🌍 This Week in Web3forGood
ETH’s Revival, Art Onchain, and Tokenized Dreams
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Abeera wrote a cool piece for her AI policy course that you can read here: From Scaling to Safeguards: Who’s Leading on AI Risk Management?
How solid are AI safeguards, really? Are they just promises on paper, or enforceable guardrails backed by real consequences?
Spoiler alert: not all policies are created equal. Some are surprisingly robust. Others rely more on hope and internal judgment, than on hard rules. Read more.
Also this week: we’re thinking about Ethereum (it’s back?!), a web3 Kickstarter (maybe?!), and NFTs… (yes, really!). And of course, lots more.
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
MiniPay now available globally as standalone app for iOS and Android
Coinbase makes history with S&P 500 induction, reinforcing crypto’s arrival in mainstream finance
Bitcoin Surpasses Amazon to Become the 5th Largest Asset in the World
Global Policy, Regulation, and Adoption News
Thai Government to Issue $150M Worth of Digital Investment Tokens
Kenya court rules against Sam Altman's World, orders data deletion and halts biometrics collection
Kazakhstan wants digital miners to contribute to energy system development
US banks can buy and sell customers' crypto assets on their behalf, OCC says
Stablecoin News
USDFC, the first stablecoin collateralized by native FIL, launched at FIL Dev Summit 6
USDT supply surpasses $150 billion as stablecoins outpace mainstream giants Visa, PayPal
Mastercard to Roll Out New Stablecoin Cards in Latest Crypto Push With MoonPay
Meta Considering Using Stablecoins for Cross-Border Payments
Ramp and Stripe Deepen Partnership to Accelerate Global Commerce Through Stablecoin-Backed Cards
Reports & Project Updates
📚 What We’re Thinking About
🪄 Web3’s Kickstarter or just vibes?
There’s a new app called Believe that lets you launch a token by replying to a tweet (CoinGecko). Wild, right? Some are saying it's almost like Kickstarter for web3 (@emilyxlai), and it IS kind of exciting as a way to fund projects, support friends, or build community beyond the usual memecoin negativity. The potentia downside? There’s no ownership or equity, and that could get messy if folks don’t read the fine print (Boys Club DBH). But still… this feels like one of the more promising experiments in using tokens for good. We’re cautiously rooting for it.
🦄 ETH is cool again right now
After months of meh, Ethereum might be almost back in its main character era. ETH is outperforming BTC (MarketWatch).The post-upgrade glow is real, and now there’s an exciting new “trillion-dollar security initiative” aimed at bringing the entire world onchain; “The number comes from the goal of having billions of people comfortable enough with Ethereum’s security to store $1,000 onchain. It also seeks to make companies, institutions and governments comfortable storing more than $1 trillion inside a single smart contract or application.” (The Defiant). Ambitious? Absolutely. We love to see it. And maybe we have the Save Ethereum Dance to thank (Boys Club DBH).
🖼️ Art on the blockchain
It’s still a thing, and NFTs… are back? At least in the news, but actually, the tech never went away. This week, Yuga Labs sold CryptoPunks, one of the first and most iconic NFT collections often credited with kicking off the entire digital art movement, to a nonprofit, Infinite Node Foundation, created specifically to preserve and elevate them as digital art (Blockworks, NFT Now). The goal? Museum exhibitions, cultural recognition, and doing the collection justice. Meanwhile, tradart is doubling down on onchain culture too. Asprey Studio, in partnership with the British Museum, is creating “11 sterling silver sculptures based on Albrecht Dürer's 1515 The Rhinoceros, each accompanied by a digital inscription on the Bitcoin blockchain” (Decrypt). The hype may have cooled, but the infrastructure is quietly maturing; NFTs are still powering real use cases in art and heritage. Spelling of NFTs, a new sparkling water brand from Rekt comes with an NFT and points. Some are saying its “drink-to-earn” (Blockworks). Ok, maybe THIS isn’t exactly impact related, but it’s a great reminder of the creative things that can be done with this tech.
Plus:
🌱 An interesting argument against UBI: Advanced AI threatens to increase inequality and concentrate power, but we can proactively distribute AI’s benefits to foster a just and inclusive economy before it’s too late. (Noema)
😬 Another reason to not be ok with presidential memecoins… Chinese-linked firm raises $300M from private investor to buy TRUMP memecoin. (CryptoSlate)
🥪 The funding layer of Ethereum Alignment. (@OctantApp)
🤝 Bill Gates announces a plan to give ‘virtually all’ his money away and end the Gates Foundation in 20 years. (Gates Foundation)
🏛 The Congressional Guide to Bitcoin. (Bitcoin Policy Institute)
🪙 The month fintechs embraced stablecoins. (a16z)
🔈 Podcasts & Spaces
Crypto Altruists Podcast - Episode 203 - Privado ID - Building Trust Between Humans and AI Agents with Blockchain-Powered Decentralized Identity
The Giving Block This Week in Crypto Philanthropy - Episode 46 - Love Justice International
The Giving Block This Week in Crypto Philanthropy - Episode 47 - Mental Health America
🚀 Opportunities & Calls to Act
Apply: eQualitie is hiring an iOS/MacOS developer for the decentralized web.
Apply: DWeb is looking for a junior Django volunteer software developer to work with their Tech Lead to update the dwebcamp.org website.
Teach: The Tech & Public Policy (TPP) program in the McCourt School of Public Policy is an agile and innovative incubator of technology and policy projects that drive impact, with a focus on translating academic insights into actionable public policy that advances democratic values. The TPP Visiting Fellows Program provides a unique platform for policy practitioners to share their knowledge and expertise with Georgetown students. Applications for Fall 2025 Visiting Fellows are open now.
Get Rewarded: If you staked on a project during GG23, you are eligible for rewards. Gitcoin is distributing rewards directly to wallets by Monday, May 19th.
Hack: PL Genesis: Modular Worlds is 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
N/A
IRL
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.
Local-First Conf is happening May 26-28 in Berlin.
Stablecon is happening May 29 in NYC.
ETHGlobal Prague is happening May 30 - June 1 in Prague.
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.
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 May 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
BioFi (Bioregional Finance) is a real-world use case for web3 that channels capital into regenerating the planet. It’s about routing resources away from extractive finance and toward local communities stewarding ecosystems, culture, and place.
The Trillion Dollar Security (1TS) initiative is an ecosystem-wide effort to upgrade Ethereum’s security to help bring the world onchain.
Mushy is a mushroom-themed, yield-maximizing agent for USDC on Base. It quietly hums in the background, scanning the ecosystem every 24 hours across Aave, Morpho, Fluid, and Moonwell to rotate you into the highest yields. No dashboards, no dials. just set it, vibe, and let the spores compound.
✨ And One More Thing
The Superchain Ecosystem Index is the official index of all the chains in the Superchain Ecosytem 🔥🔗