May Highlights: Crypto for Good

All things important that happened in May

A monthly digest of all things important that happened in (crypto+good) for May.

---

The Terra (stablecoin) crash, set the industry into a bear market this month but the spirit amongst builders ( BUIDL in crypto lingo) is optimism. Specially amongst folks who are using crypto and web3 tools to create a new, better way of doing things and are far removed from the speculation side of crypto

gary 🌞🌱🇺🇦 (building web3 x social impact) @garysheng

market goes up market goes down we keep building 🌱

Coinbase Giving shared their Q1 2022 update. They pledged $10M in Q1 to advance their mission of economic freedom around the world.

Paxful, a peer to peer crypto trading platform compiled real life stories of Bitcoin changing lives in frontier markets.

Paxful @paxful

#Bitcoinforthe100 is a compilation of powerful stories of real people from all around the globe who have adopted #Bitcoin to change their lives for the better. Check out everything @BitcoinMagazine had to say about it 👇 bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/bitcoi…

bitcoinmagazine.comBitcoin Stories For The 100% From PaxfulA collection of different ways Bitcoin is having an impact on people’s lives across the globe.

Vitalik Buterin, Founder of Ethereum along with two others introduced the concept of Soulbound Tokens (SBTS) and Decentralized Society (DeSoc). Soulbound Tokens are the future of Ethereum as they call it. These tokens are nontransferable and can be revoked by the issuers. Possessing these tokens signifies ones credentials, skills and reputation. Their use cases could be for example a university issuing SBTs to students on graduation. In our Impact DAO research project we are exploring SBTs for our contributors.

Puja Ohlhaver @pujaohlhaver

1/ A first sketch of Decentralized Society (DeSoc): papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…… Honored to have collaborated with @glenweyl and @VitalikButerin on what will hopefully become a novel field of research, inquiry, and co-creation across our technological stack.

papers.ssrn.comDecentralized Society: Finding Web3’s SoulWeb3 today centers around expressing transferable, financialized assets, rather than encoding social relationships of trust. Yet many core economic activities—s

A summary of SBTs and potential use cases

Jason Levin @iamjasonlevin

What is the future of Ethereum? Last week, Vitalik Buterin co-published a paper predicting Ethereum's future. I read the 37-page paper and interviewed its co-authors so you didn't have to. [🧵 THREAD]

Celo blockchain released their 2021 Annual Report. Celo is a purpose driven blockchain for a mobile first world and are strong advocates of Defi for the masses and Refi (Regenerative Finance)

Celo @CeloOrg

The Celo Foundation Annual Report is out! It covers: 💪 Big 2021 wins 🌐 Community + ecosystem growth 🎖️ The achievements of the Celo Foundation-supported initiatives 📈 Includes a transparent, layered financial summary and more! Find it here. ⤵️ bit.ly/3Loglt6

bit.lyThe Celo Foundation Annual Report 2021 Celebrates Growth, Impact, and TransparencyToday, the Celo Foundation is proud to release its Annual Report for 2021. This report celebrates the incredible growth of the Celo…

Web3 is much more than crypto trading. The Web3 ethos of decentralization of economies, power and transparency is attracting folks from every industry to build in web3.

Scott Kominers @skominers

Why build in web3? @Jad_AE and I explain in @HarvardBiz: hbr.org/2022/05/why-bu… The "web3 way" – building open platforms that directly share value with users – can create more value for everyone, including the platforms(!). How so? Thread 🧵👇

hbr.orgWhy Build in Web3A major change is coming to the internet. While today’s dominant platforms have guarded their troves of user data and maintained an advantage through network effects, new companies — working in what they’re calling a “Web3” model — are proposing a new value proposition to users. In Web3, instead of…

Another deep philosophical understanding of web3 - a movement toward a better, fairer internet.

Li Jin @ljin18

A powerful narrative around web3 is that it is a movement toward a fairer internet. But web2 started with similar promises of removing intermediaries & empowering individuals — which were never fulfilled. How do we design platforms that promote fairness?

hbr.orgWeb3 Is Our Chance to Make a Better InternetWeb3 represents a chance to reimagine the internet and rebuild platforms from fresh principles. But in order to do that, we need to agree on what those principles should be and why. The social and political philosopher John Rawls’s thought experiment known as the “veil of ignorance,” proposed in his…

A piece I wrote on how to web3 - a good first read for anyone trying to embrace the web3 way of doing things.

How to Web3 - Tools to Get You Started

WeWork’s Founder Adam Neumann launches Flowcarbon with $70 million in funding to sell tokenized carbon credits on the blockchain. A great insightful piece on carbon credits and how turning it into crypto won’t fix climate change

Paul Gambill @paulgambill

This by @neel_dhan is the best I've seen at characterizing the actual problems in carbon removal/offset industry. All these web3 offset marketplaces are making the mistake of assuming this is a demand-side liquidity problem. There is not enough supply! 1/

vox.comWeWork co-founder Adam Neumann’s new crypto project sounds like a scam within a scamTurning carbon credits into crypto won’t fix climate change.

Oslo Freedom Forum a global gathering of Human Rights activists in Norway took place in May. Bitcoin and crypto was heavily featured with 15+ tracks over a 3 day period along with hands on training on Bitcoin usage for the participants.

BTC Times @btc

Some very inspiring highlights from the @OsloFF and all of the ways that #Bitcoin is being used for empowering individuals around the globe. #BTC

btctimes.comOslo Freedom Forum: Bitcoin Is FreedomBitcoin featured heavily in this year’s Oslo Freedom Forum programming.

I launched a DAO last week to study Impact DAOs and to write a book about them. It has been the most surreal, exhilarating experience.

deepa ✌︎ crypto + good @deeparocks

I just experienced strangers on the internet coming together around a shared goal 🔥

We launched on a Zoom call and had an after party on Discord. We’ve gathered a strong distributed team of 15+ working at the intersection of web3 x impact x media. Together we’ll be researching Impact DAOs to write a definitive guidebook for web3 changemakers.

deepa ✌︎ crypto + good @deeparocks

This is your chance 😇 For web3 immersive learning + deeply learning about web3 projects making real world impact. Join us, we are just about to takeoff 🚀 cryptogood.substack.com/p/-call-for-co…

cryptogood.substack.com📣 Call for Contributors: A Study of Impact DAOsA decentralized collaborative research project

---

What’s for June

I intend to continue writing on the crypto financing landscape for good. There’s so much more to cover. I will also be exploring various climate projects in the web3 space as we enter the crypto branded summer of Regenerative Finance (ReFi)

For any questions and ideas feel free to connect on Substack or Twitter.

Disclaimer: This article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide, investment advice.