5 of the top web3 social impact developments of Q1
2021 was a year of incredible growth in the web3 social impact space, and this growth only accelerated into the first quarter of 2022. As the world has faced numerous crises, the web3 community has stepped up and demonstrated the many ways that blockchain and web3 can be used to enact real change, and provide much needed support during humanity’s most trying times.
There has been no shortage of innovations and ground breaking social impact projects in the web3 ecosystem, and in this blog post, I highlight five of the top web3 social impact developments from the first quarter of 2022.
Crypto philanthropy goes mainstream
Crypto giving continued to experience incredible growth in Q1 of 2022. One of the most notable developments was the acquisition of leading crypto donation platform The Giving Block by Shift4, a provider of integrated payment and technology solutions. This acquisition is an interesting development when it comes to mainstream crypto adoption, as it represents one of the first cases of an organization in the traditional finance space dabbling in crypto philanthropy
To celebrate this new partnership, it was announced that the Giving Block and Shift 4 had launched a new matching program to drive crypto donations, with the CEO of Shift4, Jared Isaacman, pledging to match $10M in crypto donations made to non-profit organizations via The Giving Block. As of April 1, 2022, just over two weeks since the launch of the program, over $10M in donations have already been raised and matched.
Other crypto philanthropy platforms have also thrived in Q1, including Endaoment, which in March alone received over $5.5M in crypto donations and granted $6.2M to various non-profits, representing 15% and 40% increases respectively.
Crypto philanthropy has truly become an unstoppable force, and it will be exciting to witness the continued growth into Q2.
Social Impact NFTs
In 2021, sales of NFTs jumped a whopping 21,000% to more than $17.6 billion, but NFT sales wasn’t the only area that experienced incredible growth. 2021 was the year that mission driven NFT projects truly took hold, and this has continued into the first quarter of 2022.
Many of these NFT projects aim to elevate specific causes such as empowering women and girls, Indigenous economic empowerment, or conservation, to name a few, while some have pledged to donate a certain percentage of their proceeds to charitable causes.
Where social impact NFTs have really shined, however, is by promoting greater diversity and inclusion in web3. In 2022, we have seen dozens of NFT projects launch that aim to build diversity in web3, a space that is still dominated by white males. I highlight some of these projects in my blog post HERE.
For more info on some of the social impact NFT projects that are leading the way, check out the Curated Lists section of our website.
Crypto and the environment
Despite the bad rap that crypto often gets when it comes to the environment, we continue to see examples of how blockchain and web3 can be used to combat climate change and support environmental regeneration and conservation.
One great example of this is the growth of KlimaDAO, a digital currency backed by carbon credits, which, as of April 1, 2022, has locked over 17M tonnes of carbon in its treasury, which is equivalent to roughly 85,000 hectares of forest, and nearly 4 million cars annually.
We’ve also seen the development of environmentally focused NFT projects and DAOs such as SolTreez, Crypto Coral Tribe, Earth Fund, and the Celo Climate Collective, among many others.
For more examples of innovative, environmentally-focused web3 projects, check out our recent blog post on the subject.
The rise of DeSci
One of the most interesting developments of Q1 2022 has been the rise of the Decentralized Science or DeSci movement. In short, “the decentralized science (DeSci) movement aims to harness new technologies such as blockchain and ‘Web3’ to address some important research pain points, silos and bottlenecks.” Whereas scientific research has long been viewed as overly bureaucratic and disjointed, the DeSci movement aims to improve this by using blockchain to offer greater transparency and to take on the “profit hungry intermediaries” such as scientific journals, that have dominated the traditional research space.
Some of the projects that have gained incredible momentum in Q1 2022 include VitaDAO, which supports research into human longevity, and Molecule, which offers a decentralized scientific research funding platform.
For more info on some of the top DeSci projects, check out my recent blog post on the subject.
Crypto and Ukraine
Perhaps the most notable development in the web3 social impact space over the past three months has been the web3 community’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Not only have many humanitarian organizations stepped up to help the people of Ukraine, supported by cryptocurrency donations, but the Government of Ukraine has even made a direct appeal for cryptocurrency donations to the general public, in what is truly the first of its kind.
Stand with the people of Ukraine. Now accepting cryptocurrency donations. Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT.
— Ukraine / Україна (@Ukraine) February 26, 2022
BTC - 357a3So9CbsNfBBgFYACGvxxS6tMaDoa1P
ETH and USDT (ERC-20) - 0x165CD37b4C644C2921454429E7F9358d18A45e14
We also saw the emergence of web3 collectives dedicated to supporting Ukraine, the most notable of which is UkraineDAO, which aims to use “the power of web3 tech and community to raise funds for Ukrainian organisations that are helping those suffering from the war in Ukraine.”
In total, over $100 Million in cryptocurrency has been donated in support of Ukraine. This has been enormously helpful for the Government of Ukraine as, according to Alex Bornyakov, the Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation for Ukraine, “In a situation like this where the national bank is not really operating, crypto is helping to perform fast transfers, to make it very quick and get results almost immediately.” In fact, about 40% of the vendors Ukraine is working with have been willing to accept payment in cryptocurrency, ensuring the donations are able to be put to use.
The role of cryptocurrency donations in Ukraine has certainly been meaningful, and this will no doubt serve as a case study for the power of cryptocurrency during times of crises.
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