Coinbase Ventures Into the NFT Market – Trend Setting for Other Crypto Platforms?

Coinbase Ventures Into the NFT Market – Trend Setting for Other Crypto Platforms?

Coinbase has announced the launch of its marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Prospective users will be able to join the waiting list to use Coinbase NFT – a decentralised marketplace for NFTs that will make minting, purchasing, showcasing, and discovering NFTs easier for its users.

NFTs offer buyers the opportunity to own digital assets that are stored on the blockchain. NFTs have gained mainstream attention across the art, music and fashion industries, enabling creators to monetise their digital work and providing buyers with a unique and clear proof of ownership.

NFT trading activity is on the rise. It soared this summer, more than doubling between July and August 2021, with roughly 280,000 unique buyers and sellers by the end of August. High profile NFT sales include the £500,000 sale of the ‘Charlie Bit My Finger’ NFT earlier this year.

Coinbase NFT will be a peer-to-peer marketplace designed to enable creativity. The initial launch will support Ethereum-based ERC-721 and ERC-1155 standards with multi-chain support planned for the near future. The platform has been created to foster community and connect creators, collectors and fans. Users will receive a personal feed that will showcase their NFTs in one place, helping to connect them with like-minded fans or artists.

As part of Coinbase’s overarching mission to drive economic freedom, Coinbase NFT will empower creators and help to raise the ‘creator economy’ from being a smaller subset of the ‘real economy’ into a central driver of economic activity.

The Knock-on effect

Despite using blockchain, crypto exchanges have typically kept their distance from NFTs. In the last couple of years, NFTs have seen an unprecedented level of popularity, setting off alarms for crypto exchanges, making them wonder if it should be something to look at. Coinbase has finally taken the plunge, but what will this mean for the NFT market and how will other crypto exchanges respond?

Barron Solomon, CEO and co-founder of Solo Music said, “While established exchanges like Coinbase and Robinhood [rumoured] have come to the NFT space later than the industry’s most prominent platforms, their arrival is a promising sign for the future of NFTs. Crypto-curious people are likely to feel more comfortable starting their NFT research with entities they know and trust, with familiar platforms. Once they dip their toe into the NFT world, I’m confident that they will become interested in the space and look to platforms new or old that are offering unique NFTs specific to their interests. I think NFTs in the music and entertainment industry in particular will see massive engagement as fans and consumers become more familiar with engaging in the digital space. Ultimately, this will lead to mainstream adoption which benefits the industry as a whole.”

“Coinbase’s Coinbase NFT launch signals that the entire cryptocurrency market has fully embraced NFTs.” said Aubery Strobel, Head of Communications at Lolli. “For many, Coinbase was their first experience in buying bitcoin and other alt-coins. Now it will be, for many, their first on-ramp to owning an NFT. Next for this industry will be the integration of NFTs into a digital and physical identity across platforms, creating the beginnings of the metaverse.”

On the topic of the digital and physical identity Victor Hogrefe, CBO and Co-Founder at EonLabs, said, “A broader point here about NFTs is that their popularity shows we’re shifting from the real-world economy to the digital economy. It’s about changing how and what we value.

“It may not be a smooth ride for NFTs, though. The tokenisation of traditional assets has met with two massive obstacles:

  • The problem of connecting the asset with the token in a meaningful and secure way, thus preventing double-spending or other types of fraud (If I can tokenise a house, and sell those tokens to overseas investors, what is to prevent me from then also selling the house in a traditional way, thereby double selling the house?)
  • Securities laws. The problems of dealing with securities law, regulatory and jurisdictional issues make tokenisation of assets a pain and tend to erode the benefits of doing so at all.

“The low-hanging fruit of asset tokenisation is assets that already only exist in digital form, and this is exactly what we’ve seen with the rise of NFTs.”

María Paula Fernandez, Advisor to the Board of Directors at Golem Network said, “Coinbase have a proven track record of having one of the easiest crypto onboarding processes in the industry. Coinbase provided many options for getting the best use out of coins, but we never had anything like that for NFTs. OpenSea is good but they are not as widespread as Coinbase – they don’t have the know-how of what a user needs to the same extent, and how to capitalise on an increase of users through word of mouth.

“It would be great to see other crypto platforms follow suit but they would have to be mindful approach towards onboarding new technologies and new users – understanding the risks that come with this.

“I think Coinbase’s expansion is fantastic as we needed healthier competition in the space. No market should be dominated by a singular business. The expansion offers a new alternative for people, to change up what they had previously been used to and not go to that only option in the market.”

Anndy Lian, Founding Member of INFLUXO, said “The announcement that Coinbase is entering into the NFT market, coupled with FTX launching a Solana-based NFT marketplace, suggests strongly that NFTs are going to go mainstream in a big way. While the current dominant NFT marketplace OpenSea has seen up to 80,000 transactions a day its browser based wallet is not super easy to use at times and there have been security issues which have put people off. The Coinbase emphasis on usability, from initial minting to discovery of new and exciting NFTs, is a sign of the growing accessibility of the NFT market. Another sign of taking NFTs mainstream may be what Coinbase describes as a ‘personal feed’, blending social media and NFTs. Following Twitter’s rollout of profile NFTs and TikTok’s launch of its first creator-led NFT collection, TikTok Top Moments, this could be huge, especially if Facebook picks up on this NFT personalization trend and runs with it.

Coinbase’s reach will bring new users to the world of NFTs and whilst they will initially only use Coinbase as a means to trade and mint, the more confident they get, the more likely they will explore other platforms.

 

 

Author

Francis is a junior journalist with a BA in Classical Civilization, he has a specialist interest in North and South America.

 

Original Source: https://thefintechtimes.com/coinbase-ventures-into-the-nft-market-trend-setting-for-other-crypto-platforms/

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Will Meme Coins Keep Going to the Moon?

Will Meme Coins Keep Going to the Moon?

Dogecoin has many attractive aspects, which is no doubt why it has inspired many imitations. Thanks to its notable price increase, with a market capitalization of $7 billion and a huge global following, it has inspired more than 150 meme-themed cryptocurrencies, including Shiba Inu, Baby DogeCoin, Doge Killer, Daddy Doge, DogeCola, etc., hoping to springboard off Dogecoin’s popularity to also make a fortune.

Dogecoin was created as a joke in 2013 by Adobe Product Marketing Manager Jackson Palmer and software engineer Billy Markus to make fun of how people buy cryptocurrencies that they don’t understand. However, the joke sort of backfired as due to the fun and interesting nature of Dogecoin it attracted fans from across the world, who call themselves “Shibes”. More recently, DogeCoin has gathered more attention, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s who in 2019, tweeted that, “Dogecoin might be my fav cryptocurrency. It’s pretty cool.” His follow-up tweets in 2020 only served to inflate the prices of Doge, including in January 2021 when Musk helped send Dogecoin prices up 800%, and into the top ten cryptocurrencies by market value. The most recent Elon Musk inspired token called Flokinomics went up 2,300% in 24 hours.

Is Dogecoin likely to continue to exist?

Despite the early scandals that prompted the founder of Dogecoin to leave the project, self-styled “Shibes” remains loyal to Dogecoin. Since the beginning of 2021, the price of Dogecoin has risen by more than 6,000%, which is jaw-dropping in the ascent of any cryptocurrency, let alone one started for comic effect.

Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban, a staunch supporter of cryptocurrency, recently stated that he believes Dogecoin can be used as digital payment, mainly because people gradually accept and like it. Specifically, he told US-broadcaster CNBC recently that not only is Dogecoin “a medium that can be used for the acquisition of goods and services,” but that also “the community for doge is the strongest when it comes to using it as a medium of exchange”.

Dogecoin is now available at mainstream cryptocurrency exchanges and can even be used as a payment method in some merchants. Cuban’s basketball team, the Dallas Mavericks, is rolling out the coin for payment with the help of BitPay, which is providing it as a payment option for its merchants and consumers.

In addition, the lack of strategic direction that has somehow not hindered Dogecoin’s rise has itself been adjusted recently. While the Dogecoin Foundation was established in 2014, it was dissolved after the two co-founders of Dogecoin left the project. Now in 2021 Dogecoin stated that the foundation would have a new board of directors and hold monthly meetings to help run the project. The Dogecoin Foundation is represented by Vitalik Buterin of Ethereum, as well as Dogecoin co-founder Billy Markus, and a representative of Elon Musk. Eventually, it seems Dogecoin, which has a market value of $40 billion, will have new leadership and better use-cases.

But the outcome of many other meme coins and tokens is still unpredictable. Is there any hope for Shiba Inu or Baby Dogecoin? Will we see a bunch of abandoned “pet” coins becoming bullish again value-wise in the future? However, it is undeniable that a number of factors are causing meme coins to experience a crisis.

Too many samey meme coins

Search for coins containing “shib,” “inu,” “dog” or “cat” on CoinMarketCap to find out how many meme coins are on the market, and you will discover that there are more than 150 such coins. Because none of them has a truly reliable business plan, it is unlikely that any of these meme coins will genuinely replicate the unpredictable success of Dogecoin. On this basis it is almost impossible for investors to determine which meme coins may succeed, which is a key reason why meme coins are no longer popular for investment purposes. Meme coins allow crooks to thrive. Since meme coins do not have any primary value, it is easy for crypto scammers to take advantage of the popularity of Dogecoin to create a brand-new cryptocurrency and carry out some publicity to raise the price and then sell it for a profit. The crazy increase in the price of Dogecoin has also caused investors to be so afraid of missing the next Dogecoin that they invest in new ventures without thoroughly studying the token and its founder. It is even difficult for any exchange to give a precise number of how many meme coins are scams.

Meme coins are not a good long-term investment

Meme coins may generate spectacular short-term gains as people are willing to speculate on the possibility of making money in a short amount of time, thereby pushing prices up.

But I hope that investors will look to invest money in cryptocurrencies that stand a reasonable chance of performing well over time. As a market for investable assets, cryptocurrency is an unpredictable asset class. So, before investing in cryptocurrency please study what real problems the project you want to invest in can solve in the future, who participated in the project, and other factors related to it. In this way, you can better assess the likelihood of their long-term commercial success.

The lack of a trusted leader

Another obstacle to sensible investing is that we often have no way of knowing who the leader of each meme coin project is. Take Shiba Inu, which is currently on a more significant scale than other meme coins apart from Dogecoin. In May 2021, Shiba Inu coin, nicknamed the “Doge Killer”, reached a market cap of $6.6 billion. Its leader is anonymous, which is uncommon for any crypto project apart from the most famous exception to that rule, Bitcoin. In simple terms, before you buy any cryptocurrency, it’s prudent to find out who is behind it, their relevant experience, and whether they have been involved in cryptocurrency scams.

Most meme coins have no practical use

The magical allure of Dogecoin is that it captures people’s hearts, which is very important for a successful meme coin. However, at least until very recently Dogecoin has had no practical use other than being a joke. In contrast, other mainstream cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum which runs DeFi smart contracts, put their energy into blockchain technology development and problem-solving. Despite this, they can learn about the value of community from Dogecoin because although it was created as a joke, it still attracts millions of Shibes.

BigONE Chairman Anndy Lian who was quoted recently said: “Although Dogecoin may still be popular, this does not mean it’s a good idea to speculate on any new cryptocurrency borrowing the name of Dogecoin or Shiba Doge. There are many great cryptocurrency projects born every day, but it is still unclear whether they will succeed or not.”

Dogecoin is very successful now. After its new foundation is established, it may have several use cases developed, such as using Dogecoin as digital payment. However, it’s worth repeating that Dogecoin’s situation is a special case and cannot easily be replicated. It will certainly not make those cryptocurrencies with no practical use a good investment choice. And although many Dogecoin clones have published whitepapers, you will find precious little cryptocurrencies with practical uses apart from the likes of DogeCola which have created their own branded fizzy drink for example.

And yes, despite all that I have said, meme doge coins are still going to the moon.

 

Author: Jenny Zheng, Early crypto advocate | Investor | PR Expert | Cofounder of Blockcast.cc

 

Original Source: https://hackernoon.com/will-meme-coins-keep-going-to-the-moon

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Elongate — Charity Driven Cryptocurrency Aimed to Contribute Towards Society

Elongate — Charity Driven Cryptocurrency Aimed to Contribute Towards Society

Crypto ventures with a purpose may attract more investors since they motivate people to make a difference. Charitable cryptocurrencies like Elongate (ELONGATE) drive a social impact movement by giving large amounts of money to charitable causes.

Elongate (ELONGATE) is a cryptocurrency token traded on PancakeSwap, a Binance Smart Chain exchange. Like Dogecoin (DOGE), the cryptocurrency was inspired by Elon Musk’s March 2021 tweet.

Elongate is a crypto initiative that seeks to fuel a social impact movement. The Elongate ecosystem operates by charging reward holders a 10% transaction charge and donating a large amount to charity.

Half of the fee goes to the community, based on their Elongate token holdings—half to Pancake Swap Liquidity Pool (LP). Every week, 60% of the tokens collected go to charity.

Anndy Lian joined as a Non-Executive Chairman of the EG Association’s governing board. His primary responsibilities are to lead and advise the board, supporting decentralized and effective board governance.

Elongate declared complete multi-entity incorporation. Their two freshly created entities were launched when Elongate was officially incorporated. The EG Association oversees social impact initiatives such as contributions, charity events, and fundraising. ELONGATE Global will control technology platforms and disruptive technological progress.

As of September 23, 2021, Elongate crypto donations totaled $3,490,000. Youth Hospital Care and Patients in Need with ZHC, Action Against Hunger, and Ocean Cleanup are among the initiatives funded.

To reassure potential investors, BSCScan has an open-source contract and has passed a Certik audit. Certik gave a high rating of 88% secure with no significant issues.

Centralization was a major problem Certik highlighted, that one address might accumulate a lot of LP tokens. The Elongate team solved it.

Elongate and The Giving Block established a collaboration. Elongate has contributed to great organizations with The Giving Block and worked with their partners to promote charity crypto adoption.

For a future where every girl can study and lead, Elongate completed a seed contribution to the Malala Fund. This is why Malala and Ziauddin Yousafzai established the Malala Fund in 2013. The fund’s board, leadership council, staff, and advocates ensure all girls can attend school. Malala Fund invests in education advocates and activists that challenge anti-girl laws and practices.

Its action includes interviewing Kimbal Musk and donating to the EB Research Partnership. Elongate launched its first major exchange, BitMart, and later LBank.

Elongate has helped the Human Relief Foundation and Give India raise $2 million. The latter is a Covid-19 relief effort in South Asia after a catastrophic outbreak.

It donated $150,000 to the National Kidney Foundation as per their weekly donations scheme. The National Kidney Foundation’s passion and purpose are to provide a lifeline for all kidney disease patients. NKF is a leader in scientific research and innovation that helps concentrate on the patient.

Elongate also plans to launch the world’s first charity-focused exchange, the Elongate charitable-impact wallet, as well as NFT campaigns by the second quarter of 2021. The team is set to unveil a new Elongate website, NFTs, and apparel. The store will give 80% of all sales to charity.

Original Source: https://bitcoinist.com/elongate-charity-driven-cryptocurrency-aimed-to-contribute-towards-society/

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What’s the importance of cryptocurrency payments going mainstream?

What’s the importance of cryptocurrency payments going mainstream?

A sign of the growing mainstream acceptance of cryptocurrency came recently with the announcement that US-based cinema chain AMC will soon be accepting cryptocurrency payments. It comes just a few months after PayPal decided to allow US consumers to use crypto to make purchases, and news that Mastercard would be supporting cryptocurrency payments across its network. The question is though, while use of crypto for financial transactions may makes sense, is buying your movie tickets and popcorn with Bitcoin worth the bother?

In August, AMC announced that it would for the first time accept Bitcoin as payment. This was followed by news that moviegoers could also pay for tickets online with Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash. AMC’s CEO Adam Aron tweeted: “Cryptocurrency enthusiasts: you likely know @AMCTheatres has announced we will accept Bitcoin for online ticket and concession payments by year-end 2021. I can confirm today that when we do so, we also expect that we similarly will accept Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash.” One unexpected reaction to the news came from the Dogecoin community on Twitter, who see the meme coin as a more natural crypto payment coin.

Top DogeCoin YouTuber @Mark Wallace tweeted in reply to Aron: “You could have effortlessly had millions of new supporters by accepting #Dogecoin. No reason not to when you literally accept Litecoin which is also based off BTC. Selling all my AMC stock to buy more $Doge. Ridiculous.” The strength of reaction is perhaps not surprising considering that Shark Tank star and billionaire owner of the NBA team Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, told US-broadcaster CNBC recently that not only is Dogecoin “a medium that can be used for the acquisition of goods and services,” but that also “the community for doge is the strongest when it comes to using it as a medium of exchange”.

Certainly, BigONE believes that mainstream cryptocurrency adoption is a key driver in the price of digital currencies earlier this year. This belief is supported by global finance executives polled by ‘Big Four’ auditors Deloitte. In Deloitte’s 2021 Global Blockchain Survey, 81% of the financial services executives believe that blockchain technology is “broadly scalable” and has achieved mainstream adoption. In the retail sector, Walmart and Amazon’s crypto recruitment announcements have raised awareness that these retail behemoths may be planning to open their doors to cryptocurrencies. It maybe a little ambitious to believe the giant online retailer Amazon will go as far as implementing Dogecoin for payment purposes, but that hasn’t stopped a petition titled ‘Doge4Amazon’ from picking up strong community support in 2021. Started three years ago with 20k supporters, in a sign if then times in the last 6 months its jumped from 75k, to 100k, and now to close to 250K signatures. Consumers can already use cryptocurrency to pay at other retailers such as Overstock, Best Buy, and Starbucks via third-party apps.

What’s the importance of cryptocurrency payments?

When Bitcoin was first introduced in January 2009, it promised to be the world’s first digital currency that did not require the support of a bank or government, its supporters claiming it promised a decentralized payment method that would change the world’s economic structure. With the emergence of more and more cryptocurrencies, the total market value has surpassed $2 trillion. Although blockchain technology is transforming many industries, cryptocurrency has yet to reach its full potential as a payment method.

One of the main factors influencing the adoption of cryptocurrency by both businesses and consumers as a payment method is its volatility. While Bitcoin’s price has risen by more than 50 million percent since its inception at $0.08, it has experience d many peaks and troughs in value along the way, making people wary of using it for consumption. For example, by the end of 2013, bitcoin had reached a fresh new high of US$1,164. But before reaching its 2021 peak, Bitcoin moved much lower before going higher — between 2014 and 2015, stagnation and volatility chipped away at the crypto’s value, reducing it to US$245 by October 2015, according to an analysis in Blockchain Investing News.

While there are certainly challenges in accepting Bitcoin for payments, especially when the price volatility is factored in, more and more merchants are looking to add crypto purchasing to their business. According to a survey last year by BitPay, “up to 40% of customers that pay with crypto are new to the merchant. Second, purchase amounts are twice that of credit card purchases. Third, crypto is less expensive than card cards, and lastly, there are no fraud-related chargebacks”.

Bitcoin has received a lot of attention as a store of value, which is why people like Mark Cuban consider it digital gold. Unfortunately, the use of cryptocurrency in daily payments has been hampered by high transaction fees and relatively slow transaction speeds. BigONE believes that now that AMC has decided to accept Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ethereum, the use of crypto will become more attractive to businesses. With Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash are designed to be faster and cheaper versions of Bitcoin, they could be better suited for digital payments going forward.

That said, the recent legalization of Bitcoin in El Salvador shows that adoption of BTC for payments can come from unexpected quarters. As reported in Cointelegraph the recognition of Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender has opened up new payment options for its citizens, with fast-food empire McDonald’s accepting payments in the cryptocurrency through the Lightning Network. “Lightning Network will likely prove invaluable if El Salvador hopes to achieve the mass adoption of Bitcoin payments. Beyond immediate transactions, however, El Salvador’s Bitcoin gambit could prove successful by streamlining global remittances, increasing the wealth of its citizens and attracting crypto-focused entrepreneurs to the country,” the report concluded.

Is it worth using crypto to buy movie tickets?

Popular cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash, are all available for purchased on the BigONE Exchange. The question is whether these are better suited for long term investment, than for everyday payment purposes? On the other hand, cryptocurrencies are not company stocks; some were intended to be used as a payment method from the outset. Therefore, improving the cryptocurrency industry’s practicality and adoption rate will be critical to its success in this regard. However, to use your digital currencies as a regular payment method, you should always consider transaction fees and cryptocurrency volatility.

A clear use case for cryptocurrency comes with international money transfers, for example, with low transfer fees and fast transfer speeds, and anyone can use it. “However, Bitcoin has become less attractive for remittances due to the increasing cost of Bitcoin transactions. Some competing cryptocurrencies, such as Ripple and Dash, are also targeting the remittance market with substantially lower fees,” suggested a recent report in Investopedia.

Another critical factor to consider in crypto payments is taxation. Many countries worldwide require cryptocurrencies to be taxed as property. In addition, the holder must report the cryptocurrency’s time of use and purchase and may be subject to capital gains tax. Thus, using your cryptocurrency is the same as selling it to the US tax authority, the IRS. Recording transactions may work for large purchases, but it could prove difficult and expensive for small payments, such as movie tickets. As reported in Forbes, this is because in the US crypto taxes are based on a 2014 ruling that determined cryptocurrency should be treated as a capital asset, rather than a currency like dollars or euros: “Let’s say you bought $20 worth of Bitcoin and held it as it rose in value to $200. If you used the bitcoin to buy $200 worth of groceries, you’d owe capital gains taxes on the $180 in profit you’d realized — even though it seems as if you spent the Bitcoin, rather than sold it. For the IRS, it’s the same thing.”

In simple terms how you use cryptocurrency depends on why you hold cryptocurrency in the first place. For example, if you believe in the wider benefits of decentralization, you are more likely to take advantage of AMC’s new payment option, to pay in crypto for the latest movies. However, you should also regard cryptocurrency as a long-term investment. Indeed, whether AMC’s move will be copied by its competitors remains to be seen. There’s also plenty of support on Twitter in response to the tweeted announcement. Twitter user @SackarisJames and self-proclaimed AMC stockholder posted: “Here come all the ‘why would I spend Bitcoin on movie tickets’ people but in the next breath ‘we need more places to accept crypto, so it becomes a form of currency’”.

 #anndyliansays

 

Shorten version can be found at: https://hackernoon.com/are-crypto-payments-going-mainstream-with-amc-news

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Anndy Lian: Decentralized Technologies Support Charity Causes and Beyond

Anndy Lian: Decentralized Technologies Support Charity Causes and Beyond

While in the early years of crypto involvement in the charity sector may have come across as a little gimmicky if well-intentioned, the advantages of using cryptocurrency for NGOs and charities come with real-world use cases, from monitoring donations with complete transparency over the blockchain to improving trust with donors at scale. In addition, this capability underlines a broader point that fundraising can be transformed globally by allowing charities to accept payments without the prohibitive cost of foreign exchange and transaction fees. And at another level, for charities working in hard-to-reach parts of the world, the ability to replace fiat currency with crypto alternatives from Bitcoin to stablecoins to pay for staff and running costs have already paid off in places like Afghanistan.

The maturation of mainstream charities using crypto for fundraising is reflected in well-known names such as UNICEF using platforms such as The Giving Block to accept Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrency donations. According to the Global NGO Technology Report, while currently cryptocurrency donations represent less than 5% of the payment methods used for charitable donations, there’s been a +100% growth in some countries. It is estimated that more than 13,300 BTC had been donated to charities implementing this payment method. The US-based Giving Block also reports other advantages of using crypto for their charity users, including the organizational-wide benefit of raising their profile within the sector by accepting crypto to attract crypto philanthropist’s attention.

While it may seem crypto startup efforts to harness tokenomics for charitable causes are just getting started, one initiative built on sustainable foundations and a strong team is Elongate. Its mission is to “leverage community action and blockchain technologies to grow a global movement that defies the status quo and makes profitability intrinsically linked to positive social impact.” Elongate has raised $3.25 million for notable NGOs like Children International, Human Relief Foundation, and Action Against Hunger. While just recently, it announced a seed donation to the Malala Fund, a fund “dedicated to working for a world where every girl can learn and lead.” Moving into its next phase of growth, Elongate in July announced a partnership with The Giving Block, intending to educate charities “about the untapped potential of cryptocurrency projects in creating social impact enabled by blockchain technologies”.

What Elongate’s total of over $3 million in donations in the last three months demonstrates is the importance of a well-thought-through framework for crypto use. Elongate’s system allows for both significant contributions to charity while rewarding its token holders a percentage of every transaction that occurs. Every time a purchase or sale happens, all existing token holders receive a portion of the transaction fees. The way it works is when you buy the Elongate token; a 10% fee is applied. So, for example, if you put in $100, you’ll receive $90 in the token. Of the remaining $10, the funds supporting the token get half. The other $5 is distributed among all the token holders. In other words, as you hold Elongate tokens, you earn the rewards from all other transactions.

As well as enabling individual donations and leveraging community action Elongate is soon to roll out a charity and consumer management platform, which it claims will be a first-of-its-kind marketplace that will bring together charities with organizations and individuals. “This platform will allow enterprises, consumers, and charities to receive, transfer and manage funds and donations in a transparent way. Donations or funds (BTC, BNB, and others) will be able to get traced to a specific project or person, for full transparency and accountability,” the charity confirmed. From the whitepaper, it’s clear their vision “to forge a revolutionary social impact ecosystem on the blockchain” doesn’t stop there. By buying Elongate tokens, members can vote on which projects to donate to using a community vote platform.

To safeguard its future development, the EG Association, a social impact association of the Elongate token, added to their board members’ blockchain expertise with the appointment of BigONE Exchange’s Anndy Lian as a non-executive chairman. The EG Association describes itself as “the real-world gateway – governing social impact activities on the ground such as donations, sponsorships, social entrepreneurship, and community action”. Anndy Lian’s duties include providing leadership and advice to the board to support a decentralized board structure. President of the EG Association, Lorenzo Andree, added: “Besides his subject matter expertise, Anndy is an amazing human being who supports social impact in local communities.”

Another crypto-fueled charity project making progress is Madagascar, also based on the Binance Smart Chain and Elongate. Besides donating to other charities, it also has charitable projects, such as planting trees in Madagascar. Indeed, the recently launched crypto startup got its name due to Madagascar’s climate vulnerability, using a lemur as its logo to symbolize the animals’ population decline. In addition, their crypto token $TIME was named to “underscore the immediate need for action to save our planet and safeguard the lives of future generations”.

The Madagascar team has set a goal to drive positive change while providing entertainment and games for its users. The current $TIME app is called “Spin the Wheel and Match Cards,” the first step for the planned casino. With plans to create games around lemur based NFT avatars that can be bought and traded to raise money for charity.

Donations are also going worldwide to places like Turkey, China, and Greece. These international projects focus on social issues from impoverished new mothers, children’s medical needs, and wildlife conservation. For example, co-founder and CMO of Madagascar Time, Ryan Bishop, said: “It’s about ‘$TIME’ an organization started using blockchain technology and crypto to change the world for the better.” The startup has donated more than $30,000 since July 1 to the Salvation Army’s Emergency Disaster Relief fund, the California Wildfire Emergency Relief fund, and planted 4,000 of a planned 1 million trees.

With a similar tokenomics to Elongate, the Madagascar team uses crypto for fundraising and enables token holders to raise funds as they trade. As outlined in the startup’s whitepaper: “Our crypto-project goal regarding the process of raising funds is making a bridge between a large stream of money and NGO’s/initiatives that need that money. So on one side, we have our investors who agreed when they traded our token that 2% goes to charity, and on the other side, we have different sorts of organizations we are going to fund with ‘charity wallet’ money.”

Also focused on the importance of environmental campaigning is UK-based crypto startup Save Planet Earth (SPE), launched in 2021, aiming to plant one billion trees through its crypto token. With the broader aim of tackling climate change through tree planting, their ambitious plan is to develop their carbon credit exchange. This exchange will sell carbon credits in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The aim is that the revenue generated from these carbon credits will fund more carbon capture projects to make the financially self-funding.

Save Planet Earth’s founder, Imran Ali, explained their carbon credit goals: “Our ultimate plan with the $SPE token, other than carbon offsets, is for it to be the currency of the carbon exchange we’re developing; individuals and organizations alike, will be able to use our token to buy carbon credits off of us, and other companies that choose to exchange their carbon credits on our market.” In their first four months, Save Planet Earth included tree planting contracts for one million trees in the Maldives and a hundred million trees in Sri Lanka, partnership with governments and NGOs.

Continuing the eco-charity theme is the SafeEarth crypto charity project, which recently announced they’d raised over $200,000 in charity donations this year. Also, using a DeFi approach to raising money, people want to do so by buying the SafeEarth token. The token is designed to reward holders while increasing both liquidity and value. It does this by applying a 4% tax on transactions. One percent of the tax goes toward eco-initiatives.

In addition, through this token, each holder is given a chance to vote on upcoming charitable incentives, with the charity with the most votes receiving the donations. Current charities supported range from The Ocean Cleanup, which aims to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and reduce the chances of more plastic waste entering the oceans by capturing them from rivers globally. In addition, the Water Project offers financial support and training to people in sub-Saharan Africa to build their water supply and purification systems.

As a part of SafeEarth’s plan to raise awareness for ecological causes, they’ve also started a #PlasticChallenge on Twitter, urging people to eliminate plastic waste. The challenge launched earlier this year rewards users from a prize pool of $3,600 in SafeEarth tokens. Since the challenge began, the startup reported, “the SafeEarth token has been listed on the number one DEX Uniswap, recorded $3 million in trading volume and locked away more than $1.5 million in liquidity”. Other milestones for Q3 include staking and mining, achieving listings on mainstream crypto exchanges, and developing the SafeEarth ecosystem.

While the early years of crypto saw a great deal of optimism about the role these trustless platforms could play, acting without the need of intermediaries, it’s been a slow process of implementing these benefits in the charity sector. But as these use cases show, several token-driven startups have started to impact the charity sector more recently. Marrying tokenomics with donations to harness the enthusiasm of the broader crypto community for doing good is a framework that appears to be working. While Save Planet Earth’s use of NFTs for carbon credit exchanges shows, there are other creative crypto uses available to charities with the growth of the NFT market over the last 12 months.

“Innovative crypto and blockchain have the power to change lives around the world, and none more so with the use of these decentralized technologies to support charity causes.” #anndysays

 

 

Shorten version: https://www.securities.io/crypto-startups-delivering-change-in-the-charity-sector/

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