September 8, 2020 — Multi-asset investment platform, eToro, is excited to announce that it has launched GoodDollar: a non-profit initiative that leverages decentralized finance to offer a protocol for distributed basic income. First proposed at Web Summit 2018, the concept has since advanced into a working economic model, wallet, and digital basic income coin that was launched this week.
The launch of GoodDollar means that anyone with an internet connection and phone number can receive its native crypto asset, G$, store it in the GoodDollar wallet, and transact. A pool of G$ is given away daily to users, who can use the digital asset to facilitate barter and trade locally and globally.
GoodDollar presents a sustainable, financially inclusive use case that uses new products such as staking and yield-farming, which have driven the $15 billion market cap boom across decentralized finance in recent weeks. Through staking in protocols such as Compound, AAVE, DMM, and others, GoodDollar supporters earn a yield-payout while also funding GoodDollar’s G$ basic income coin. GoodDollar G$ is backed by a monetary reserve of crypto assets: its value is derived from the interest generated by third-party permissionless protocols. Through the amassed reserve interest, G$ coins are minted: individual and corporate supporters receive market-rate yield-payouts in G$, and a daily amount is set aside to be distributed as basic income. At launch, DAI is the first supported crypto asset in GoodDollar’s monetary reserve, and Compound is the first integrated protocol.
“For years we have heard the hype about blockchain’s ability to deliver on financial inclusion, yet most of the gains in the crypto market continue to benefit a small set of savvy and connected users. GoodDollar wants to close this gap by offering every person easy access to basic digital assets,” says GoodDollar founder, Yoni Assia. “Now anyone with an internet connection can have their own digital wallet to hold and use crypto assets. We hope GoodDollar will serve the next 100 million crypto users, through freely distributing a new form of internet money that can be used to generate economic activity. And just as importantly, GoodDollar offers crypto holders an opportunity to do good with their crypto: yield-farming via GoodDollar means that you can do well for yourself while doing good for others, and unites the interests of capital holders and basic income recipients.”
In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, based on a recent study, 71% of Europeans now support some form of basic income and more than 20 nations are exploring UBI as a key policy proposal. By utilizing the tools of blockchain and decentralized finance, GoodDollar turns the UBI concept into reality, launching a ‘trickle-up’ value structure that delivers purchasing power directly to the hands of people, and is transparent and fair.
GoodDollar’s launch includes the release of the G$ token and wallet, a simple application where users ‘claim’ their G$ daily. With social log-in features and a non-KYC verification process, the wallet is designed to place money in the hands of those who need it most. In the days since release, thousands of GoodDollar wallets have already been created by users from over 40 countries, including South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, Argentina, and Venezuela.
The next phase of GoodDollar’s development will introduce referral bonuses for users who share and promote the network, features to enable individual and corporate staking, integrations with new protocols, and expanded tools to facilitate trade, barter, and merchant partnerships.
About GoodDollar
GoodDollar is a people-powered framework to generate, finance, and distribute global basic income via the GoodDollar token (G$). Its goal is to provide a baseline standard of living and reduce wealth inequality through the creation of a universal basic income. The project was founded by Yoni Assia, the Co-founder, and CEO of eToro, the global investment platform with over 14 million registered users, and based on his theory of social money first presented in 2008. eToro has financed the GoodDollar project as part of its corporate social responsibility initiatives.
About eToro
eToro was founded in 2007 with the vision of opening up global markets so that everyone can invest in a simple and transparent way. The eToro platform enables people to invest in the assets they want, from stocks and commodities to crypto assets. Its global community of more than 14 million registered users can share their investment strategies and anyone can emulate the most successful traders. Due to the simplicity of the platform, users can easily buy, hold and sell assets, monitor their portfolio in real-time, and transact whenever they want.
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