This past Wednesday, we attended the monthly meetup – Blockchain for Social Good – as organized by the Ethereum-reliant company Consensys. The organizers, Benjamin Siegel and Vanessa Grellet, host a monthly gathering at the Rise NYC co-working office and typically present one or two startups working in the world of crypto but focused on social-impact and social-interest work.
- Source: BTCNews
First off, was anyone else from Steemit there?? When I asked a question to the presenters of EduDAO, I dropped our community's name, partially in hope of identifying myself for other Steemians.
- The fabulous RISE venue
Back on topic, the Meetup seemed a great success and really showcased the need for on-the-ground impact with regards to the blockchain community. At least within New York, the general public seems fairly well informed about Bitcoin and the fundamentals about blockchain technology. This group opens up a lesser known discussion – how do we actually utilize this technology to innovate broader industries and make high public impact?
EduDAO and the Streamlining the Donation
This time around, the Ken and Michael of the fundraising startup EduDAO walked us through their upcoming process where donors can directly support education efforts with their Ethereum-based technology. The platform is essentially a transparent and networked funding service that utilizes secure blockchain structures to cut down typical transfer and administrative fees to non-profits from ~30% to a fraction of that cost.
The concept seems well-suited for the use of crypto. It allows the philanthropic sector, which is unfortunately very opaque, to streamline immediate transactions that are fully trackable. What's more, anyone and everyone is able to see exactly what that money is put to use for.
Best of all, it empowers communities and organizations in need to bring in money without being a fully established organization. Public classrooms for instance can request X amount of new desks without being an independent 501c(3). EduDAO seems like it will be able to act as a fiscal sponsor for those who can't pay the lawyer fees.
We'll be sure to report more on EduDAO's progress and projects, possibly in collaboration with our own, in the coming months so stay tuned! Be sure to check out their website as well.
Blockchain Salons
So many crypto-based events seem to be absurdly expensive. Even Consensys' first annual conference this week was a whopping $600 (around that amount, the price is gone now that the event is sold out)! Thus, it's wonderful to see smaller, more intimate initiatives such as this Meetup that's open to the public at no cost.
This was my first time going to the Meetup (it was the 2nd one planned) and I certainly don't plan on missing any moving forward. After speaking with Ben and Vanessa, we may even be able to present a bit on Steemit and our project at STEEM PARK!
If you want to learn more about the surrounding organizations, check out the links for Consensys and the NYC Meetup group. Hopefully see you there!
NOTE : 100% of the payout rewards from this post will go towards the realization of the Steem Park project. Thank you all so much for your support. Steem on!
I'm going to have to join the Meetup since I'm in NYC as well!
Nice write up, it seems like an awesome experience.
Absolutely! It would be great to see you there :)
this is great, so glad to know about it, I'm going to look into similar programs locally
Really great stuff! Digging the phrase: blockchain salon :) keep up all the amazing things!
Haha thanks so much @lovejoy! Such a great initiative in NYC and we're thrilled to be part of the conversation. Lot's of social good to be had. On Steem Park, we're making great progress and will be starting fabrication within the next couple weeks!
YES! This is EXACTLY the kind of thing I'm excited about :) Thank you for sharing! re-steemed :)
Thanks so much for your support @auroralyrayoga! :D
Totally!! :)
Great article - just joined the meetup group. In the meanwhile, we use the opportunity to share information about our social innovation blockchain solution, introducing world's first distributed academic and career development ledger at http://os.university. You can follow us at https://steemit.com/@opensourceuni
Wondeful initiative! We planned with @globalschool and @generationeuropa to launch meetup on this theme in Europe and starting by Austria (where we are based) as we already started to organize regularly steem-workshops to support creativty and entrepreneurship.
It would be awesome if we could cooperate with you by a way or another to organize our future activities with your guidance! I am looking forward to hear from you and will have a look to the sandbox today with the participants. All the best, Jean =)