At Mercy Corps Ventures, we’ve spent the past 7+ years investing and co-designing real world web3 use cases through our Crypto For Good initiative. To date, we’ve partnered with 30 protocols and startups to reach over 3,000,000 users. We’re launching this newsletter to share our perspectives, insights, and optimism about the future of crypto for the underserved in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and other emerging markets. 

Feel free to share this newsletter with anyone else who might enjoy some real-world crypto news. And as always, we’d love to hear from you — reach out and let us know what you’re up to.

In this edition, we’ll cover: 

🤖 The Upcoming Agentic AI x Crypto For Good Hackathon 

🥐 Hosting Paris Blockchain Week Mixer 

💧 Pilot Launch: Bringing electricity, water, internet, and income to rural communities in Djibouti and Jamaica via web3 

📲 Pilot Insights: Stablecoins as Humanitarian Aid in Conflict Zones 

Updates: Crypto For Good Fund IV & Anticipatory Action Accelerator

Agentic AI has the potential to drastically reinvent workflows, remove frictions, improve the user experience, and lower the costs of serving the 1.4 billion people around the world who are financially excluded . While the deployment of agentic AI deployment is primarily limited to developed markets, we are excited about its potential to enhance financial inclusion in emerging markets.

We're partnering with Paris Blockchain Week to launch the Agentic AI x Crypto For Good Hackathon to identify and support viable open-source solutions that can boost climate resilience and financial inclusion for users in emerging markets. Builders can participate online or in person, and have a choice of challenge areas to choose from: 

• Area 1 – Financial inclusion: Despite the fintech boom, 1.4 billion people worldwide remain unbanked. How can Agentic AI and crypto help people access financial services, make better financial decisions, and improve their financial position? 

• Area 2 – Climate resilience: The daily lives of 3.3 billion people are vulnerable to the effects of climate change. How can Agentic AI and crypto build a more climate resilient future?

• Area 3 – Humanitarian aid: International development funding envelopes are threatened around the world, at a time when more people than ever rely on humanitarian support. How can Agentic AI and crypto be directed toward raising funds for and delivering aid to socially impactful causes?

We are co-organizing a mixer at Paris Blockchain Week focused on Crypto For Good, alongside friends from XRPL Commons. We would love to see you there!

Globally, billions of people lack access to critical resources like electricity (700 million people), clean water (2 billion), and the internet (3 billion have never been online). 

Liquidstar Waypoints represent a new approach to tackle these systemic challenges, launching micro data centers powered by renewable energy which offer services to local communities such as electricity (through solar-charged batteries) and internet (through a Starlink connection). 

When appropriate, part of the solar energy is used for Bitcoin mining, contributing an additional revenue stream towards the sustainability of the Waypoints.

Over the past decade, humanitarian crises have become more frequent and severe, spanning climate change-driven disasters, prolonged conflicts, and global pandemics. In the first half of 2024, the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance and protection increased by 7 million due to climate shocks. 

To better deliver humanitarian aid during an ongoing conflict, Mercy Corps Ventures partnered with a Mercy Corps country team, a locally-founded startup, and four local organizations to pilot stablecoin transfers.  

For security reasons, the name of the country, region, partners, and service providers in this pilot have been anonymized. 

In this pilot, cryptocurrencies for humanitarian aid demonstrated significant efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and security improvements compared to traditional methods. Aid transfer times were reduced by 62% and resulted in cost savings of 10.8%, enabling aid agencies to reach 12% more users. 

Despite the efficiencies and improvements, key challenges did exist around scalability, regulatory frameworks, and technological literacy. However, with refinement, the cryptocurrency solution could shave off significant time and cost for aid actors operating in complex financial landscapes.

In early March, we held a Pitch Day for six finalists from the Crypto For Good Fund IV. It was difficult selecting the finalists from the pool of 200+ applications, and even more challenging to narrow it down to the winners. Stay tuned as we announce our next batch of pilot partners emerging from C4G4.  

We’re similarly amazed by the interest and response we received for the Anticipatory Action Accelerator. From climate analytics and AI models to early warning systems and remote sensing technologies, we see immense potential to help communities better anticipate, adapt to, and rebuild after climate events and disasters. Our team is hard at work reviewing the 229 proposals, and we will be reaching out to shortlisted applicants in the coming weeks. 

We are incredibly impressed by the quality of applicants and optimistic about the bright future of web3 use cases for emerging markets, given the caliber of builder talent. 

Scott

At Mercy Corps Ventures, we’ve spent the past 7+ years investing and co-designing real world web3 use cases through our Crypto For Good initiative. To date, we’ve partnered with 30 protocols and startups to reach over 3,000,000 users. We’re launching this newsletter to share our perspectives, insights, and optimism about the future of crypto for the underserved in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and other emerging markets. 

Feel free to share this newsletter with anyone else who might enjoy some real-world crypto news. And as always, we’d love to hear from you — reach out and let us know what you’re up to.

In this edition, we’ll cover: 

🤖 The Upcoming Agentic AI x Crypto For Good Hackathon 

🥐 Hosting Paris Blockchain Week Mixer 

💧 Pilot Launch: Bringing electricity, water, internet, and income to rural communities in Djibouti and Jamaica via web3 

📲 Pilot Insights: Stablecoins as Humanitarian Aid in Conflict Zones 

Updates: Crypto For Good Fund IV & Anticipatory Action Accelerator

Agentic AI has the potential to drastically reinvent workflows, remove frictions, improve the user experience, and lower the costs of serving the 1.4 billion people around the world who are financially excluded . While the deployment of agentic AI deployment is primarily limited to developed markets, we are excited about its potential to enhance financial inclusion in emerging markets.

We're partnering with Paris Blockchain Week to launch the Agentic AI x Crypto For Good Hackathon to identify and support viable open-source solutions that can boost climate resilience and financial inclusion for users in emerging markets. Builders can participate online or in person, and have a choice of challenge areas to choose from: 

• Area 1 – Financial inclusion: Despite the fintech boom, 1.4 billion people worldwide remain unbanked. How can Agentic AI and crypto help people access financial services, make better financial decisions, and improve their financial position? 

• Area 2 – Climate resilience: The daily lives of 3.3 billion people are vulnerable to the effects of climate change. How can Agentic AI and crypto build a more climate resilient future?

• Area 3 – Humanitarian aid: International development funding envelopes are threatened around the world, at a time when more people than ever rely on humanitarian support. How can Agentic AI and crypto be directed toward raising funds for and delivering aid to socially impactful causes?

We are co-organizing a mixer at Paris Blockchain Week focused on Crypto For Good, alongside friends from XRPL Commons. We would love to see you there!

Globally, billions of people lack access to critical resources like electricity (700 million people), clean water (2 billion), and the internet (3 billion have never been online). 

Liquidstar Waypoints represent a new approach to tackle these systemic challenges, launching micro data centers powered by renewable energy which offer services to local communities such as electricity (through solar-charged batteries) and internet (through a Starlink connection). 

When appropriate, part of the solar energy is used for Bitcoin mining, contributing an additional revenue stream towards the sustainability of the Waypoints.

Over the past decade, humanitarian crises have become more frequent and severe, spanning climate change-driven disasters, prolonged conflicts, and global pandemics. In the first half of 2024, the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance and protection increased by 7 million due to climate shocks. 

To better deliver humanitarian aid during an ongoing conflict, Mercy Corps Ventures partnered with a Mercy Corps country team, a locally-founded startup, and four local organizations to pilot stablecoin transfers.  

For security reasons, the name of the country, region, partners, and service providers in this pilot have been anonymized. 

In this pilot, cryptocurrencies for humanitarian aid demonstrated significant efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and security improvements compared to traditional methods. Aid transfer times were reduced by 62% and resulted in cost savings of 10.8%, enabling aid agencies to reach 12% more users. 

Despite the efficiencies and improvements, key challenges did exist around scalability, regulatory frameworks, and technological literacy. However, with refinement, the cryptocurrency solution could shave off significant time and cost for aid actors operating in complex financial landscapes.

In early March, we held a Pitch Day for six finalists from the Crypto For Good Fund IV. It was difficult selecting the finalists from the pool of 200+ applications, and even more challenging to narrow it down to the winners. Stay tuned as we announce our next batch of pilot partners emerging from C4G4.  

We’re similarly amazed by the interest and response we received for the Anticipatory Action Accelerator. From climate analytics and AI models to early warning systems and remote sensing technologies, we see immense potential to help communities better anticipate, adapt to, and rebuild after climate events and disasters. Our team is hard at work reviewing the 229 proposals, and we will be reaching out to shortlisted applicants in the coming weeks. 

We are incredibly impressed by the quality of applicants and optimistic about the bright future of web3 use cases for emerging markets, given the caliber of builder talent. 

Scott