Mobilizing Blockchain for Impact

Impact stems from a “theory of change” as it begs an answer to the question "What change do I want to effect in the world?" The transformative nature of Blockchain technology thus has Impact embedded into its very fabric. Blockchain is a transformational technology that enables an ethical economy through a paradigm shift from “extractive” to “generative” finance, having trust as a foundation of every transaction and interaction. This paradigm shift from the old authoritarian money governance to the novel “programmable money” enables to embed of the “good” in the money with smart contracts setting the rules and stoppers if anyone tries to misuse the system, while also tracking if e.g. donation money goes where it is intended, if the appropriate social assistance goes to the right person timely, or if the supply chains we deploy are polluting and depleting the planet or use child work. We debated the various facets on the Panel “Mobilizing Crypto for Impact” at Blockchain Central Davos 2022, together with co-panelists Bernhard Kowatsch , Head of the UN WFP Innovation Accelerator and Michael Hofer Steiner , Chief Banking Officer at BCB Group, mitigated by the wonderful moderator Emma Joyce , the CEO of GBBC Digital Finance.

Blockchain technology provides an infrastructure for financial inclusion through “economic identities” (crypto-wallets), enabling the paradigm shift from “person-centric banking” to a focus on longer-term impact through the regeneration of the creative, social and ecological commons. I offered the example of startups like Pezesha, an SME financing platform deployed by awarded entrepreneur Hilda Moraa is enabling SMEs & institutions with access to affordable credit & other financial services through a blockchain-embedded finance infrastructure. Such novel financial models can include those marginalized in the economy, e.g. by enabling a small merchant to buy from a supplier with money borrowed from Pezesha via a crypto-wallet, and after selling the produce they pay back Pezesha via a smart contract that takes care of the (minimal) interest. The case of Ukrainian refugees and those fighting for their country who cannot obtain any aid through the classic financial system - obtaining immediate aid via cash transfers through crypto-wallets was also discussed.

Blockchain technology also enables the issuing of identity-related credentials which empower the individual to take full control of their lives by e.g. having full possession of and immediate access to their birth or other certificates, degree diplomas, land (e.g. Landano deployed by Peter Van Garderen ), or any other form of ownership, secured on blockchain in electronic form. The example of the Rohingya population, people born without being recognized by any state, for whom such innovations become simply existential, was discussed.

At the Crypto-Summit Davos 2023 https://lnkd.in/gqaHY8wR the "Impact Marathon" continued with Don Tapscott opening the event and me having the last word with a Keynote on how Blockchain can accelerate the achievement of the SDGs.

I presented innovations such as the Green Coin ?https://lnkd.in/gwGfEfRh?a new type of crypto tracer-coin from SingularityNET aiming to track humanity’s progress along multiple dimensions including in the pursuit of carbon neutrality towards a truly sustainable future. Green Coin is used in projects that help protect and restore biodiversity as well as enhance human well-being, which demonstrates how nature-based solutions can be deployed at scale. Green coin users can volunteer with any of the accredited NGOs in such fields and claim rewards by presenting the volunteering certificate.

?The Climate Neutral Cardano (CNC) https://lnkd.in/gxdKKivc is a decentralized community-driven initiative that aims to achieve a net positive environmental impact for the Cardano blockchain.?

The CNC Environment Alliance https://lnkd.in/gf2YREAp within the CNC movement is a food forest project in Madagascar that addresses multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 1, 2, 11 &?SDG 13) through agroecology and reforestation while tracking progress and measuring impact to ensure positive outcomes for the local community.?

Socious https://socious.io is a talent marketplace connecting purpose-driven talent with impact organizations, leveraging blockchain technology to make social/environmental impact work traceable and rewardable. They have more than 50k impact jobs listed on the platform and more than 2.3k impact talent has registered to date.

A good synopsis of the most outstanding impact projects that are being developed on Cardano was featured at the recent Cardano Summit:

Further, at the Dubai Metaweek, the conversation continued as our fantastic moderator?Catherine Ross-Mychka?challenged us from the start with her skepticism about the expectation from technology to be used for social good, given that, as we know it tech is poised to "make money"...

I addressed the challenge by sharing opinions with co-panelists?Valerie Hawley, Director of Corporate Partnerships at True Global Ventures, and?Sanmeet Singh Kochhar, VP at HMD Global (home of Nokia phones).

Blockchain enables the paradigm shift from centralized decision-making to awareness-based collective action, the trailblazing example being how the Cardano Catalyst Community manages their Treasury through collective decision-making about the projects which shall receive funding. This is the first time in history when a community can manage its treasury as a "commons", by deciding together where the money goes.

I spoke at length about how digital platforms enable holistic decision-making in my conversation with Efi Pylarinou

where I illustrated how blockchain enables society to visualize the footprint of their consumption – and co-create social innovations, such as the OpenLitterMap “Citizen Science” approach developed by Seán Lynch as an infrastructure for awareness-based collective action. This "Pokemon Go"- kind of platform for collective action enables communities to find and clean pollutants, organize cleaning events, mobilize local government to take action, and visualize the footprint of their actions, thus harnessing collective action for good.

This is how harnessing the power of collective action enables communities to see themselves through the mirror of the Whole. Such infrastructures for co-sensing the whole system enable commons-based ownership rights incentivizing communities to mobilize in protecting the rights of future generations.

Another powerful digital innovation is "RealFi" which enables access to affordable credit & other financial services through a blockchain-embedded finance infrastructure. RealFi is a novel financial model helping those marginalized in the economy, e.g. by enabling a small merchant to buy from a supplier with money borrowed via a crypto-wallet, and after selling the produce they automatically pay back via a smart contract that takes care of the (minimal) interest;

Digitalization of bureaucratic processes is empowering people to prove ownership of their assets and own that ... ownership as well rather than being at the mercy of bureaucratic governments.

There were many more exciting ideas and applications addressed - enjoy them in the recording:

https://lnkd.in/dz_dQ4eR

One of the greatest challenges identified was the lack of a partnership model to enable the financing of deploying these transformational technologies. Recently the World Resources Institute released a report that evaluates the status quo in this regard while proposing a few constructive solutions.

CBDCs became a contentious topic in which I engaged the audience on many occasions, given that it may turn far too easily into a "social credit" tool if it does nothing more than oil the wheels of the old systems which most governments are defending. As Niall Ferguson reminded us in Davos, "regulation is there to protect the incumbents". While referring to the much-needed “moral metrics” in evaluating the current financial system he pointed out that the blockchain is the best ever instantiation that we can have to date of the trust relationship between debtor and creditor, given that ultimately the value of money is a measure of trust.

Recent developments in decentralized infrastructures point to ways to develop a CBDC as a proper "operating system for the economy" using smart contracts on communication networks while preserving privacy. So the discussion is worth having because CBDCs done right can open access for a broader audience to the market currently evolving in the decentralized finance space if designed with such interoperability in mind. The programmability of money enabled by smart contracts can support regenerative finance implementations and if we set the policies right, taxing resources instead of labor, we can achieve the ideal of circular currencies and a true “digital factory” of circular economies!?

The paradigm shift from the old authoritarian money governance to the novel “programmable money” is being deployed "on the ground" through e.g. models such as The Sovereign currency proposed by the RMI based on innovations brought about by Barak Ben-Ezer won the debate. It is indeed time to change how money works - and make them work fairly and ethically, given now we have the technology for it!

We addressed the “ethical economy” issue by referring to Polanyi who won the Nobel Prize for postulating that nature is NOT a commodity and as such, we cannot regard natural goods as “capital”. We rather need to remember that humans are part of nature and deploy regenerative models that ensure the well-being of humanity through the well-being of the Planet as a Whole. For lack of such integrative models, investors still put their wealth in the old ways thus contributing to increasing the wrongs of the current system and maintaining the status quo (what we call “greenwash”). Such as e.g. the “Uberization” of Whole Foods instilled by making it a part of the “Amazon Bezos Empire”, taking a grocery store dedicated to healthy living and fitting it into the old “domination” model, or Monsanto destroying the integrity of farms as living ecosystems while making billions out of it. Of course, governments can regulate accordingly to prevent this, but why aren’t they doing it?...

A recent example of how technology can help is brought by Grassroots Economics deployed by the amazing social innovator that is Will Ruddick , a pioneer of community currencies. How these alternative currencies work is by empowering people to depart from the centralized banking behemoths which are keeping them in a gridlock of credit and exorbitant fees impossible to cope with by those at the fringes. This monopoly by private banks and credit companies is taken for granted by the entire world given that they’re the only ones allowed to give credit. What if we enable credit to be made by non-profits and dispersed within communities to enable them to self-organize around exchanging and trading the goods and services which their labor provides at the local level, Ruddick asked himself. This will free them from the tutelage and constraints of having to rely on national centralized money. He is now working UNICEF and many non-profits I've written extensively about his work, a recent essay being: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/logic-liberty-resides-decentralized-communities-dr-mihaela-ulieru/

As a transformational technology, Blockchain acts as digital infrastructure and the foundation on which we can build a better world, and we should use it to accelerate the transition!