It’s time to know BLOC Platform, a global fund investment and management platform
Initiatives
Impact investment opportunities have grown dramatically in recent years. Currently, more than 1,400 asset managers and asset owners from over 50 countries representing $59 trillion of assets have signed on to the United Nations sponsored Principles of Responsible Investing (PRI), a framework created to support the integration of ESG considerations into the investment process.
With the birth of BLOC Fund launched by Government of Togo, Bamboo Capital Partners and Moeda Seed Bank, we’ve realized crypto asset and blockchain technology can help improve the impact investment in both scale and performance. We, therefore, partnering with Moeda, together aim to provide high quality and standardized impact fund service where both traditional and crypto investors have the opportunity to invest in top impact funds, not only to obtain considerable returns, but also to create global social benefits.
Why do we create BLOC Platform?
As there is a widening gap between rich and poor, investors around the world are making impact investments to unleash the power of capital for good. Some intentionally invest for below-market-rate returns. Others pursue market-competitive and market-beating returns, in line with their strategic objectives. We, at BLOC, will only focus on social impact projects with competitive returns.
In the current aid/philanthropy industry, Easterly, an NYU economics professor and a former research economist at the World Bank, brazenly contends in his book called “The White Man’s Burden” that the West has failed, and continues to fail, to enact its ill-formed, utopian aid plans because, like the colonialists of old, it assumes it knows what is best for everyone. Easterly argues that existing aid strategies provide neither accountability nor feedback. Also, according to Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), business model execution and management is by far the most often cited contributor to risk in the impact investing portfolios.
“Don’t just go for safe projects, but also take on the really tough problems.” by Warren Buffett
We at BLOC agree with Buffet’s opinions about philanthropy, and believe it can also be applied in the field of impact investing. We’ve also realized there are inherent risks in impact investing industry now as mentioned earlier. We aim to improve our society by solving the tough problems, which in turn tend to generate higher returns. By connecting global impact funds and using the most advanced blockchain technology to invest in and incubate socially influential projects, we want to make BLOC Platform a more efficient tool to create social goods without sacrificing the return rate.
How can BLOC Platform help improve impact investing?
The impact investing industry has grown dramatically, so there are many opportunities to obtain sound return rate. Impact fund performance tends to skew positive. Recent research shows there is no systematic performance penalty associated with impact investing or impact funds. In fact, 54% of funds were in the top 2 performance quartiles of their respective Morningstar category in 2017. On the other hand, as with any investment, costs should always be an important consideration. Expense ratios for impact funds have been found to be similar to those for traditional mutual funds within similar categories (Morningstar, 2017).
Crypto community have been expanding exponentially since Bitcoin was created in 2009. With the belief in blockchain technology and decentralized system, many members are dedicated to improving the world by technology innovation. Many blockchain-based projects, such as Humaniq, Everex, and etc., have been established to deliver financial services to the underbanked area. Crypto community has shown enthusiasm towards social impact industry.
We, at BLOC, are striving to find new ways to leverage blockchain technology, community-driven solutions, and collaboration to accelerate progress in impact investment. Drawing on the advantages of current ESG fund investment platforms, such as Fidelity Fund and UBS Sustainable Fund, our BLOC Impact Investment Platform is a software program that will be initially built on three blockchain protocols, i.e. Hyperledger, Stellar network and the Binance Chain protocol.
Hyperledger Fabric enables investors to retain sole custody of their private keys throughout the transaction process, giving full control to investors over their own funds without having to rely on an exchange. It provides investors more transparency in terms of feedback (returns & impact claims) and reduce management risks.
Stellar network performs as a gateway for Fiat-Crypto transactions on BLOC platform, allowing easy and fast conversion between any fiat currencies and corresponding MDA-Fiat cryptocurrencies. Stellar network also supports smart contracts, ensuring the whole BLOC platform to run smoothly, which efficiently reduces execution risk.
Binance Chain makes Crypto-Crypto transactions on our Platform possible, bringing more scalability, decentralization and security to our software. Meanwhile for investors, there is more security and liquidity, which lowers their investing threshold.
In addition to market opportunity and technology advantage, BLOC platform has developed a strong partnership with blockchain company Moeda, private equity and venture capital firm, Bamboo Capital, both of whom have delivered financial and social returns and are rigorous about defining and measuring impact. Furthermore, BLOC has obtained many supports from African countries such as Togo and Rwanda. Together, we are working towards a powerful impact investment formula.
What are we doing now?
The idea of BLOC Platform came into reality at the beginning of 2019. Our team was formed by impact investing pioneers, crypto veterans, Wall Street hedge fund quant, as well as research experts, totaling 87 members, with 8 full-time members.
In Q1 2019 , we announced the launch of the Global Tech Impact Investment Fund (BLOC Fund), which is jointly established by Bamboo Capital Partners Partners and Moeda Seed Bank. The fund invests in local impact funds and high-impact tech ventures in Seed and Series A financing rounds that work towards Financial Inclusion, Access to Healthcare, Access to Clean Energy, Access to Energy. We’ve found the Fund and our Platform have the same goal and aligned benefits, which leads to this partnership.
At present, we are finalizing the white paper and the website of the BLOC Platform.
What are we going to do in the future?
In the future, we will join forces with a number of well-known fund institutions to launch multiple impact funds, including United Nations Development Programme, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations, Chan Zuckerburg Initiative, and etc.
We will issue MDAB tokens on the Binance Chain (details below). The early token holders will join us to built the community together. In 2020, we began to look for validator nodes and more funds to enter our platform. In two years, we will embed a cryptocurrency foreign exchange sector into the Platform, with global trading pairs available, to enable liquidity to investors’ home currencies.
We are the first fund platform based on blockchain technology in the impact investing industry. The goal of creating social benefits without sacrificing the fund performance, and the idea of FX trading pairs on the Platform, are quite innovative and advanced. BLOC Platform have strong growth potential as the globalization trend continues. If you have the same objectives, please seize the opportunity to become one of the early token holders in the BLOC Platform ecosystem. More details about MDAB Token:
MDAB Token Information & Economics
Token Name and Symbol: MDAB
Total Supply: 1,000,000,000
Initial Circulating Supply: 120,000,000
Token Use Case:
Token holder will benefit from locking their MDAB tokens and gain priority access to impact funds available on the platform, as well as discount in conversion fees, all based on the amount of tokens locked.
MDAB can also be staked by validators on the platform to provide additional guarantee to the fund, and validators will receive compensation in MDAB depending on the staking time. Tokens will be compensated to investors if any losses occur to the fund.
MDAB can also be used as premium for fund insurance service provided by insurance node.
Reference:
https://blocplatform.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/BLOC-WP-EN-v22.2.pdf
https://www.fidelity.com/viewpoints/active-investor/strategies-for-sustainable-investing
https://www.lattice80.com/lattice80-x-fintech4good-top-100-fintech-for-sdg-influencers/
Follow us:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BlocPlatform
Medium: https://medium.com/@BLOC_Platform
Telegram: https://t.me/blocplatform
Website: https://blocplatform.com
WeChat: MDAB
