NFTs For Good

NFTs are all the craze these days, with astronomical sums of cryptocurrency being paid for this digital artwork. For the past year or so, celebrities, digital artists, and creatives of all sorts have been lining up to put their unique NFT artwork on the blockchain. If you haven’t heard about NFTs, you might feel a bit confused, so let me quickly explain what it actually represents.

NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are a digital asset that represents real-world artistic objects such as music, paintings, drawings, in-game items, and videos. These digital art pieces are mostly purchased with cryptocurrency and have similar software to cryptocurrencies. While they were introduced to the world in 2014, it took three years before their popularity skyrocketed in 2017. Since then, $174 million has been spent on NFTs worldwide. 

Every non-fungible token has a built-in authentication so buyers can prove they have the original version of the artwork. Now, this doesn’t mean that other people can’t see or download the artwork, however, they can’t prove their ownership. If this is still confusing, think of NFTs as digital trading cards.

‘Non-fungible’ means that the artwork is unique and cannot be replaced with something else. For instance, a bitcoin is fungible, it can be traded for another bitcoin, but NFT is a one-of-a-kind artwork, therefore, it’s not fungible. If you trade it for a different thing, you will get exactly that – something completely different and unique in its own way.

Most NFTs are part of the Ethereum blockchain. Ethereum is one of the numerous available cryptocurrencies in the world, but its blockchain supports these NFTs too, which store additional information that makes them function differently from, say, Ethereum coin or bitcoin. 

It’s safe to say that the hype is real, but what about its impact on our society? Can anything good come out of it? 

Auctioning and selling off NFTs for charity is becoming increasingly common, and the profits are being used for various environmental and social causes. Many charities have already benefited from NFT auctions, allowing organizations to raise their funds transparently while engaging with their audience and strengthening their brand awareness. 

Here are some examples of how individuals and organizations use NFTs to give back to the community and society.

1. The Giving Block

The Giving Block is a nonprofit-specific cryptocurrency fundraising platform that aims to reach the ‘fastest donor demographic’ by accepting Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies, connecting them and the nonprofits and charities. Typically, creators sell their NFTs and then take a portion (or all) of the proceeds donated to the crypto-friendly charity of their choice. The Giving Block platform has seen over $2 million cryptos from NFT-related initiatives in the past six months.

2. Sheqonomi

Sheqonomi is a reward-based listening app that uses NFTs to give back to children in need, particularly girls in underdeveloped countries. Users can listen, learn, and earn digital assets, earning tokens as an incentive for providing the platform with their data. The tokens can be kept in a digital wallet or spent on NFT artwork.

3. NFTs For Mental Health

Lately, we could see a myriad of artists developing NFTs to support a wide range of social issues from stress, anxiety, depression to addiction, trauma, and more. By integrating NFTs with social issues, particularly mental health issues, these artists are raising awareness as they build a community that goes through the healing journey together. For instance, Kumo x World (@kumoxworld) is an incredibly creative platform that gives a percentage of its sales to children and mental health charities. Recently, they’ve teamed up with a highly popular JungleBay Ape Club (@JungleBayAC) and lil Brains (@lilbrains_) for a special giveaway event to bring awareness to mental health. 

4. Beeple and Open Earth Foundation

The Beeple’s NFT art collection ‘EVERYDAYS’ had enormous success, so much so that ‘The First 5000 Days’ artwork has sold for a whopping $69 million. His ‘OCEANFRONT’ was bought for $6 million, and the proceeds were donated to Open Earth Foundation. This nonprofit foundation combats climate change by using technologies and collaborations to create a strong and healthier world.

5. iNDIEFLIX

iNDIEFLIX, an American entertainment company, has released ‘Angst,’ a documentary featuring a series of film NFTs focused on raising awareness for children’s mental health, particularly their dealings with anxiety. The film was streamed on a blockchain network created by Eluvio. Viewers could get a free NFT by opening an Eluvio digital wallet from the movie’s event page. There were three community NFTs featured, and each contained a supply of 10,000 NFTs with a specific theme related to the movie – revelation, to normalize and address the most common fears, actions, tips, and tricks to help kids hack their brains to create calmness and change. While these NFTs were gifted to the viewers for free, one special NFT was up for purchase. 50% of the proceeds were given to Jack.org and Lady Gaga’s Born This Way foundations, focusing on children’s mental health.

6. Pets of World Happiness Fest Metaverse

The collection of our mascots reflects the interdependent nature of who we are as humans at a metaverse level. Each of the six mascots of this movement (Felicia, Devotion, Peace, Reverence, The eye, and Empathy) represents the integration of our fears, talents, and deep essence in equilibrium with nature and the whole multi and metaverse. I wholeheartedly invite you to choose your pet and represent this great cause!

Conclusion

While NFTs for good causes is a growing concept, it still faces some difficulties with mass adoption for fear of scams and lack of awareness. However, although these challenges exist, the number of donation volumes keeps on increasing. Because of NFTs, its users have become first-time donors, which is a wonderful thing.

NFTs provide a bigger opportunity than just buying and selling artwork and making money in the Metaverse. It also allows organizations, donors, and communities to empower girls and women, save the environment, raise awareness, and so much more. And the very nature of blockchain technology allows its users to see where their crypto donations are going, inspiring trust. What a great way to utilize creativity and technology for good!

Keep Reading on the series about Blockchain, Crypto, NFTs and Web 3.0. The Future of Cryptocurrency and its Link to World Happiness

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