New York, NY — December 13, 2017 — Global blockchain venture studio ConsenSys is supporting Sustainability International in realizing the potential of blockchain technology to provide an efficient and transparent platform for financing international development projects.

Sustainability International is an NGO that deploys innovative technologies to alleviate poverty in Africa. Currently, their foremost initiative is the economic development of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The Niger Delta, identified by the United Nations as one of the eight disaster and conflict areas of the world, has been devastated by five decades of the worst oil pollution crisis in modern history. Sustainability International aims to revitalize this region by raising awareness about the environmental crisis, meeting with stakeholders to promote dialogue, catalyzing oil cleanups, and delivering emergency healthcare and clean water to the region.

The collaboration between ConsenSys’s Social Impact Team and Sustainability International was forged through a dialogue within the Blockchain for Social Impact Coalition. The Social Impact team at ConsenSys will provide research supporting Sustainability International in its mission to provide breakthrough solutions and technology to alleviate poverty in Africa.

The Social Impact Team will focus on activating blockchain technology to inform the design of Sela, a platform that enables direct payments and distributed accountability to all stakeholders involved in a development project: local community members, the government, NGOs, and companies. Sela creates a trust economy that brings visibility to credible local community members, who can earn trust by completing and monitoring projects within their community. Community members can then leverage their proven track record to raise additional investment and philanthropic funds for their village. In November, Sustainability International launched an alpha test of Sela in the Niger Delta’s K-Dere region as part of a pilot oil cleanup.

The Social Impact team at ConsenSys aims to research, incubate, develop, and implement blockchain products and solutions that address social and environmental challenges across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which were outlined by the United Nations in 2015. The team is made up of founders and organizers of the Blockchain for Social Impact Coalition (BSIC), which confederates a large group of humanitarians, impact investors, and technologists to explore and collaborate on blockchain for social impact use cases. Most recently, the Coalition ran the Blockchain for Social Impact Hackathon, a month-long accelerator that activated more than 600 participants and 60 teams from around the world.

“This collaboration with Sustainability International is a great opportunity for us to gain a deeper understanding of how blockchain can aid international development projects,” said Ben Siegel, Impact Policy Manager at ConsenSys, Blockchain for Social Impact. “As we seek to leverage, and activate the potential of blockchain technology for social impact, it is incredibly important that we have a full understanding of how these systems will interact with the beneficiaries on the ground.”

Chinyere Nnadi, CEO of Sustainability International, agrees that the most effective humanitarian solutions address the immediate needs of communities in the conflict and disaster areas. “If we seek to help communities such as the Niger Delta overcome decades of transparency and accountability issues, we must build for what these communities need. Instead of forcing the perception of what we believe the solution is, let’s learn from the local women, for example, and identify what she needs, and build for that. Sustainability International’s partnership with ConsenSys is crucial to our human-centered design approach in building the Sela platform.”

Media Contact:

ConsenSys: Benjamin Siegel, Impact Policy Manager, ben.siegel@consensys.net

Sustainability International: Chinyere Nnadi, CEO, info@sustainabiliy-international.org

About ConsenSys

ConsenSys is a venture production studio and custom software development consultancy building decentralized applications (DApps), enterprise solutions, and developer tools for blockchain ecosystems, focused primarily on Ethereum. Powered by smart contracts and secured through encryption, our applications provide the benefits of transparency, auditability, and immutability that are unique to blockchain-based solutions. For more information, visit www.consensys.net.

About Blockchain for Social Impact Coalition

Blockchain for Social Impact Coalition (BSIC) is a ConsenSys initiative that incubates, develops, and implements confederated blockchain products and solutions to address social and environmental challenges across the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. For more information, visit www.blockchainforsocialimpact.com.

About Sustainability International

Solving 20th century problems with 21st century solutions, Sustainability International is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing innovative solutions to complex sustainability and conservation issues in the developing world. We work directly with governments, communities, and private sector stakeholders to bring about real impact and change. To learn more about our projects, go to http://www.sustainability-international.org/projects/.

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