By Val Elefante
On Wednesday, September 20, Shannon Ewing joined us to present a talk titled, “DWeb for Good: Real-World Examples of Innovation.” Shannon spent a decade working in humanitarian aid before entering the blockchain space. During her time with organizations such as USAID and Doctors Without Borders, she realized the power that peer-to-peer, decentralized technologies could have to unlock capital, build cohesion, and support our global neighbors out of poverty.
Shannon began her presentation with the important and responsible caveat that the blockchain-for-impact space is still in an early, experimental, susceptible, and complicated state. The remainder of her presentation, however, gave the audience glimmers of hope through a variety of case studies of blockchain being harnessed to support fundraising, governance, humanitarian aid, and traceability.
Out of all of these efforts, Shannon argued that fundraising has had the most traction, highlighted three stunning reports:
- “Crypto donations are projected to surpass $10B in the next decade” (The Giving Block)
- “In 2022, half of the Forbes Top 100 Charities are fundraising via crypto and NFTs.” (CoinDesk)
- “On average, every $1 donated (in crypto) results in $1.80 of impact.” (World Vision)
This information makes it hard to deny that we should at least be paying attention to–but really, learning how to leverage–blockchain technology for our impact work.
Shannon also made the case that, besides for fundraising, blockchain is also being utilized to bring more transparency into governance systems around the world including voting, land registries, educational credentialing, healthcare, supply chains, and identity. One example is Estonia’s e-Residency program that enables someone to be a digital resident based anywhere in the world yet still have access to medical care and the country’s voting systems.
In the U.S., Shannon mentioned pilot programs in West Virginia and Colorado which have been run to enable overseas military personnel to vote in municipal elections.
On the topic of blockchain being used to support more immutable and trustworthy digital identity systems, Shannon highlighted how this would support anti-trafficking efforts. In countries such as Moldova, for example, passport fraud and withholding workers identity documents are top methods for enabling forced labor. When it comes to child trafficking, according to the World Identity Network, “using blockchain on top of existing systems will flag and record every unlawful attempt to exit, helping to ensure that no child is taken out of the country using fake ID documents produced by human traffickers.” Though it’s still early, Shannon’s research highlights the tremendous potential benefits of this technology to help people.
At the same time, Shannon maintained honesty about the potential harms, warning innovators and integrators alike with stories such as when the UN shared data about the Rohingya people, an already extremely vulnerable population, and exposed them to further risk. Shannon modeled a well-balanced approach between being curious and innovative yet cautionary and critical.
Overall, Shannon’s position was one of hope for the future of these technologies to help people around the world. One particular area she shared excitement around–which is also still in early experimental stages–is blockchain staking for nonprofits. Staking essentially means “locking” your crypto assets on the blockchain for a set period of time and helping to support the blockchains operations including securing and validating transactions. This could be potentially game-changing for nonprofits, she argues, as a potential income stream and way to earn passive income with returns typically much higher than any interest rate offered by banks.
Shannon’s highly informative and inspiring presentation can be viewed here, and her website with more of her work and contact info is here. Be sure to check it out!