OpenAI reportedly considering shift to for-profit as CEO stacks board

June 15, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin price is up, but BTC mining stocks could remain vulnerable throughout 2023

January 30, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin miners have been under duress for more than a year and even with BTC price trading at $24,000, BTC mining stocks could still face challenges throughout 2023.

Bitcoin mining stocks usually follow BTC’s price because it directly influences the company's earnings. These stocks were beaten down heavily in the last quarter of 2022, especially in the month of December. The downturn after FTX's collapse worsened with the bankruptcy filings of the largest U.S.-based Bitcoin mining company, Core Scientific.

During this time, other mining stocks, like Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA) in the chart below, exhibited a weak correlation with Bitcoin’s price, suggesting that December’s downturn was probably overblown.

MARA/USD price chart with MARA-BTC Correlation Coefficient index. Source: TradingView

The negative trend reversed at the start of 2023 as most mining stocks posted impressive gains. The Hashrate Index mining stock index, which tracks the average price of publicly listed mining and hardware manufacturing companies, increased by 62.5% year-to-date. The positive price spike also restored the strong correlation between BTC price and mining stocks.

However, the mining industry remains under stress, with low-profit levels expected for prolonged periods. Since Q2 2022, mining companies have funded operations selling BTC from reserves, selling newly mined BTC, raising debt and issuing new shares. Unless Bitcoin’s price consolidates above $25,000, the industry will likely witness a few takeover attempts or further treasury sales to pay off debt.

Some mining companies are operating at a loss

Currently, the top mining companies' price-to-earnings (PE) ratio is negative, suggesting that they're operating at a net loss, making their stock prices vulnerable to steep downturns.

Riot Blockchain, Bitfarms Ltd, Hive Blockchain Technologies, Cleanspark Inc, Marathon Digital Holdings and Hut 8 Mining are the largest publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies with over 1% of the global hashrate share. The top 15 public mining companies have a combined share of around 19%.

Market share of Bitcoin mining companies by hashrate. Source: TheMinerMag

Notably, the PE ratio of most companies in the industry is between 0 and 2, except for Marathon, Hive and Hut 8. This raises alarms that these companies could be overvalued at their current valuations.

Price-to-earning ratio of top mining companies Source: CompaniesMarketCap.com

A net loss position is no reason to reject a stock because markets are usually forward-looking. If one is long-term bullish on Bitcoin, the mining stocks are obvious choices. However, these companies must survive through the bear market before bearing the fruits of the next bull run.

Shareholders suffered losses due to bad debt and dilution

Overleveraged or indebted firms, that have to meet their interest obligations, are particularly stressed and vulnerable to insolvency.

Marathon, Greenidge and Stronghold have over $200,000 in debt per unit of Bitcoin mining, with Marathon’s debt peaking at $1.1 million per mined BTC. Marathon collateralized its loans with Bitcoin in its treasury. And the firm now holds 10,055 BTC worth around $235 million.

By the end of October 2022, Marathon took $100 million in loans, which risks getting liquidated if Bitcoin’s price falls below the loan threshold value. For instance, if the loan threshold is 150%, the company will be forced to sell some of its BTC to clear the loans if Bitcoin price drops below $15,000.

Debt per BTC produced by mining companies. Source: TheMinerMag

In this regard, it is encouraging to see that Hive, Hut8 and Riot are mostly debt-free and functioning essentially on equity capital. This reduces the pressure of paying interest rates on the debt and provides flexibility in raising funds or expanding by absorbing some of the marketshare left by now bankrupt mining operations

However, there’s another way to raise funds. Instead of raising debt, miners can dilute their shares. The companies raise investment from public market investors in exchange for additional stock. This reduces the ownership ratio of shareholders. Hut 8 mining and Riot had diluted north of 40% of their shares by Q2 2022. Hut 8 diluted around 15% of shares again in the third quarter of the same year.

Share dilution of public mining companies by Q2 2022. Source: Hashrate Index

The need to raise money has exposed these indebted companies to liquidation risks, while excess dilutions have also significantly reduced the value of investor holdings.

Mining company mandates on treasury holdings

While mining companies are struggling with profitability, they are determined to conserve their Bitcoin treasury levels. Despite suffering losses since Q2 2022, Marathon was able to retain its treasury holding levels.

Marathon’s Bitcoin Treasury holdings. Source: BitcoinTreasuries!Net

At the same time, Hut 8 mining uses a more aggressive policy in selling its mined BTC. This has led to a strong increase in its holdings since mid-2022.

8Hut’s Treasury has increased since July 2021. Source: BitcoinTreasuries!Net

Whereas, others like Riot and Hive have resorted to using their BTC treasury to cover operational and expansion costs. Hive's holdings have reduced significantly since the third quarter of 2022, from 4,032 BTC to 2,348 BTC. Hive is relying on the expansion of its miner fleet and cost reductions to sustain itself.

Clearly, Bitcoin mining companies remain vulnerable to BTC price, debt liquidations and shareholder losses due to excess dilution. According to on-chain analyst and Crypto Quant founder Ki Young Ju, 2023 will see entities taking over entire mining companies with a chance to buy them at a discount.

While it won't affect Bitcoin price much, mining stocks are still exposed to the threat of considerable losses.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors’ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

International Women’s Day 2022 focuses on bringing women to Web3

March 8, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Analysis

Initiatives are launched on International Women’s Day 2022 to bring more women to Web3, but will this be enough in the long-run?

At its core, Web3 is about regaining control from centralized online experiences, allowing creators to interact within peer-to-peer (P2P) ecosystems focused on music, film, artwork, fashion and other popular topics. This has also given rise to nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and digital ecosystems often referred to as the Metaverse.

Given the broad range of interests Web3 touches upon, the sector is not only attracting typical “tech bros” but has also captured the attention of many females looking to further build and develop the decentralized web. The movement of women entering Web3 has especially become apparent now, as the sector is still in its infancy.

Sandy Carter, senior vice president of Unstoppable Domains — a blockchain domain name provider — told Cointelegraph that Web3 today presents women with a phenomenal opportunity to make an impact since the space is still being developed. This isn’t always the case though, as Carter explained that before joining Unstoppable Domains in Dec. 2021, she was one of the few women executives at Amazon Web Services:

“As I transitioned to Unstoppable Domains, I was disappointed in Web2 and how much lack of diversity I found. Oftentimes 20% of the room would be women at conferences. It has also been shown that less than 5% of entrepreneurs in the Web2 space are female. This was mind blowing.”

International Women’s Day 2022

In order to help bring more women to the Web3 space, Carter said that Unstoppable Domains has partnered with 66 leading Web2 and Web3 companies to form a new initiative called “Unstoppable Women of Web3” — a diversity and education group focused on training the next generation of talent for the Web3 era.

Carter said that organizations supporting this initiative include major corporations like Google Cloud and Deloitte, along with blockchain companies such as Decentraland, BlockFi and Binance.US. “All partners have signed a pledge to feature work created by historically marginalized groups in at least half of all materials used for Web3 education,” said Carter.

While Carter believes that the Web3 space is starting to see an influx of women, she still thinks that the sector is often misunderstood and, therefore, intimidating. “I do think there is potential for women to enter Web3, but education is still required. For instance, if women look at a Web3 job offering and only meet certain criteria they may not apply. So, we are trying to break this down,” she said.

As a starting point, Carter noted that Unstoppable Women of Web3 will host a 24-hour Twitter spaces discussion on March 8 — International Women’s Day — to discuss Web3 related topics. She also noted that Unstoppable Domains will publish a list of 100 influential women in Web3 on International Women’s Day to demonstrate innovation in this new sector.

NFT marketplace Rarible is also hoping to drive women’s participation in Web3 by promoting female-empowerment projects during International Women’s Day this year. Masha Vyazemskaya, head of communications at Rarible, told Cointelegraph that while nonfungible tokens have created incredible opportunities for creatives, only 16% of NFT creators are women. “Even lesser known is the generation of female artists that have been involved in the NFT space since the early days, building the foundation of what the industry is today,” said Vyazemskaya.

Given this, Vyazemskaya explained that Rarible is placing a heavy focus on female-led NFT projects on March 8 to ensure that diverse voices are recognized. For example, Vyazemskaya explained that Rarible will be highlighting one of its first female NFT artists, Lirona. According to Vyazemskaya, Lirona started from scratch in the NFT space and has since launched her widely successful “#boiz” collection on the Rarible marketplace, which has garnered over $700,000 in sales. Vyazemskaya said:

“What’s amazing is that Lirona started on Rarible in early 2021 with her collections selling for 0.1 ETH and now they are selling for 20-30 ETH. This represents a very important journey for us, demonstrating how we work closely with artists and support their needs.”

*NFT from Lirona's boi collection. Source: Rarible*

Vyazemskaya added that Rarible will be launching “Metafemale” on March 8, which is an NFT collection that serves as a community for female creators and entrepreneurs in the space. “This project will also provide access to a private members club for female creatives in the metaverse,” she said. Vyazemskaya further remarked that Rarible will be promoting “Women Rise” this year, which is an NFT series supporting women activists, artists, scientists and coders.

Initiatives are needed

While initiatives to drive female participation in Web3 are notable, it’s important to point out that Web3 may be catering to a more diverse audience in general. For instance, Tegan Kline, co-founder of Edge and Node — the development team behind open-source indexing protocol The Graph — told Cointelegraph that NFTs are a use case within the Web3 umbrella that has reached the masses. “With this, it feels like many more women have gotten involved in the space. For that I am grateful, as it has been a huge need,” she said.

In addition to NFTs, Megan Kaspar, co-founder and managing director of Magnetic — a crypto and blockchain investment and incubation firm — told Cointelegraph that since 2013, she has been asked, “How do we bring more women into tech, crypto and blockchain?”

Kaspar explained that her answer applies to Web3, noting that more women will participate when dominant female verticals such as those related to beauty and fashion start to develop. “That’s happening now and it’s a contributing factor to all of the new female Web3 entrants over the past year and a half. The merge of fashion and blockchain has made this possible and that motivates me to continue contributing to the excitement emerging in metafashion,” remarked Kaspar.

*Megan Kaspar on the cover of Haute Living January 2022 in a digital Fendi Dress. Source: Haute Living*

While more women are taking an interest in Web3, Kline believes that awareness needs to be raised to ensure that women continue to enter the Web3 space early on:

“There is such a huge opportunity right now within Web3, it is similar to the early days of Wall Street or the early days of the tech boom. So many women were left out of both of those movements and I do not want to see the same in Web3. Now is the opportunity to get into a revolutionary movement that will likely change the world ahead of the masses.”

*Tegan with a handful of the women within The Graph ecosystem from a team offsite event. Source: The Graph*

With this in mind, Kline said that she believes talks, panels and events are all important everyday initiatives to ensure that more women enter Web3. Echoing Kline, Jennifer Kim, founder and chief operating officer of SEUNwater — an Internet of Things water monitoring platform — told Cointelegraph that although Web3 may cater more to women, there still isn’t enough participation to see real traction.

In order to change this, Kim explained that she manages HBAR Foundation’s “Female Founders Fund.” According to Kim, The Female Founders Fund is a new program where qualified teams, led by women, may be eligible for funding, mentorship and guidance by the HBAR Foundation, which is Hedera Hashgraph’s grant program. “I hope that I can help women who want an extremely rewarding and fulfilling career in Web3. My passion for this industry is fierce and I want to share it,” mentioned Kim.

Connecting with other female thought leaders is indeed a critical element for growth within a new technology sector. Sonal Patel, operations lead at ConsenSys Mesh Baseline Research and Development — a unit developing technologies and contributions to the Ethereum Foundation — touched upon this.

She told Cointelegraph that her interest in Web3 began when she invested in crypto for the first time. Following this, Patel explained that she wanted to learn more about Web3 in her spare time, which led her to contribute to projects focused on decentralizing the web. In turn, Patel connected with some inspiring women like Eva Beylin, director of the Graph Foundation. Patel elaborated:

“The rise of decentralized communities, protocols and practices creates a strong need for operational integrity since the work is usually voluntary for those involved. Because of this, I've been formalizing and optimizing processes in the open source Baseline Protocol community to ultimately share and apply these innovative practices to contribute to the success and longevity of Web3 projects across the ecosystem.”

Community building

Although Web3 seems to be a promising new sector for diversity, some women already immersed in Web3 believe that a challenge moving forward is ensuring that women’s voices are continually heard.

To put this in perspective, Olive Allen — an NFT artist who recently burned her Russian passport in hopes of raising awareness and funds for the military conflict in Ukraine — told Cointelegraph that she entered Web3 in 2018. According to Allen, she created one of the very first NFT drops in 2019 known as “13 Dreadful and Disappointing Items.” While notable, Allen explained that many men took credit for this project shortly after it was launched. “Unfortunately, women have always been pretty much cut out from the history of any field be it science, technology or the arts. And, I feel it’s happening now,” she remarked.

*"Mr. Coin Pig 1st Edition" NFT from Allen's 13 Dreadful and Disappointing Items. Source: OpenSea*

As such, Allen believes that women’s voices often get lost in what she refers to as “the sea of crypto bro Twitter/Discord talk.” She added, “Don’t believe me? Tune in to the most popular crypto Twitter Spaces. I feel like ‘community’ doesn’t exist for women.”

Fortunately, understanding challenges early on may help improve Web3 as it matures. To this point, Carter noted that a main goal of Unstoppable Women of Web3 is to create ongoing community building. “Knowledge will be shared through Twitter Spaces, Discord, Telegram and in-person events, starting with a live event at South By Southwest 2022,” she said.

Denelle Dixon, chief executive officer and executive director of the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) — a non-profit organization meant to support the growth of the Stellar Network — further told Cointelegraph that SDF is working with universities and educational institutions to organize NFT hackathons for women and nonbinary learners. “Inclusive education and community building are how we help bring more women and a broader group of users into Web3 that don’t see themselves reflected in the space nearly enough,” she said.

Where do crypto donations go? Here are six charities that have benefited, as told by The Giving Block

February 14, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Charities

"As a smaller organization with a smaller team, we saw how crypto could level the playing field and provide massive fundraising success," said giving associate Alexa Castellano at Trees for the Future.

Charities and donations have been a trending topic in the cryptocurrency realm as of late. And its not simply as an act of giving; in countries such as the U.S., the country's revenue authority provides generous tax deductions for those who donate their crypto to registered charities. One company, The Giving Block, provides such crypto-fundraising onboarding solutions to more than 1,000 nonprofits.

But just how does investors' money make a difference? In a series of case studies provided to Cointelegraph, The Giving Block illustrated how six such charities benefited as overall donations volume on its platform surged over 1,000% year over year in 2021. As told by Tammy Tibbetts, co-founder and CEO of She's the First, a charity organization helping gender equality through education:

"In the most challenging fiscal year of my career as a nonprofit CEO, I realized I had to take crypto seriously. If I didn't, the ship was going to sail without us and, with it, take resources that could help girls around the world access education and unlock their dreams. This crypto donation was our second biggest gift this year, completely changing my view on cryptocurrencies.

Thanks to a crypto-fundraising campaign, She's the First delivered more than 1,400 food, water, and menstrual kits, as well as connected over 6,000 girls with mentors around the world. Similarly, CARE, one of the oldest nonprofit organizations fighting global poverty, saw its crypto donations increase from about $7,000 in 2020 to over $330,000 in 2021. One campaign, NFT CARE Package for Afghanistan, raised over $200,000 in a matter of weeks to deliver humanitarian aid to Afghan families.

CARE organization banner | Source: The Giving Block

Then there's the orangutan preservation project Orangutan Outreach, which raised more than their entire budget 2020 revenue budget with crypto donations. "We're going to incorporate crypto into everything we do moving forward, make it bigger so we can do more good work," said Richard Zimmerman, the organization's executive director. Organtuan Outreach's team cares for orphaned and displaced orangutans in specially built sanctuaries with the end goal of releasing them back to the wild.

Orangutan Outreach banner | Source: The Giving Block

And thanks in part to NFT campaigns, regenerative agriculture nonprofit Trees for the Future managed to plant 2.3 million trees that are estimated to sequester more than 80,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide over 20 years. "We can change the lives of 5,000 farmers and their families by providing training and allowing them to have a job and food security," said Alexa Castellano, giving associate at Trees for the Future.

Next up is no other than the University of Arizona itself, where the post-secondary institute sees over $20,000 per month in crypto donations volume. The money is used to fund scholarships, student experiences, athletics, research, and various academic programs. Finally, Vive Church, a global community of churches with locations across the U.S. and E.U., managed to raise over $300,000 in crypto towards a down payment to 80,000 square-foot building in Palo Alto that could seat 2,000 people in its auditorium. And there appears to be a lot of "faith" in such donation method too, as Aaron Williams, Vive Church's finance director, explains:

"Crypto is the only asset class that people seem to be super passionate about. I get phone calls and texts about it constantly from donors. I didn't expect as much passion around it. But I believe that their passion drives generosity."

NFT philanthropy demonstrates new ways of giving back

January 31, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Analysis

Organizations and artists are using NFTs to give back to children in need, demonstrating new potential for nonfungible tokens.

NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, have created a wealth of opportunities over the last year. Data from market tracker DappRadar found that NFT sales reached $25 billion in 2021. Artwork NFTs in particular have seen impressive growth. Financial services firm FinancePR recently determined that 257 artists generated at least $1 million in the past 30 days from selling NFT artwork. It’s also notable that NFT transactions have continued to increase, despite recent slumps in the crypto market.

Yet with so much revenue being generated over a short period of time, some may be wondering how NFT creators are applying these new streams of income. While this is a tough question to answer, industry experts believe that NFT philanthropy is becoming a major trend as sales from nonfungible tokens increase.

Alex Wilson, co-founder of The Giving Block — a nonprofit crypto fundraising platform — told Cointelegraph that the rise of NFT philanthropy has mirrored general growth across the NFT sector. Wilson said that NFT philanthropy started taking off about six months ago, noting that The Giving Block has already seen over $12 million in cryptocurrency, or 30% of its donation volume, come from NFT-giving initiatives:

“In most cases, creators are selling their NFTs and then have a portion (or all) of the proceeds donated to their favorite crypto-friendly charity. Since most NFTs are sold for ETH, many of the NFT-related donations have also come in the form of Ethereum.”

Given the amount of interest in NFT philanthropy recently, Wilson stated that The Giving Block is currently working with a number of major NFT platforms to make crypto donations easier by integrating the concept into their core product. “For example, we are working with NFT platforms to ensure that when someone is setting up an auction, they can select a charity from a dropdown and then have the proceeds automatically sent there,” he said.

In addition to initiatives from The Giving Block, Graph Blockchain, a decentralized finance and altcoin company, announced on Jan. 24 that the company has entered a share exchange agreement with Niftable, a charity-focused NFT company. This agreement would essentially allow Graph Blockchain to own Niftable after the acquisition is closed.

Paul Haber, CEO of Graph Blockchain, told Cointelegraph that focusing expertise on NFTs in the charity space offers a number of benefits. He added that most charities today rely on volunteers and lack expertise in the emerging NFT world.

Betting big on NFT philanthropy

While emerging solutions from The Giving Block and Graph Blockchain could be game-changers for NFT philanthropy, artists and organizations have also begun using their own resources to ensure proceeds earned from NFT sales go to good causes. Many of these initiatives are focused on helping children.

For example, Sheqonomi is a project that uses NFTs to give back to children in need, particularly girls in developing countries. Anu Bhardwaj, founder of Sheqonomi, told Cointelegraph that the rewards-based podcast is designed specifically for low-income populations who don’t have access to streaming media services, like Spotify:

“This podcast was designed for people to listen, learn and earn, especially during COVID-19. We built Sheqonomi on KaiOS, which is a $10 mobile phone that has a partnership with the Indian telecommunication company Reliance Jio. This will incentivize 150 million JioPhone users to listen, learn and earn digital assets and rewards in the very near future.”

Bhardwaj further explained that users listening to the app have the ability to earn reward tokens as an incentive for providing the platform with user-generated data. Listeners are then able to hold these tokens in their virtual wallets or spend them on the NFT artwork soon to be featured on Sheqonomi’s platform. Bhardwaj said:

“On March 8, 2022, which is International Women’s Day, we will have an NFT gallery where people can purchase artwork NFTs with their tokens. Proceeds from each sale will be donated to participating charities on our platform. For instance, a minimum of 25% of NFT sales will be given to The State of Women Institute, a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization championing the stories and issues faced by young women and girls.”

According to Bhardwaj, Sheqonomi uses NFTs for philanthropy since these digital assets represent the voices of women and girls everywhere. “The main thing we want to spotlight is divine feminism in all forms. For instance, one of the NFTs that will be featured in our gallery was created by an eight-year-old girl who wanted to have 50% of proceeds donated to refugees.”

NFT created by eight-year-old Isla Mostaque. Source: Sheqonomi

Moreover, Bhardwaj noted that giving back using NFTs allows Sheqonomi the ability to continually add charities to its platform while letting users understand where exactly those funds are going thanks to the transparency provided by blockchain technology.

This concept also resonated with UNICEF, or the United Nations Children’s Fund. In order to commemorate UNICEF’s 75th anniversary, the agency launched 1,000 NFTs to support digital connectivity among schools in underserved communities. UNICEF partnered with data visualization scientist and artist Nadieh Bremer to create the collection “Patchwork Kingdoms.”

NFT from the “Patchwork Kingdoms.” Source: UNICEF

Chris Fabian, co-founder and lead at Giga — UNICEF’s global school internet connectivity initiative — told Cointelegraph that all of the proceeds from UNICEF’s NFT sale went back to support Giga:

“The entire sale generated 235 ETH worth of revenue. Through the minting of the NFTs alone, we raised 175 ETH. We then had an in-person auction for one unique piece that sold for 40.9 ETH. Finally, royalties from OpenSea allowed us to receive 20% back from secondary sales, where we’ve generated 20 ETH. In total, we’ve raised 235 ETH, all of which was given back to UNICEF.”

To date, Fabian explained that Giga has connected over 3,000 schools to the internet, benefitting over 700,000 children, and mapped over 1 million more to help target investment in connectivity.

He explained that using NFT proceeds has allowed Giga to bring in a new community of donors seeking social good opportunities through cryptocurrency. Moreover, Fabian mentioned that the utility behind UNICEF’s NFTs allows donors the ability to continue giving back to underserved communities. “We have flipped the way of looking at NFT utility, which is refreshing,” he said.

In another example of NFT artwork being used for charity, American entertainment company iNDIEFLIX recently released a documentary entitled Angst, which features a series of film NFTs focused on raising awareness for children’s mental health.

The film will stream until Jan. 31, 2022, on a blockchain network created by digital content management firm Eluvio.

Scilla Andreen, producer of Angst and chief operating officer iNDIEFLIX, told Cointelegraph that the production company wanted to use film NFTs to create a marketplace for creatives to directly connect with the film’s audience. “We wanted to use a story to build community. COVID hit everyone hard, so we pivoted by doing a hybrid approach to deliver content through different models, NFTs being one of those,” said Andreen.

Andreen explained that viewers can easily claim a free NFT by creating an Eluvio digital wallet from the film’s event page. There are three community NFTs featured, each containing a supply of 10,000 unique nonfungible tokens with a specific theme related to the film:

“The NFTs are meant to symbolize three stages of anxiety: revelation (to normalize and address our most common fears), action (tips and tricks to help children hack their brain to create calm), and change. A special thank you NFT will also be airdropped to the community following the event. Each NFT is linked with metadata that contains video clips from Angst.”

While the NFTs from the film are given to viewers for free, Andreen shared that a “special film” NFT will be available for purchase. She said that 50% of the proceeds from this sale will be given to the organizations Jack.org and Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation, both of which focus on children’s mental health.

Michelle Munson, co-founder and chief operating officer of Eluvio, told Cointelegraph that her firm has spent years working on incorporating blockchain technology with digital media content. For instance, in August of last year, Fox Corporation made a strategic investment in Eluvio to help develop Fox’s NFT business model. Munson explained that NFTs have opened a mechanism for value and engagement to occur through film content:

“NFTs are a new form of digital identity that can help reach youth. The backstory, though, is that NFTs can also be very profitable. NFTs can be viewed as a way to eventually provide a new type of equity finance, working as blockchain equity through NFTs. This is a huge area that our company believes will accelerate fast. Many projects are using NFTs to engage with an audience while funding their own work and charitable initiatives.”

Challenges could hamper adoption

While NFTs for charity are certainly a growing sector, challenges remain that could hamper adoption. For instance, as NFT sales gain traction, a number of scams have plagued the space. Therefore, it’s important for both donors and organizations to carefully consider each nonprofit accepting NFT donations.

For instance, Wilson mentioned that The Giving Block has vetted every nonprofit the organization works with, noting that these are all registered charities. In terms of ensuring that donations actually go to the intended recipients, Wilson added that The Giving Block is automating its distribution or payout models. “For example, on some platforms like Foundation, you can set a payout address so that a portion (or all) of the proceeds are automatically sent.”

Technical challenges aside, Munson pointed out that she believes the biggest challenge surrounding NFT philanthropy is awareness. “We need to educate the world on the possibilities. There is a real need to keep amplifying what is possible with NFTs.”

Even with the present challenges, NFT philanthropy is poised to be an ongoing trend. Alex Salnikov, co-founder and head of product at Rarible — an NFT marketplace — told Cointelegraph that there has been an increase in NFT philanthropy efforts lately. Salnikov said that while the number of donation volumes are impressive, the fact that NFT community members are becoming first-time donors is equally important:

“This presents an entirely new audience who might be even more generous than investors across other sectors. This trend is giving rise to a crowd that is just more comfortable with donating via NFTs and crypto, be it for tax reasons or just because they’re more comfortable with on-chain assets as opposed to fiat assets processed by centralized authorities.”

The Giving Block raises $2.4M for charity on ‘CyberGivingTuesday’

December 2, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Charity

Giving Tuesday marked the start of the season for crypto giving and The Giving Block is leading the crypto fundraising campaign.

After Thanksgiving Thursday, Black Friday and Cyber Monday comes Giving Tuesday, a day that encourages contributing to charity. 2021 saw a rise in crypto-philanthropy thanks to The Giving Block’s initiative of Crypto Giving Tuesday, which initially began in 2019. The organization that equips nonprofits to accept cryptocurrency donations raised $2.4 million dollars in crypto this year, a 583% increase from Crypto Giving Tuesday 2020.

From charities, universities, faith-based to other mission-driven organizations, 1,071 total nonprofits participated. And the average donation size was $12,600. The majority of donations were done in Ether (ETH), with Bitcoin (BTC) and USD Coin (USDC) in second and third place, respectively. It can be noted that ETH overtook BTC for the top spot in total donation volume, with more than $1.2 million worth of ETH donated.

For its overall campaign, dubbed #BagSeason, The Giving Block had set a goal to raise more than $100 million in crypto donations by Dec. 31. Following #CryptoGivingTuesday, the organization has fundraised over $50 million to date, according to their website. They plan to find an additional 5,000 crypto users to each donate at least $10,000 in order to reach their target.

The Giving Block’s sponsors include companies like Zengo, GSR, Gemini, Abra, Messari and Cheddar. Additional donors, whether they are individuals or organizations, have the option to commit to donating annually 1% or more of their crypto holdings to charity. Among the top five members in this Crypto Giving Pledge donor list are professional skateboard Tony Hawk, actor Rainn Wilson and crypto derivatives exchange FTX.

The Giving Block will launch NFTuesday, a one-day celebration of NFT philanthropy, on Dec. 7. In light of NFT donor demographic growth, The Giving Block recently announced a collaboration with Sotheby’s x Sostento Twitter 140 Collection to process the proceeds of the NFT auction.

Linux Foundation launches blockchain-based platform for insurance

April 13, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The Linux Foundation and the American Association of Insurance Services are co-launching a blockchain-based platform to help the insurance industry.

The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit technology consortium that supports the Linux operating system, is backing a new blockchain-based project for the insurance industry.

On Monday, the foundation announced the launch of the Open Insurance Data Link platform, a project that aims to reduce the cost of insurance reporting and create a standardized insurance data repository using distributed ledger technology.

OpenIDL is a joint initiative of the Linux Foundation and the American Association of Insurance Services, a national insurance advisory organization in the United States. The open-source project brings together major global insurance firms like The Hanover and Selective Insurance Group, as well as technology and service providers like MOBI, Chainyard and KatRisk to participate in a common DLT platform to share data and business processes in the insurance industry.

Regulatory reporting in the property and casualty insurance industry is one of the key use cases for the OpenIDL network. Benefitting from blockchain’s basic features such as immutability and transparency, the platform aims to ensure trust, or guarantee to regulators and other insurance industry participants that reporting data is accurate and complete.

OpenIDL is operating as part of the Linux Foundation’s open governance network model, which means that its network is built on nodes run by many different organizations connected by a shared distributed ledger. The common ledger provides an industry utility platform for recording transactions and automating business processes.

“Blockchain is a team sport and with the OpenIDL platform, companies, regulators and vendors are forming an ecosystem to collaborate on common issues for the betterment of the insurance industry. The entire industry will benefit through more accurate data and better decision making,” Chainyard senior vice president of consulting services Isaac Kunkel said.

Non-Profits