21 of the top crypto social impact developments of 2021
2021 was a very challenging year for many. COVID-19 intensified as case counts reached all-time highs, climate change and extreme weather events impacted and displaced millions all over the world, misinformation campaigns and anti-intellectualism set the world back in many important areas, and geo-political conflicts surged on. These factors, in conjunction, make it extremely difficult for many to enter 2022 with any sense of hope or optimism.
Despite all the negative events of 2021, one trend that can help create some semblance of optimism when reflecting back on the year, is the incredible growth in the intersections between crypto, blockchain, and social impact. To celebrate the extraordinary gains in the space over the past year, we’re excited at Crypto Altruism to highlight some of the top crypto social impact developments of 2021.
1. Crypto giving reaches all-time highs
2021 was a year that saw extraordinary growth in the use of cryptocurrency for charitable giving. One example that demonstrates this growth is #CryptoGivingTuesday. According to The Giving Block, a total of $2.4 million USD worth of cryptocurrency was donated this #CryptoGivingTuesday. This doesn’t account for donations made directly to non-profits, or through other crypto giving platforms. This blew past all previous single-day records, and provided much needed financial support to a number of important charitable causes at a time when it was needed more than ever.
2. Crypto-based Universal Basic Income (UBI) projects thrive
Universal (or unconditional) basic income (UBI) is not a new concept, but is one that certainly gained momentum in 2021, thanks in large part to the role of cryptocurrency. There are several crypto UBI projects that thrived in 2021. One of these, impactMarket, a “decentralized poverty alleviation protocol” operating on the Celo network, saw $1.6 million USD worth of UBI claimed by nearly 24,000 beneficiaries.
Another example of a high impact UBI program is the Building Blocks program developed by the World Food Program. This project is providing 100,000 Syrian refugees with the ability to purchase groceries using aid provided by the WFP by simply scanning their iris at checkout. This program is built on a private, permissioned blockchain, and integrated with pre-existing biometrics’ technology utilized by the UNHCR, enabling them to easily keep track of every transaction for monitoring and evaluation purposes.
3. United Nations embraces blockchain
Large intergovernmental organizations are often innovation averse, but despite this, the United Nations has embraced blockchain in 2021, not only through the WFP sponsored program highlighted above, but also through the sponsoring of many high impact blockchain projects. On June 8, 2021, The UNICEF’s innovation fund announced that 8 open-source blockchain start-ups would receive funding to support their projects. These projects, launched in a variety of countries throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America, seek to solve complex international development challenges and support financial inclusion.
Then, there was the launch of the UNICEF Crypto Fund to support the development of innovative humanitarian projects. To date, they have provided over 1325 ETH in investments to high-impact start-ups.
Most surprising of all, however, was the UN recognizing the role blockchain can play in combatting climate change: “the UN believes that blockchain, the technology lying behind these online currencies, could be of great benefit to those fighting the climate crisis, and help bring about a more sustainable global economy.”
4. Supply chain crisis, meet blockchain
Throughout 2021, a perfect storm of COVID, labour shortages, and environmental challenges have pushed supply chains to the brink, causing a surge in prices and shortages in important supplies around the world.
At the same time, we have seen a number of innovative blockchain-based projects revolutionizing the supply chain industry by making it more reliable, energy efficient, secure, auditable, and by cutting down on massive amounts of waste. If this momentum continues into 2022, which there is no reason to believe it won’t, blockchain will be a staple in the supply chain industry in the not-so-distant future.
5. The tokenization of carbon and carbon sequestering assets
Over the past year, we have seen the launch of several projects using the innovations of cryptocurrency to disrupt climate finance and economics. One of these, Klima DAO, launched a carbon-backed digital currency, with each token backed by one tonne of verified, tokenized carbon reduction or removal. In short, for each token that is minted, Klima DAO backs it through the purchase of carbon credits. By taking these carbon credits off the market, and locking them in the KlimaDAO treasury, the theory is, that it will help accelerate the price appreciation of carbon assets, making token holders a return, while helping incentivise companies to adapt more quickly to a low carbon future, and helping carbon removal projects become more profitable.
Another innovative example of a project aiming to disrupt climate finance, is one recently announced by the Celo Foundation. In October 2021, the Celo foundation announced introduction of a new Climate Collective with the goal of fighting climate change. The Climate Collective, which features 10 companies with missions to combat climate change, will take a community driven approach focusing on the tokenization of rainforests and other carbon sequestering assets. Over the next 4 years, the proposed project will add these tokenized trees to the Celo Reserve so that Celo stable coins can be backed in part by rainforests.
6. The crypto community shows its generosity
We have always known how generous cryptocurrency donors are. A recent article, for example, found that almost half of cryptocurrency owners donated $1,000 or more to charity in 2020, compared to only about one third of the investor population as a whole.
This was only reinforced during #CryptoGivingTuesday with those in the crypto community coming out in droves to support their favourite charitable causes. In fact, according to The Giving Block. The average crypto gift on #CryptoGivingTuesday was a whopping $12,600 USD, or 98.4x higher than the non-profit industry’s average donation size.
7. Government partnerships for good?
In 2021, we saw many new partnerships formed between governments and blockchain foundations. This was done for a number of purposes including the development of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), the establishment of blockchain-based vaccine passports, and more. One of the biggest examples of a blockchain-government partnership with social impact implications, however, is that formed by IOHK, the group that founded Cardano, who is working with Ethiopia’s Ministry of Education to implement a digital identity for five million students and teachers based on Cardano’s blockchain and the Atala PRISM technology.
8. Blockchain in the fight against censorship
2021 demonstrated the role blockchain can play in upholding truth and fighting against censorship. One example of this can be found when, in response to the Hong Kong pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily being shut down, cyber activists in Hong Kong started uploading documents and articles from the newspaper to a censorship-proof blockchain, so that the articles from the newspaper can live on forever.
9. NFTs as a force for good
Over the past year, we have witnessed extraordinary growth in the use of NFTs for social impact. This has included major gifts made through NFTs such as a $3.5 million NFT donation to Médecins Sans Frontières, and the sale of a work by Beeple, one of the world’s most well-known NFT artists, for $6 million USD, with proceeds going to Open Earth Foundation.
We also saw the formation of projects and collectives such as Impact, Blazed Cats, and KRebels, among many others, who aim to use NFTs to help raise funds and awareness of a number of important charitable causes. 2022 will be an exciting year for NFTs in the social impact space as this momentum will undoubtedly continue and reach new levels.
10. Crypto thrives in the Global South
Many don’t realize the truly global nature of cryptocurrency, and how it is being rapidly adopted by countries outside of North America and Europe. This adoption reached new levels in 2021, as countries in the developing world became leaders in crypto adoption. In fact, according to Chainalysis’ 2021 Global Crypto Adoption Index, 85% of the top 20 countries in adoption are located in Asia, Africa, and South America. This demonstrates the extraordinary appeal of cryptocurrency in the Global South, and how quickly it is being adopted in these areas.
This adoption has also come with significant growth in investment in these regions. One example is in Latin America, where, thanks in part to the growing popularity of crypto in the region, they have experienced a boom in Venture Capital funding, going from $4 billion in all of 2020 to more than $6 billion in the first half of 2021 alone.
11. Blockchain supports a more equitable and sustainable agricultural sector
Over the past year, we have seen the powerful role blockchain can play in building a more equitable and sustainable agricultural sector. One way this is being done, is by creating more accountable and transparent supply chains. Some coffee producers in Indonesia, for example, have begun using blockchain technology to help track and trace their coffee beans to help verify the safety and quality of their coffee. “Upon purchase, consumers are also able to scan a simple QR code using their smartphone to access the entire information behind their coffee, including harvesting, roasting, and shipment times and dates.”
Cryptocurrency and blockchain are also leading to greater financial inclusion and evening the playing field for smallholder farmers. We have seen this through projects such as AgUnity, which “provides a means to reach remote users, establish reliable and efficient lines of trade or simply resolve transparency and provenance issues in food chains - through a remotely managed, secure and accountable online platform.” Another great example of a project evening the paying field for smallholder farmers is Etherisc, which is providing affordable and accessible blockchain-based crop insurance to help protect vulnerable farmers from extreme weather events.
12. Charities embrace crypto donations
In addition to more donations being made via cryptocurrency, we have also seen growth in the number of non-profits and charities accepting cryptocurrency donations. On #CryptoGivingTuesday, for example, we saw, 1007 non-profits participate through The Giving Block, up a whopping 839% from the year before. This includes organizations supporting gender inclusion, justice and rights for Black Americans, refugee empowerment, and more. Whereas crypto giving used to be a super niche market, with a modest number of organizations accepting donations, this is certainly not the case anymore. We highlight some of these extraordinary organizations in the Crypto Charities section of our blog.
13. Finding creative ways to address the energy intensity of proof-of-work mining
Throughout 2021, the cryptocurrency space faced a lot of negative publicity due to the environmental impacts of cryptocurrency, largely related to the mining of Bitcoin. In response, we have seen innovative efforts by miners to reduce the environmental impacts of their mining efforts and work towards carbon neutrality.
This has included some miners entering contracts with energy providers to buy up excess energy when it is not needed, and shut down their mining operations at a moments notice when demand for energy surges.
Another example of green innovation in the mining space can be found with MintGreen, a green cryptocurrency miner, who will be using Bitcoin mining to supply heat to a BC city while cutting down on greenhouse gasses entering the atmosphere.
14. Crypto Funds take over
Over the past year, we have seen the launch of many charity-driven cryptocurrency funds to support important charitable causes. The American Cancer Society, for example, recently launched a Cancer Crypto Fund with the goal of raising $1 million to support cancer research. All crypto received through the fund will go directly towards cancer research for “new discoveries and better treatments”. Another example of a cryptocurrency charitable fund is the launch of the Crypto Adoption Fund by The Giving Block, which aims to raise $10 million in 2021 to support more than 600 pro-crypto non-profits.
This #CryptoGivingTuesday, we also saw the launch of a collaborative crypto fund, an innovative way to help crypto donors expand the reach of their donation. A collective of non-profits from Texas launched the Give Big Texas Crypto Fund, which enabled donors to support 12 non-profits in Texas with one cryptocurrency donation, including Austin Pets Alive!, Big Brothers Big Sisters Lonestar, Catholic Charities of Central Texas, Feeding Texas, Keep Texas Beautiful, Latinitas, National Alliance on Mental Illness TX, Project Transitions, Texas Blockchain Council, Texas Network for Youth Services, Texas Suicide Prevention Collaborative, and Upbring .
15. NFTs create new opportunities for inclusion
2021 has been a year of massive growth for NFTs. In fact, from Q2 to Q3 2021, NFT sales surged from $1.3B to $10.7B according to DappRadar, and this growth doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. This is important, as NFTs provide an accessible entry point to the world of arts for those who have traditionally faced barriers accessing the space, leading to greater equity. For example, record labels typically pay out only 10-15% of album retail, with the vast majority going back to the label, and their wealthy owners or shareholders. Spotify, on the other hand, pays an average royalty of a measly $0.004 per stream. These “middleman organizations” funnel profits away from artists, and into the pockets of the likely already rich owners or shareholders. NFTs provide an opportunity for artists to take full ownership of their work, and all the financial benefits that come with it.
In the NFT space, we have also seen the growth of organizations supporting equity-seeking groups by providing them with opportunities to showcase their works and grow their practices. One great example of this is the work of ARTXV and Moon Landing, two extraordinary projects which aim to support neurodiverse artists who have traditionally faced substantial barriers to entering the world of professional arts.
16. Play-to-earn disrupts online gaming while creating new sources of income for low-income communities
2021 was the year of the Metaverse, and also the year of blockchain-based play-to-earn games. Blockchain games like Axie Infinity are leading the play-to-earn revolution, and are providing individuals in countries like the Philippines with new opportunities to increase their income and improve their livelihoods. Whereas online games have traditionally been a profit-driving mechanism for large corporations, blockchain-based games present a new opportunity to completely revolutionize the sector by shifting the profits from large corporations to gamers themselves.
17. Crypto exchanges give back
In 2021, we have seen remarkable growth in charitable giving supported by cryptocurrency exchanges. For example, to date, Binance Charity, the charitable arm of the large crypto exchange, has donated over 2,000 Bitcoin (~$95,000,000), helping over one million beneficiaries. They’ve supported a number of important projects including COVID-19 relief, Haiti earthquake relief, ensuring access to menstrual products for women and girls in Africa, and more.
Coinbase, another massive cryptocurrency exchange, has also reaffirmed its pledge to give 1% of corporate profits to “charitable activities that leverage the power of crypto to help people around the world”. Although 1% may seem small (and to be fair, it could be higher), it will certainly add up to a significant amount of funds going towards important charitable causes.
18. DAOs take the social impact world by storm
2021 has certainly been the year of the DAO as Decentralized Autonomous Organizations have taken the world by storm. As these organizations have grown, there has been an emerging theme of social impact that has grown with them. Many leaders in the DAO space have recognized that there is a natural harmony between DAOs and social impact, and have capitalized on this relationship to develop DAOs that are contributing to important social causes in new and innovative ways.
We have seen the emergence of many social impact based DAOs including Klima DAO, Bankless DAO, ClimateDAO, and ChangeDAO, among others. Check out my recent blog post where I go into some of these organizations in greater detail.
19. Using blockchain to hold corporations accountable to climate targets
In 2021, we have seen a growing number of blockchain projects that have the potential to hold corporations accountable, especially when it comes to their carbon footprints. VeChain, for example, has launched a Digital Carbon Footprint SaaS service which is “a powerful, rapidly deployable tool, enabling enterprises of all sizes to re-engineer their carbon footprint data management practices.” This platform “allows enterprise users to log key data and integrate it with world-leading third-party assurance providers within VeChain’s partnership network”. Through every step of the supply chain, users can enter data, which is stored on the blockchain, and enables organizations to see their impact across the entirety of the process from production to delivery, to sale. This allows companies to more easily track the overall carbon footprint of their operations.
Another example involves a partnership between IBM Japan and Mitsubishi, where they aim to use blockchain to help track the capture and re-use of CO2, helping companies lower their carbon footprint and work towards achieving carbon neutrality.
20. Crypto meets donor-advised funds
Donor-advised funds have been a staple in the charitable giving sector for decades, and in 2021, we saw the emergence of crypto-donor-advised funds. Endaoment, a registered charity, is an innovative new community foundation offering Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs) on the Ethereum blockchain. Through these funds, individuals can donate to any qualified 501(c)(3) non-profit.
The Giving Block, a leading crypto giving platform, also entered the space recently, when they formed a partnership with RenPSG, a $16B charity provider, to provide its donors with an opportunity to move cryptocurrency into new donor-advised funds in support of non-profit organizations.
21. Crypto community responds to global crises
Finally, as highlighted above, 2021 was a year where we saw a shocking number of crises in the form of geopolitical conflicts and natural disasters. We’ve seen the web3 community respond by donating cryptocurrency to important causes, raising awareness, and coming up with innovative solutions to support those in need. One example of this involves the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, where, through the sale of NFT CARE packages, Care.org has raised more than $200,000 to help Afghans in need.
Another example involves the recent deadly tornados in Kentucky, where we have seen the sale of NFTs in support of Kentucky Tornado Victims, and the launch of a USDC-based tornado relief fund by cryptocurrency firm Circle. These are just two examples of the myriad ways cryptocurrency has been used to support those in need during an unprecedented year of geopolitical conflicts and climate-change-fuelled natural disasters.
Conclusion
The growth of crypto and blockchain for social impact has been nothing short of extraordinary in 2021. In a year that has been filled with so many negatives, it is truly refreshing to see all the good happening in the web3 space, and the role that blockchain and cryptocurrency can play in building a more equitable, inclusive, and sustainable world. Here’s to 2022, and to hoping this momentum continues and grows exponentially. We are confident it will.
What are some of the other exciting developments you’ve seen in 2021? Tweet us at @Crypto_Altruism, we’d love to hear from you!
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