ETHDenver’s Impact Track Offers #Buidlers a Chance to Create a Sustainable Future with Blockchain ETHDenver Follow Jan 22, 2019 · 5 min read

Structured around the UN’s Global Sustainable Development Goals, ETHDenver’s Impact track seeks projects that promote social good.

In coordination with community partners Bounties Network, UNICEF Ventures & UNICEF France, Blockchain for Humanity, Giveth, B4SD, Alice, Blockchain Education Network (BEN), Women4Blockchain, CryptoChicks, She256, and others, ETHDenver is proud to offer an Impact track for #buidlers this year. Structured around the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the ETHDenver Impact track offers attendees the chance to create a project with impressive tech specs and one that makes a real world difference.

What Are the UN Global Sustainable Development Goals?

As defined on the UN’s website, “The Sustainable Development Goals are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.” They address global challenges, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, peace, and justice. Read the full list of the UN SDGs here.

Over the next couple of weeks, Blockchain for Sustainable Development (B4SD) will be hosting Q&A sessions on the UN SDGs for people interested in the Impact track, forming teams, or learning more about the indicators. These sessions will be organized and coordinated through our ETHDenver Status channel.

If you’re passionate about projects that can make a social difference, join our Impact track!

BUIDLATHON Specifics

To participate in the ETHDenver Impact track, participants can submit projects which qualify under the UN Sustainability categories. No existing projects are allowed; projects must be #buidled at ETHDenver. The top five projects will share a prize pool of $15k cash or ETH equivalent. Impact track participants can also complete bounties at ETHDenver as part of their project to earn additional prizes.

Rewarding Efforts That Make the World a Better Place

Participants in the Impact track will have the opportunity to earn non-monetary, community tokens. ETHDenver plans to partner with Bounties Network, UNICEF Ventures, and UNICEF France to prototype a new “positive action token.” The pilot is designed to encourage BUIDLATHON attendees to participate in a variety of bounties throughout the weekend that foster a positive impact within their communities, both in the local and broader ecosystem.

A leaderboard will keep track of how many tokens each participant has earned during the BUIDLATHON. Top token holders will be granted value-driven benefits such as early access to future UNICEF and Impact track events, mentorship sessions, incubator-style support, and more. The project will be ongoing and focused on long term incentivization of individual contributions to improving communities locally and globally while accruing a digital public acknowledgement of positive actions. Full details will be revealed in the next few weeks but you can already get involved by helping us find the best name for the collective good token. There will also be a bounty for the token design once a name is chosen.

Giveth

Giveth is providing tools for #buidlers which include Bridged and Native for liquid pledging, as well as the Giveth DApp, Minime Token, ERC777, Vault, and the Giveth Bridge. Other dev tools, like those from DAppNode, will be announced via our ETHDenver Status channel.

Blockchain for Humanity (b4H)

Blockchain for Humanity will be selecting Impact track winners for their 2019 b4H Awards, where #buidlers receive additional support and mentorship from the b4H network. We need more #buidlers to advance their work and impact beyond the BUIDLATHON and we have the community to make that happen!

All global community partners have offered to provide mentorship to Impact teams during the BUIDLATHON so if you are interested, know that you will have a lot of support!

ETHDenver’s Nick Rodrigues.

The Inspiration Behind Impact Track’s Creation

ETHDenver Diversity and Impact Steward Nick Rodrigues wanted to create the Impact track this year to encourage individuals to develop ideas that are technical, but also meet a sustainability goal.

Said Rodrigues, “The Impact track will allow people to think about their project in a systematic way. A technical piece of a project could have an outcome that benefits the planet, income equality, or even energy consumption. For example, if someone had a project where they happened to develop a way to mine more efficiently which therefore required less energy consumption, they would be meeting a sustainable development goal.”

Still Wondering How to Craft an Impact Track Project?

If you’re passionate about the idea of creating a project that could qualify for ETHDenver’s Impact track, here are some questions that ETHDenver recommends considering for inspiration:

Blockchain in Financial Inclusion: How can token economics provide a new revenue source or even a new incentivization model for the underbanked? How can funds distribution, management, and tracking be improved by blockchain? How can someone with a smartphone and wifi connection buy and sell goods and services online without needing a bank account or credit card?

Blockchain in Contract Management: How can smart contracts reduce bribery, increase transparency, and revolutionize the way we form social and legal contractual arrangements in areas like agriculture, property rights, food access, public-private partnerships, or program management?

Blockchain in Refugee/Digital Identity: How can blockchain be used to provide refugees and other displaced individuals a cross-border digital identity and access to the digital economy? How can blockchain be used to incentivize corporations to pay individuals for access to their personal data, resources, livestock, property, or community services?

Blockchain and Community Building: How can Decentralized Altruistic Communities (DACs) enable a digital union or co-op to be created and governed through a decentralized leadership and voting structure that encourages transparency, democracy, aligned incentives, equitable access to services (eg. sanitation), and sustainable use of community resources (eg. water, education)?

Blockchain in Supply Chain Management: How can blockchain increase supply chain transparency, decrease the role of rent-seeking middlemen, and simplify the monitoring and evaluation process?

If you’re interested in supporting the impact track or for additional information, please email us at impact@ethdenver.com.

ETHDenver is excited to see all of the creative ways attendees #buidl their projects in the Impact track this year. If you haven’t already, APPLY to join us next month at ETHDenver. Our final application round closes January 31st.