Digital Impact Week.
It was an honor to represent GoodDollar at the inaugural Digital Impact Week, held in London in early November. The four-day summit in the English capital gathered approximately 500 highly influential people, from all over the world. It sought to highlight how digital technologies are transforming the world, across a number of sectors, and promoted the idea of using innovative solutions for social good.
We were invited to speak about our mission at the not-for-profit foundation GoodDollar — to reduce global wealth inequality through a combination of blockchain technology and universal basic income principles — by the event’s organizer, Dr Jane Thomason.
We presented a 12-minute keynote, showing how far we have come in just one year, and started by pointing out that 94 percent of the world’s wealth is owned by 20 percent of the population. And also that the planet’s 26 richest people own as much as the poorest 50 percent — or 3.8 billion. Because the inequality gap is widening, it is leading to anger and political instability.
At GoodDollar, we are exploring how blockchain and cryptocurrency can be used to facilitate UBI on a wide scale — something that has not been attempted until now. Because blockchain is transparent, decentralized, and can be utilized without the need for third parties or middlemen, it is a good solution to distribute UBI.
Following the speech, I was quoted in Forbes, saying: “Blockchain is a truly transformational technology that will have a seismic impact on a vast number of industries and shape the future of money and investments. What is most exciting to me, however, is blockchain’s potential to supercharge humanity. I believe if we embrace it we can find solutions to some of our greatest challenges.”
Digital Impact Week was a huge opportunity for GoodDollar. And there was a very good reaction to our project. It was pleasing to see that people understand how we are trying to change the world for the better. Many delegates approached me to discuss possible collaborations and offer words of encouragement for our project.
“We were delighted to showcase GoodDollar at London’s Digital Impact Week,” Dr Thomason said. “It is a far-reaching, ambitious effort to leverage all the potential of blockchain to create a global impact on wealth and income inequality.”
She continued: “Blockchain as a champion of the global commons is its most powerful promise. GoodDollar is pioneering a future that, if the project is successful, will be as significant as a major scientific discovery, because to address inequity and inequality is a major challenge of our time.”
We are all excited about what the next year will bring for GoodDollar, as we develop our product and application, and take more steps towards achieving our mission on a global scale.
Thanks to the publicity from Digital Impact Week, and other events, I hope like-minded people will collaborate with GoodDollar to help accelerate our progress and make our dream a reality.