on Ethereum, potentially allowing short time windows post-transaction for thefts to be contested and restored. (kaili.eth)
Nathan Schneider, professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, on how social media transforms to collective intelligence and more. (Green Pill Podcast)
TIME President Keith Grossman on NFT haters: ‘I don’t understand the politicizing of a technology.’ (Decrypt)
ReFi Summer Lives On. (Boys Club)
🚀 Opportunities:
Apply: Co:Create is hiring a Social and Content Marketing Manager.
Apply: Encode’s Women Build Web3 Accelerator is an 11-week program focused on supporting engineering projects led by women and nonbinary people through direct funding, mentorship, and education by industry leaders.
Hack: Gitcoin’s first Open Data Science Hackathon to support public goods is happening now through Oct 31st.
Attend: ChangeDAO is hosting an AMA session on October 12 for those who want to learn more about NFT Giving powered by ChangeDAO.
Bogotá Events
Will you be in Bogotá next week for Devcon and related events? Add these Web3ForGood approved events to your schedule.
Oct 10 - Schelling Point and Funding the Commons popup (Apply here).
Oct 11 - WELL EXTRACTED: Breakfast, Coffee, & Web3's role in the Coffee Industry
Oct 11 - Building on Celo at Casa Celo Bogota, an all-day open house, co-working, and dev meetup
Oct 11 - Ethereum for the Next Billion, panel discussion and Happy hour
Oct 11 - ReFi on Celo Happy Hour, mingle with members from Toucan Protocol, EthicHub, ReFi Spring, and others
Oct 12 -14 - Casa do Amazonas Open House, build funding mechanisms for land-based initiatives with Web3 tooling with Thirsty Thirsty & Juicebox
Oct 12 - The Sustainable Blockchain Summit
Oct 13 - Human-Centered Design in Web3 by Noah of Endaoment.
Oct 13 - ReFi: Chocolate, a Biodiverse Digital Economy, an experience to support peacebuilding in Colombia and forest conservation through Web3.
Oct 14 - Community Open House at Casa Celo Bogota
Oct 14 - Café Regen at Casa do Amazonas
📡 On Our Radar
Impact DAO Media has a new podcast.
Cryptomurals is a blockchain-based platform focused on promoting and preserving the best street art worldwide, making it accessible as a public good.
Biking For All is a 10k generative NFT collection that aims to celebrate the diversity of all walks, well bikes, of life.
Leaf Global FinTech is a virtual bank for refugees and vulnerable populations.
Sleepagotchi is an app that rewards users for keeping a consistent sleep schedule with free NFTs and crypto tokens called SHEEP.
5ire is a fifth-generation blockchain with a mission to bring a shift from for-profit to a for-benefit economy.