In its simplest form, blockchain works like an enormous database decentralised on a peer-to-peer network – no person or entity controls it.
Public vs private blockchain
There is a distinction between public and private blockchains. A private blockchain, in contrast, is not decentralised. Even so, it merely works as a distributed ledger that operates as a closed database secured with cryptographic concepts based on a specific organisation’s needs.
In such a case, only authorised personnel within an organisation can make, validate, and authenticate changes or execute contracts on the blockchain.
The blockchain proposition as a function towards social good and digital philanthropy is a laudable development. Committing to the public is one thing, but demonstrating it is another – in a fast-paced globalized world, transparency and accountability are heavily stressed yet often neglected.
When blockchain is employed for social or philanthropic causes such as climate change or digital philanthropy, donors receive “live” and “up-to-date” information on funds’ use, distribution, and impact.
Blockchain for good is a revolution in the making
Imagine that a donor of US$100,000 pledged to an orphanage’s dental fund, helping children with bad teeth. Using blockchain, all the stakeholders (i.e., donors, philanthropic organizations, beneficiaries) will be able to see how that US$100,000 is deployed, how much is paid to dentists, and how the remaining funds are allocated transparently.
This transparency extends to supporting charities and social impact projects in deploying funds more effectively.
For instance, there is no disputing that some charities are well-funded solely because they have more donors and a robust operating budget to keep them running for a few years, while other philanthropic organisations are on the brink of insolvency because operating expenses cannot be covered without donors.
Also Read: Can Bitcoin help us in the fight against climate change?
Imagine a centralised database on the blockchain of beneficiaries, with verifiable time stamps, geolocations, supply chain, and expense records all available for public viewing and audit.
This is yet a further dimension of transparency that can assist the public in making informed decisions on the causes they wish to support and their urgency.
Blockchain: In the present and the future
It’s indisputable that blockchain is the path ahead until a faster, more efficient, and quicker technology emerges. Perhaps, an underlying network based on all the touchpoints of a peer-to-peer (P2P) network with lightning-speed validation and consensus mechanisms might be an alternative.
In fact, it would not be surprising if there were already brilliant minds working to improve and even surpass these processes.
Aside from the Singapore government, Indonesia and the Philippines are proactively exploring the use of blockchain, in which deliberate steps are being enacted to promote and explore the use of blockchain to enhance transparency across all conventional industries.
Clearly, these are promising signs for the underlying technology of blockchain, web3, and the metaverse.
This engenders a “new economy” and a surge in demand for all the accompanying skills required in the ecosystem.
It is also for this purpose that Goya Universe has rolled out an educational platform with the vision to bring high-quality educational and related content to users globally for free and at highly subsidized prices, which taps into the sheer number of users worldwide who need the skills necessary to compete in the new economy.
Blockchain climate and the need for change
One of the issues widely discussed is the environmental sustainability of blockchain and mining and its effects on the environment.
The blockchain community comprehends this and is moving on from a proof of work (POW) model (where a competitive validation method is used to confirm transactions and add new blocks to the blockchain) as opposed to an explanation of Proof of Stake (POS) model (where randomly selected validators are used to verify transactions and add new blocks).
Due to the disparity in principles, the POS model consumes a mere fraction of the energy used by the POW model. The industry is also rethinking and reinventing itself and experimenting.
The other issue prevalent in this sector is not caused or premised on the blockchain itself but rides on an inherent human weakness – greed.
From the fiasco of the Luna token and stable coin crash to people launching Tokens / Coins to raise funds without any fundamentally sound business models, it is undeniable that blockchain or any project associated with crypto has taken a severe reputational hit.
Another phenomenon that boggles the mind is how projects with questionable revenue streams can trade at x1000s times the listing price on dubious valuations.
However, we see parallels in the stock market, where companies listed on NASDAQ are trading at valuations far exceeding their enterprise values.
In the current “crypto winter,” many crypto exchanges and companies have gone belly up. It is a stark reminder that good intentions are not enough, and technology and financial products derived from it need regulatory guidelines and be subject to accountability and audits.
It is essential to emphasize and distinguish cryptocurrencies as an asset class from the distributed ledger technology (DLT) they rely on.
Also Read: Are NFTs here to stay (with or without blockchain)?
DLT is an established set of technological solutions that enables sequenced, standardized, and cryptographically secured activity records to be safely distributed to and acted upon by a network of participants. DLT has immense potential and uses cases in financial services, and many of these applications will, in fact, not rely on the consensus models utilized by cryptocurrencies.
Given the above, we need to go back to basics. Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies by themselves are neither good nor bad, and indeed, the intention of Blockchain and how it came to be propositioned was based on good intentions.
Goya Universe
Goya Universe is our vision of being at the forefront of technology to enhance transparency and accountability in transactions.
Philanthropy
We use the platform to fund charities and social impact causes; local charities include Project Dignity Kitchen and Daughters of Tomorrow.
We encourage creatives to pledge a percentage of their earnings to the charities or causes on our platform. This is similarly automatically executed once a sale is confirmed via smart contract and forever imprinted in the blockchain.
Social impact: Blue Carbon Offset Initiative, Mangrove Reforestation. For example, in receiving pledges for a carbon offset project, our platform ensures that each contributor can track the use of funds and how each mangrove plant is nurtured from seedling to the point at which it’s’ planted in the donors’ name and that same monitoring is maintained for at least a year with comprehensive data on the growth of the mangrove trees and its’ location.
Each tree is tagged individually with an RFID, and data is uploaded on the blockchain, including the scientific and mathematical tabulation of the carbon offset produced.
Education
We work with committed educational providers, content writers, professors, and speakers to create accessible and minimal-cost content meant to educate anyone who wishes to build opportunities for themselves to devour knowledge and get into the system through strategic partnerships with like-minded agencies and companies in the region.
For example, Goya will equip learners with the basics of financial literacy, blockchain, web3, and basic coding principles in English, Tagalog, and Bahasa in the Philippines and Indonesia.
Goya will also work with these countries and MNCs to match our graduates (whether at Certificate or Proficiency levels) for internships in companies in their country or other job placements and job opportunities.
Blockchain will be used to issue and track the authenticity of our Certificates globally, establishing our educational partners as global brands educating the young and disadvantaged with its primary goal of social impact in addition to profitability.
On the Goya platform, we allow content creators to create and post content and be paid royalties on downloads to reward them for creating informative content.
Some brands who support our cause and are already on board include Marshall Cavendish, a leading educational provider; SSTC, a 40-year-old educational service provider; Cambridge testing centre; and a Global collective of Design Thinker’s Academy from over 25 countries.
E-commerce
One will find food distribution companies, educational service providers, even a private investigation agency, and a trendy yoga studio, Crow Yoga, where visitors can download yoga lessons for use in private yoga sessions or join a live yoga lesson in the metaverse.
We are also working with these companies to create unique content to build communities within the metaverse and rewards programs to ensure continued engagement throughout their online and offline relationship with these brands. It is fascinating what can be done on the metaverse, and we can’t wait to launch some of these programs to the public.
All businesses start off with a digital identity, like an address and website. A compelling proposition for businesses now is to leapfrog into the future with a virtual office and presence instead of a conventional Web1 or 1.5 web pages.
At Goya, we seek to be a bridge and platform for all our stakeholders to be future-ready in a safe and trusted environment.
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