Revisiting Honu the CryptoKitty, an experiment in platforming social good

I believe in the concept of social good.

In the idea that projects that coalesce dispersed communities can come together around something actionable for the broader well being of our culture and environment.

One of the intriguing possibilities of the blockchain is reimagining this in a number of ways that are natural to both this idea and the potential of the technology platform itself.

Early this Spring, I was part of the team that launched the Honu the CryptoKitty charity project. A first of its kind experiment--a test bed of sorts--tying a specially designed part cat/part sea turtle CryptoKitty with designated charity projects in the Caribbean.

Premised on the potential of gathering a huge worldwide community to raise the awareness of the real threat to this endangered species and the funds to do something about it.

It was behavioral playdough of sorts, to see if we could find a natural graft of the potential of NFTs (non fungible tokens) and the human collective need to engage in projects for social good around a digitally scarce, anthropomorphic image of the turtles themselves on on the CryptoKitties game platform.

(See this for the background and this for details on the winner.)

Over a three-week period, we energized a significant news cycle, with 58 million impressions of our story, mostly (and surprisingly) in the environmental community. An inspiring amount of awareness from a cold start, with a small group of participating companies, bloggers, and PR agencies working with a shared vision for a true need, armed with a great story told from the heart.

The $50,000 for the winning bid was distributed without fees through the sponsoring non-profits Actai Global and Ocean Elders, directly contributing to two charities in the Caribbean.

And monies were put to real-time use during this year's turtle hatching season.

The Sea Shepard Conservation Society used the funds to help support Operation Jairo in Nicaragua where only 1 in 1000 sea turtle babies makes it to adulthood, most lost to poachers who sell the meat and shells. Operation Jairo teams support constant land patrols to protect the turtles from the poachers.

To find out more or support this operation please go here.

UniteBVI, the other charity organization, takes a different approach to conservation, focusing on education and cultural education of the islanders themselves, many who don’t know about the turtles, their history, their unique place in their island culture.

The funds were used to help support educational programs for school children partnering with Miss World BVI and other cultural heroes to encourage artwork about the turtles and conservation and used the funds to support the arts.

For more information on UniteBVI and fundraising opportunities, please see this link.

The most seminal learning from the Honu project, is that people en mass truly give a shit about living in a better world and want to participate in some way.

That there is a vast global and disconnected community of people that care about the planet, about identifying personally with the poignant vulnerability of these creatures and are searching for a way to engage for change.

That there is a community market to economize social good if harnessed with innovation, passion and an inclusive narrative.

We also learned that to seriously reimagine philanthropy we need to move beyond this idea of giving as a campaign with a singular auction or raffle transaction. They by definition raise mass awareness but allow only one winner, not a collective ownership and participation in the actual results. 

Equally, the possibilities of NFTs as both the connecting tissue for items in the real world, either as a peg to represent them or as a digital entity in its own right, that can give back over time are deeply powerful ideas.

The Honu team collectively dreamed about how to build a currency for giving around tokenized art or real world items, that will give back forever, driving an going glue for the community.

People, especially now, with the market crash, belittle the concept of social good as an aphorism, a wishful generalization that is plummeting along with crypto prices.

They are simply wrong.

The hardest thing is always to discover the supporting market and true behaviors that make it personal and timely. That we proved as real and palpable, and deeply latent and pent up for action.

Now to plumb and innovate with tools to platform this potential.

I know that Cassidy Robertson and the team at CryptoKitties through their Kitties for Good program and early thinking around Proposal 988 are supporting charities around cats and exploring how to tokenize this broader intent.

And Bill Tai, my friend and literally the Yoda of where community, technology, new business models and environmental good come together, is exploring ways to support these experiments cross his vast networks and investments.

With the year ending, with this experiment behind us, I wanted to kick this idea to the top of the stack of stuff that matters.

And through the holiday season connect with projects and thinkers that are as passionate about this as I am.

Tis the time of year, and honestly the time of life to make this so.