A world where humanitarian causes are fully transparent and held accountable.

This may seem like quite the ambitious vision at first, I agree. But to understand my motivation and reasons for it, we have to go back in time a bit; to the time I received a call from a former colleague and friend of mine: Akash Parmesar. An entrepreneur, visionary, and philanthropist.

From past to prologue

I have known Akash for many years now. I met him as a fellow account manager at a technology firm, and quickly learned that we had the same type of interests and an intrinsic drive to change the world for the better.

So when he called with the question whether I still wanted to make the world a better place, my answer was a fast, but well-meant “Heck yeah! Of course, man”. During this phone call Akash explained to me what sort of idea he was planning to realize and how it was conceived together with Jackie — another former colleague, coincidentally at the same firm — in the now notorious “KFC meeting” — a story for another time.

Jackie and Akash had found a way to make our vision for a better future an actual possibility. No, even better: a reality. This was the start of

Opakeco: The Human Foundation.

A non-profit organization that aims to bring transparency and accountability to humanitarian causes with the help of the blockchain, smart contracts, social connections and perseverance.

The word “opakeco” means “opacity” in Esperanto. Why “opacity”? Just read the definition: “the quality of lacking transparency”. We all feel that this is something withholding the world from becoming a better place, especially when it comes to humanitarian charities.

The Opakeco Foundation has chosen the Esperanto translation, because it was specifically designed to transcend cultural differences and to be politically neutral. The foundation strives for these exact same goals.

Foundation of the foundation

Every organization is built by its people, the Opakeco Foundation is not unique in this regard. It requires a team of dedicated and like-minded people to set everything in motion, and keep everything in motion.

The very first meeting we had, I met another member of the team: René. He is a senior cybersecurity expert at the leading cybersecurity firm here in the Netherlands. The final member of the Opakeco team is someone I am happy to call both friend and colleague: Iskander Mos, a creative, trustworthy and one of the most inspirational people I have met to day. It was here, in this moment, that I realized Jackie and Akash had put together a game-changing founding team; a team of five highly capable and motivated people. Quite frankly, the diversity of its people, its combination of skills and personalities, yet the same vision for the world, it hyped me even more.

The future to come

The Opakeco foundation is building a revolutionary platform where stakeholders — which is anyone with a token, let’s call them token holders — will be able to exert control over the foundation, and support humanitarian charities without the need for any technical skills.

Our goal with the foundation is to position it in a way, that in time, Opakeco will become the quality label for measuring the transparency level of charities and well-doers.

We want to let the world know we are serious about this, and that there will be no excuses. The Opakeco Foundation will be led by example. This means the foundation will be fully transparent and accountable. The Opakeco Foundation will publish all internal company communication every day, and token holders are able to see its income and expenses.

We look forward to a successful launch, and of course to start our mission of building a better and more transparent future!

If you are interested in what we are going to do and how we are going to do it, check our whitepaper at https://opakeco.org/whitepaper.pdf.

Akis Karamanlis

Philanthropist and Chief Marketing Officer at Opakeco.