I know… you’re probably wondering… What is Kyle doing in my inbox on a Thursday, I usually get the Weekend Briefing on Saturday? I’m sending the first issue of our new briefing to you just this once to give you peak at it. If you like it, subscribe here.

Web3 Impact - A briefing about leveraging Web3 for positive social and environmental impact.

Welcome to the first issue of Web3 Impact! 

We (Banks and Kyle) are so glad you’re here. We are curious about the ways that Web3 technologies can create a better world, so we’ve created this experimental project to explore this topic with you. 

We’ve been scouring the internet and hanging out in Discords to find interesting stories at the intersection of Web3 and social/environmental impact. In addition to curating the best content at the intersection of Web3 and impact each month, we’ll highlight a project in the “Project Spotlight” section (below). 

Expect to see this monthly briefing in your inbox on the third Thursday of every month. If you want to help us make it better or found something interesting to add on, we encourage you to send us any suggestions you might have. 

Before we dive into the main stories, I want you to be the first to know that we’re hosting an event and you’re invited!

The Web3 Impact Summit is a half-day gathering that we’re hosting in Austin, Texas on June 9th for:

• People who are building Web3 projects with impact.

• People in the social/environmental impact sector that are curious about Web3.

• People in the Web3 space that are interested in social/environmental impact. 

In order to foster a real connection, this first event (which we’re calling Summit 0) will be a fairly intimate event, so space will be limited. Applications open today. If you’re interested, learn more and apply here today. 

Now onto the briefing!

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DAOs: Internet-Native Activism, Organizing and Worker Unions

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) represent an internet-native way to build worker power, represent communities and advocate for beneficial policies on behalf of their members. DAOs are experiments in online cooperation, decision-making and governance, and they’re being used by (1) YieldGuild to represent gamers who make an income in play-to-earn online games like Axie Infinity by lobbying game developers for better policies, (2) KlimaDAO, an experiment in collective action to raise the price of carbon. DAOs face challenges around scalability, governance and balancing power with voting, but they represent a new paradigm that can value stakeholders and favor workers. @LiJin

Pseudonymous Identities + Representation

In the Web3 space where many operate behind pseudonyms, there is the opportunity to be born again, discarding the limits, requirements and biases that define many of our in-real-life interactions. Starting with Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonym of the person/people who invented Bitcoin, the Web3/crypto space has been a community where your identity doesn’t have to matter if you let your work and creations speak for themselves. On one hand, living in a post-identity world might enable people to move beyond societal prejudices, but it’s perhaps naive to think that a societal problem will be solved by a technological movement of pseudonyms and multiple identities. On the other, a post-identity environment can erase experiences and histories needed to foster diversity, equality and inclusion. Zora 

The Influence of Crypto in the Ukrainian Resistance

As the Russians are invading Ukraine, organizers quickly stood up to UkraineDAO, a DAO focused on mobilizing dollars and people to support the Ukrainian resistance. The DAO accepted crypto-denominated donations and then disbursed those funds into humanitarian organizations, charities and the Ukrainian government itself (with every transaction viewable on the blockchain). Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, has donated millions to Ukraine. Gavin Wood, the founder of Polkadot (another crypto protocol), pledged to donate $5 million directly to the Ukraine government if they set up a crypto wallet to receive donations. Unchain, a crypto donation platform that was set up by the Ukrainian diaspora, has raised almost $10 million. Forbes

Project Spotlight

Big Green DAO is a grantmaking DAO that shifts the balance of power in philanthropy from donors to grantees through a decision-making process powered by blockchain technology. Big Green DAO raises philanthropic capital into a DAO treasury, selects grantees working on food justice and community garden initiatives across the US via DAO-based voting, and then disburses grants every quarter. Both former grantees and donors receive $GARDEN voting tokens that allow them to vote each quarter on the next ground of grantees. But unlike traditional philanthropy, everyone gets the same vote, making Big Green DAO an experiment in blockchain-based participatory philanthropy that equalizes traditional power imbalances by centering the voices and expertise of those rooted in their communities. Big Green DAO

Web3 Impact

Web3 Impact is a briefing about leveraging Web3 for positive social and environmental impact by Banks Benitez and Kyle Westaway. Photo by Janke Laskowski. 

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