Bankchain Briefing: FoodChain and Circle want to fight global hunger using blockchain
- 'Tis the season of giving, so Tearsheet spoke to FoodChain's CEO, Shawn Kurz, about using blockchain technology to fight global hunger.
- Millennials and Gen Z want to see the direct impact of their donation efforts. Kurz says organizations must make products engaging while ensuring transparency with verifiable outcomes.
To quote the Chinese proverb, it has been an 'interesting time' for crypto. Do Kwon and Sam Bankman-Fried pulled a Houdini with billions of dollars – making many children forgo PlayStation presents this Christmas. But in this briefing, we say no to Binance FUD and SBF hearings in Satoshi's name.
'Tis the season of giving, so Tearsheet spoke to FoodChain’s CEO, Shawn Kurz, about using blockchain technology to fight global hunger. Despite the termination of its $9 billion SPAC deal, Circle partnered with FoodChain to move crypto beyond the speculative and into the utility phase.
FoodChain Global (FCG) is a blockchain-based organization focused on facilitating funds to food banks worldwide. Their partnership with Circle enables donation payments in its USDC stablecoin. Each donation transaction is publicly auditable and reaches its destination instantly on the blockchain.
We spoke with Kurz to hear more about FCG and the potential use of blockchain technology for charitable purposes.
Can you tell us the genesis story of FoodChain Global?
I witnessed people spending money frivolously during the pandemic. They bought into cryptocurrency projects with no purpose or a solid business structure that contributed back to society. While others were relying on government funding to put food on the table, people worldwide spent billions of dollars on things like meme coins that served no real-world purpose.
My team and I created FoodChain Global to help fight global hunger while offering many similarities to other cryptocurrencies, such as the ability to trade over centralized and decentralized exchanges.
FCG ensures all product offerings bring value back to the real world. For example, we branded merchandise, purchasable with FOOD tokens. We use 30% of the proceeds to buy food for the needy.
What are the benefits and challenges of using blockchain technology for charity?
The benefits of using blockchain technology are the ability to show publicly verifiable records that anyone can check online to see the flow of funds. Working with Circle’s USDC stablecoin makes the off-ramp to fiat seamless worldwide. Taking this a step further, FCG links this flow of funds to actual work completed. And we dedicated an entire page on the website to showing donation work that has already started in South Africa, Vietnam, Canada, and Brazil.
The challenge to using blockchain is simply distancing ourselves from the scams, bad actors, and other negative stigmas associated with this space. Working with organizations like Circle helps validate FoodChain Global’s efforts to work with well-respected organizations and help make our mission possible with their product offerings.
You target Millennials and Gen Z. Can you give us some insight into their charitable habits?
Millennials and Gen Z want to see the direct impact of their donation efforts. Organizations working with younger generations must make products engaging while ensuring transparency with verifiable outcomes. These generations are glued to the digital world and are more likely to join our efforts on product offerings they can relate to while contributing back to society.
What can we expect from FoodChain Global in the future?
FCG just launched its dApp offering, a fiat on-ramp experience like no other, and its branded merchandise store is moving to worldwide shipping in Q1 2023. Users can buy FOOD tokens using Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or bank transfers in over 125 countries without a centralized exchange.
In addition, our dApp has an integrated option to allow new blockchain users to create their wallet addresses by just using their email addresses as access. We strive for mainstream adoption. This is a major step to providing a seamless experience.
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What we are reading:
- Bieber, Madonna among dozens of celebs named in lawsuit alleging Yuga Labs NFT 'scheme' (CoinDesk)
- Starbucks opens up its web3 loyalty program and NFT community to first beta testers. (TechCrunch)
- Coinbase CEO sees revenue falling 50% or more on crypto rout. (Bloomberg)
- Canada's biggest pension plan, CPPI, ends crypto investment pursuit. (Reuters)
- Anchorage Digital lands $100 million web3 opportunity fund. (Decrypt)
- Circle terminates $9 billion deal with Bob Diamond-backed SPAC. (Reuters)
- PayPal working with crypto wallet MetaMask to offer easy way to buy crypto. (CoinDesk)