Next Earth, the NFT-based replica of Earth, announced that over $64,000 in proceeds from the sale of its virtual land will be donated to four environmental charities. The Ocean Cleanup, SEE Turtles, Kiss the Ground, and Amazon Watch will each receive funds allocated by a community-based vote.
The allocation of funds across these four charities took place in a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), which enables Next Earth’s community to decide how to allocate funds raised from virtual real estate sales. DAOs are a new form of governance structure where token holders can vote for the allocation of resources via decentralized governance, rather than through traditional boardrooms.
The virtual land funds were pre-allocated, with 10% of the total raised being allocated for charitable contributions. The Ocean Cleanup received the largest share of votes, and will get 86 BNB, while SEE Turtles will receive 24.57 BNB, and Kiss the Ground and Amazon Watch will each receive roughly half of the remaining 51 BNB.
The four charities
Next Earth’s decentralized charity initiative is allocating funds across four important environmental groups. Let’s look at each of these in brief.
The Ocean Cleanup is an organization that intends to clean up the world’s oceans using a system that employs floating barriers, which will remove ocean plastic as it is collected, while also collecting plastic from river streams. Ocean plastic is an enormous environmental problem, and The Ocean Cleanup’s system is a promising potential solution to this ongoing crisis.
The Ocean Cleanup has prevented over 1 billion bottles from reaching the oceans. Their goal of cleaning up 90% of the world’s floating ocean plastic is ambitious, but not impossible.
Amazon Watch works to conserve biodiversity and human rights in some of the most fragile ecosystems on Earth – the Amazon Rainforest. They collaborate with indigenous people to drive change. The rainforest is one of the largest carbon sinks on Earth, but it is also home to many endangered species, as well as massive deforestation projects.
SEE Turtles is a non-profit organization that protects endangered sea turtles with conversation tours, supporting nesting beaches, helping to end demand for turtleshells, and cleaning up waste from turtle habitats. These actions are important, complementary efforts to help save turtles.
Kiss the Ground empowers regenerative agriculture efforts, which is a conservation and rehabilitation approach that supports food and farming systems. Regenerative agriculture focuses on topsoil regeneration, biodiversity, improving the water cycle, increasing resilience to climate change, and more.
Why it matters
The most important investment in the world is not buying and selling stocks or bonds. It’s investing in projects that can help us fix our environment. Recently, the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) published a new report that underscores how urgent it is for humanity to act. It’s now “code red” for humanity.
We are facing a climate crisis. The actions we take today can make or break our future. There is no more important investment than investing in projects that will help us stabilize our climate, adapt to climate change, and get out of the carbon business altogether.
The future needs investment now if we want relief from climate change and resource depletion, and it needs it in new ways that will create opportunities for people who haven’t benefited much from capitalism before. DAO-based charitable giving is one of the most promising ways to invest in future environmental projects.
DAOs, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, are organizations that run on smart contracts on blockchains. They are digital entities that can perform many functions normally associated with traditional businesses, including raising money or issuing securities. In the case of a charity, a DAO may allocate funding to various organizations based on community voting.
In a DAO, it’s easy for new participants to get involved if they want to help make decisions or invest in projects. It also means that companies can more easily turn their focus from making a profit to making the world a better place.
Solving our tremendous global challenges cannot be done solely with traditional means. The billions of people who have been shut out of investing until now may need a better way to support the organizations that are creating change. DAOs can provide a powerful new tool for social engagement and investment, and Next Earth metaverse is using this technology to make a real difference in the long-term health of our planet.
Photo by Drew Graham on Unsplash
