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Summer is here and so is the Web3ForGood summer break 🔆. After today, we’ll be pausing publication and touching lots of grass for the next month. We hope you do the same!

However, if you’re really missing your weekly Web3ForGood fix, we recommend the following:

• Attend the Regenerative Technology Playshop ~ Governance & Collaboration by the Regenerative Technology Project next week. We haven’t been yet, but we heard the last one was great, and it’s on our list.

• Subscribe to Funding the Commons events on Luma and show up at the next Town Hall. Great event, always!

• Fund Web3 public goods via Octant’s Epoch 12. You have until June 30. For the first time, you can back projects even if you haven’t previously staked Octant’s native token, which means, its a great way to experiment with the platform and learn more about the community. Maybe your project could be featured in a future round??

• Listen to the Crypto Altruists podcast. Catch up on past ones and/or subscribe for new episodes weekly. This is our favorite way to learn what people are building right now.
  

But seriously, don’t forget to touch some grass too. We’ll miss you and we’ll see you in August 💚💚

WAGMI (we are going to make an impact!)

xx Abeera & Sam

What’s Inside

• 📚 What We’re Thinking About

• 📣 Latest News

• 🔈 Watch & Listen

• 🚀 Opportunities & Calls to Act

• 🎪 Events

• 📡 On Our Radar

• ✨ And One More Thing

📚 What We’re Thinking About

🧭 EthLabs and Ethereum’s New Chapter

This week, five well-respected researchers left the Ethereum Foundation to launch EthLabs, an independent nonprofit dedicated to Ethereum’s core research and development. The founding team includes some of the most cited protocol researchers of the last decade. Their mission? To make Ethereum the settlement layer of the global economy. EthLabs describes itself as “one node in a much larger network of stewards,” which is decentralization at its finest, built into the core.

EthLabs did not appear out of nowhere. It launched the same week the Ethereum Foundation announced a major restructuring, trimming roughly 40% of its budget and around 54 roles. That is a real loss, and Ethereum supporters have been honest about it, while being quick to point out what the cuts will actually enable. The Foundation is deliberately becoming leaner and more endowment-like so it can fund Ethereum’s core values through any market cycle, rather than chasing price or spreading itself thin. Its work now centers on a tight set of priorities, keeping Ethereum censorship-resistant, open, private, and secure.

The shift is moving away from one big foundation trying to do everything and toward independent teams like EthLabs spread across the ecosystem. That is healthier, more resilient, and it mirrors the very thing that makes Ethereum valuable for social change: power and responsibility distributed instead of concentrated in one place. If you want to get involved or support the lab, you can reach the EthLabs team at join@ethlabs.org.

We’re excited to see where this is going. Ethereum has proven itself a real tool for social good over and over again, from getting aid directly to people in collapsing economies to giving activists and journalists rails they can trust. The way we see it, a sharper foundation and a new independent lab is not stepping back, but rather, a mission-driven ecosystem growing up.

Ethlabs@ethlabs_org

Announcing Ethlabs: a non-profit R&D lab for Ethereum and ETH Our mission is to make Ethereum the settlement layer of the global economy. The internet became global because shared protocols created a common language between networks. Private systems remained useful, but

5:03 PM · Jun 22, 2026 · 1.46M Views

469 Replies · 865 Reposts · 3.99K Likes

Plus:

• 🪙 Africa spent a decade banning crypto. Now Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya are licensing it, building the world’s first regulated stablecoin economy: “The shift in sentiment and action taken by governments is the answer to a change in what crypto has become on the ground, where it’s become less of an investment and more of a payment system that millions of people already use for remittances, savings, and cross-border trade.“ (CryptoSlate)

• 🌱 Greenpilled Thesis: In Retrospect: “the deeper miss is subtler. i was too technology-forward. i believed that if you shipped better mechanisms, better coordination would follow. but mechanisms don’t coordinate people. culture does. narrative does. institutions, status, trust, and social structure do. sustained revenue and cashflow is required to put wood behyind the arrow. i built the basement (the game theory, the smart contracts, the funding rails) and skipped parts of the superstructure (the human layer sitting on top of all of it).“ (@owocki)

📣 Latest News

• MoneyGram Becomes Solana Validator, Joins Institutional Developer Platform

• Zelle launches its own stablecoin, ZLUSD

• Applied Social Media Lab Launches Encrypted Spaces

• Anthropic Announces Program to Teach Nonprofits to Use AI More Effectively

Global Policy, Regulation, and Adoption News

• Bank of England Eases Stablecoin Rules, Swaps Holding Caps for £40B ‘Guardrail’

Reports & Project Updates

• AthenaDAO Newsletter - Save the Ovaries for Millennials

🔈 Watch & Listen

• Crypto Altruists - Episode 1, Building for Good with G$ - A Blueprint for Ecosystem Funding: GoodBuilders, FlowState, and the Power of Streaming Funds
  

🚀 Opportunities & Calls to Act

• Apply: The AI Access Initiative (2AI) is hiring a Chief Program Officer.

🎪 Events

Virtual

• Regenerative Technology Playshop ~ Governance & Collaboration is happening June 30.

• Nature Tech Demo Day - Measuring Biodiversity Across the Value Chain is happening July 2.

• SheFi Philippines Official Launch is happening July 11 in Santa Rosa. 🆕

• Community Call: Deliberative & Democratic Tech hosted by Metagov x CrownShy is happening July 14. 🆕

• Regenerative Technology Mutual Aid Innovation Gathering is happening July 15.

IRL

• European DAO Workshop 2026 is happening July 6-7 in Winterthur, Switzerland.

• DWeb Camp 2026 is happening July 8–12 in Alte Hölle - Brandenburg, Germany.

• ETHGlobal Lisbon is happening July 24-26 in Lisbon.

• DWeb Camp Cascadia is happening July 30 - August 3 on Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada.

• FW:B Fest 5 is happening July 31-August 2 in Idyllwild, CA.

• Liberpulco 2026 is happening August 13-23 in Liberland Ark Village, Serbia.

• Crypto Commons Gathering is happening August 16-22 in Reichenau an der Rax, Austria.

• Valley of the Commons is happening August 24 - September 20 in the Austrian Alps.

• Boston Blockchain Week is happening September 8-10 in Quincy, MA.

• The Gathering is happening September 11-15 in Portugal.

• The Technoprogressive Opportunity is happening September 19-20 in London.

• Freedom Tech DC is happening September 22-23 in Washington, DC. 🆕

• ETHGlobal Tokyo 2026 is happening September 25-27 in Tokyo.

• TOKEN2049 is happening October 7-8 in Singapore.

• Progress Conference 2026 is happening October 8-11 in Berkeley, CA.

• Responsible Tech Summit: Embedding Accountability in the AI Era is happening October 29 in NYC.

• Devcon 8 is happening November 3-6 in Mumbai, India.

• Foresight Institute’s Vision Weekend USA 2026 is happening November 13-15 in San Francisco.

• ETHWomen is happening November 17-18 in Florida.

• The Africa Bitcoin Conference is happening December 2-5 in Blantyre, Malawi.

Recurring

• Monthly Earth Day is a global event that happens on the 22nd every month, not just once a year. Get involved next on July 22.

📡 On Our Radar

• Surge Browser by User Cooperative is the first browser owned entirely by the people who use it.

✨ And One More Thing

Crypto Altruists@Crypto_Altruism

Epoch 12 is here, and Octant is for everyone 💚 To celebrate, we're spotlighting the awesome @OctantApp Epoch 12 projects who've joined us on the Crypto Altruists pod over the years 🎙️ A thread of builders growing Ethereum's impact story 👇

5:40 PM · Jun 23, 2026 · 335 Views

2 Replies · 2 Reposts · 20 Likes

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The edges of the old and new worlds are blurring fast. Western Union is launching a stablecoin on Solana, a move that says as much about crypto’s growing influence as it does about how incumbents adapt when their time is up. Meanwhile, a16z’s State of Crypto 2025 report maps the shift from trading to building real systems. Stablecoins, privacy tech, and identity tools aren’t just conceptual anymore; they’re starting to power actual change on the ground.

This week’s stories explore that tension between innovation and control, progress and co-option. From global remittances to regulations to reflections on tech and meaning, everything is moving fast and getting closer to something “real.”

WAGMI (we are going to make an impact!)

xx Abeera & Sam

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What’s Inside

• 📚 What We’re Thinking About

• 📣 Latest News

• 🔈 Watch & Listen

• 🚀 Opportunities & Calls to Act

• 🎪 Events

• 📡 On Our Radar

• ✨ And One More Thing

📚 What We’re Thinking About

💰 Western Union’s Stablecoin Play

This week, Western Union announced USDPT, a new stablecoin launching on Solana, marking the company’s first major move into blockchain-based remittances. The goal is to let customers send digital dollars instantly and cheaply through the same network that once charged some of the world’s highest transfer fees. For a company long criticized for taking double-digit cuts from migrant workers, this shift feels both overdue and complicated.

On one hand, this could be a meaningful step toward lowering costs for millions of people who rely on remittances every day. Western Union’s global footprint and local payout networks could help solve crypto’s “last mile” problem (how to easily move between digital and local currencies in hard-to-reach markets). For billions without stable on-ramps, this kind of infrastructure could accelerate financial inclusion in practice, not just in theory.

At the same time, the move raises important questions about what kind of system we are building. Crypto’s original promise was to disintermediate the middlemen who profited from the world’s poor, not to empower them with better rails. Western Union’s pivot is a sign that the old guard sees the writing on the wall. For the Web3forGood community, it’s a reminder that competition is here and values matter. The challenge now is ensuring that this next phase of digital finance truly gives people choice and not just a faster way to pay the same gatekeepers.

💭 a16z’s 2025 State of Crypto Report

The State of Crypto 2025 report from a16z is all about “the year crypto went mainstream.” Aka crypto is no longer about trading tokens… it’s about building systems that work in the real world. For the first time, blockchain networks are powering payments, identity, and coordination tools that feel ready for mainstream use, especially in places where the existing systems fall short. Here are our key takeaways for the Web3forGood community:

1. Stablecoins are leading the way.

Stablecoin payments now outpace Visa and PayPal combined, becoming the most used blockchain application globally. In emerging markets, they’re already helping people save, send, and receive money with more stability and less friction. For nonprofits, this is a practical breakthrough; stablecoins make it possible to deliver cash aid directly, pay global teams instantly, and track funds transparently.

2. Builders are back and infrastructure is maturing.

Developer activity has surged across modular and Layer 2 ecosystems like Base, Arbitrum, and Optimism. Smart wallets, account abstraction, and mobile-first design are making crypto usable without crypto literacy. This opens the door for NGOs, community projects, and local innovators to build with blockchain without needing deep technical expertise or complex setup.

3. Privacy, identity, and trust are evolving.

Zero-knowledge technology is reframing privacy as a public good, allowing verifiable yet private transactions. New identity frameworks are emerging that let users prove who they are or what they qualify for without revealing personal data. These are foundational tools for humanitarian work, where safety, trust, and transparency must coexist.

4. Finance meets the physical world.

DeFi is transforming into RealFi, linking on-chain finance to tangible assets like renewable energy projects, small business credit, and community infrastructure. For social enterprises, this could unlock new capital flows into the kinds of projects traditional finance has overlooked.

5. Culture and governance are changing too.

NFTs and DAOs are being repurposed for belonging and coordination rather than speculation. These new digital communities are testing models for collective ownership and participatory decision-making that could inspire the next generation of civic and nonprofit governance.

6. Regulation is slowly catching up.

The landscape is still uneven, but the direction is clearer; stablecoin frameworks, ETF approvals, and more nuanced policy debates are paving the way for collaboration between public institutions and decentralized systems.

The takeaway for the Web3forGood community is simple: the infrastructure is ready. Stablecoins, smart wallets, and privacy layers now make it possible to design financial and civic systems that are global, transparent, and human-centered. What happens next depends on who chooses to build with them and for what purpose.

Plus:

• 🪙 What If I Was a Bitcoin?: “Think about it: in a world where cryptocurrencies dominate the financial system, we’d be divided by nothing else than our own personal interests. Are you a real-estate enthusiast? Then, go for the RWAs coins. Are you a music and digital art aficionado? Then, the NFT crowd are your kind of people. Memecoins, stablecoins, dAI, DePINs, just choose what makes you get butterflies in your stomach.” (Albena Kostova-Nikolova)

• ⚖️ Kenya’s New VASP Law: A No-BS Legal Guide for Bitcoin and Crypto Builders: “In plain English: it doesn’t regulate Bitcoin the protocol or your private self-custody. Instead, it regulates companies that touch customer assets — exchanges, custodians, token issuers, investment advisors, brokers, and trading platforms.” (Bitcoin Magazine)

• 🤖 72 Hours with Friend AI: “There’s something very Judeo-Christian about how Friend seems to comprehend the nature of experience. In our philosophical tradition, experience is often centered on logos, the word. Famously, in the beginning was the Word (see John 1). Similarly, with every new technology, we develop new ways of understanding the world, currently, with the advent of large language models, everything is flattened into language. In each new technological epoch, we must define a system of inputs and outputs that the machine can process. In the industrial age, that meant encoding actions into mechanical logic; now, in the age of large language models, it means translating everything into language.” (being-on-line)

📣 Latest News

• Western Union Announces USDPT Stablecoin on Solana and Digital Asset Network

• OpenAI lays groundwork for juggernaut IPO at up to $1 trillion valuation

• Introducing the Btrust Pull Partnership: Opening the Global Stage for Bitcoin Developers from the Global South

• Ethereum Foundation rolls out new institution-focused site amid Wall Street’s crypto push

Global Policy, Regulation, and Adoption News

• Kenya Signs Virtual Asset Bill Into Law, Ushering New Era for Bitcoin and Crypto Regulation

• Argentine Stablecoin Use Surged Ahead of President Milei’s Midterm Election Win

• Philippine Blockchain Budget Bill Risks Centralization and Privatization, Lawyers Warn

• Scan to Pay enables direct cryptocurrency payments through MoneyBadger integration in South Africa

🔈 Watch & Listen

• Crypto Altruists - Episode 223 - Octant Epoch 9 Special - Part 2 - Building a New Creator Economy on Ethereum

• Crypto Altruists - Episode 224 - Pesabase - How Stablecoins Are Transforming Remittances and Empowering Local Economies in South Sudan

• Green Pill - S.10 Episode 3 – Protocols for Post-Capitalist Expression: Rethinking Capital with Akseli, Dick & Jorge

• Green Pill - S.10 Episode 2 - Deep Funding: The Future of AI-Powered Public Goods Allocation — with Devansh Mehta

• Anita Posch - Bitcoin for Fairness Podcast

• What Bitcoin Did - Bitcoin vs Dictatorships | Leopoldo López

🚀 Opportunities & Calls to Act

• Hack: Octant DeFi Hackathon 2025 is looking for builders who can bring innovation, uniqueness, and an interesting perspective to DeFi strategies, design, and public goods for Octant’s vaults; over $20k in prizes available.

• Learn: All Tech Is Human has launched five dynamic Responsible AI courses designed for aspiring RAI practitioners and AI Governance professionals, as well as those preparing to build AI Governance programs within an organization.

• Volunteer: Apply to represent Gitcoin at the Ethereum World Fair at Devconnect this year. Booth dates are Nov 17 - 19, and each volunteer will be required to be available for a multi-day commitment. Each volunteer will receive a free ticket to Devconnect or something of similar value if you’ve already secured a ticket.

🎪 Events

🆕= New to the roundup this week

Virtual

• Beyond the Bank: Financial Tools for Democratic Organizations, hosted by Bread Cooperative, is happening November 6. 🆕

IRL

• Bitplebs Summit is happening November 1 in Goa, India.

• Borderless 4.0 is happening November 1 at University of Nigeria Nsukka.

• Women In Crypto Afternoon Tea in Mayfair is happening November 6 in London. 🆕

• FIL Dev Summit 7 @ DevConnect is happening November 13 in Buenos Aires.

• LabWeek Web3 by Protocol Labs is happening November 13-19 in Buenos Aires.

• The Uniswap Cup is happening November 16 in Buenos Aires.

• Devconnect 2025 is happening November 17-22 in Buenos Aires.

• DePIN Day Buenos Aires is happening November 18 in Buenos Aires.

• Funding the Commons: Buenos Aires 2025 is happening November 19 in Buenos Aires.

• Schelling Point is happening November 20 in Buenos Aires.

• Vision Weekend USA 2025 is happening December 5-7 in San Francisco.

• The Oslo Freedom Forum is happening June 1-3 in Oslo, Norway.

• ETHBoulder is coming in 2026…

Recurring

• Monthly Earth Day is a global event that happens on the 22nd every month, not just once a year. Get involved next on November 22.

📡 On Our Radar

• Campfire is an on-chain renewable energy investments platform.

• ZAR is accelerating stablecoin adoption for the next billion users living in countries with unstable money.

• Eco is a stablecoin liquidity network powering fluid, real-time money movement across blockchains.

• Minibits is an ecash and Lightning wallet exploring how ₿-backed ecash can enable instant, cheap, and private value transfer.

✨ And One More Thing

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