Lifting 12,000 people out of poverty in Brazil.

Over the last 12 months, more than 12,000 people have been lifted out of poverty in Brazil, thanks to impactMarket.

In its mission to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030, impactMarket has distributed nearly $1,360,000 to more than 120 vulnerable communities in 23 countries, lifting more than 20,400 people out of extreme poverty since it first started, one year ago.

impactMarket first started in Brazil, in September 2020, following the unprecedented damage to vulnerable populations due to COVID19. As it happened all around the world, many — already vulnerable — individuals lost their jobs during lockdowns while prices increased, leaving much of the population impoverished, with no end in sight. Starting with only 30 beneficiaries, impactMarket’s assistance in form of Basic income quickly increased, growing to more than 12 thousand beneficiaries in Brazil alone, in less than 12 months. To date, the decentralized poverty alleviation protocol counts 70 Brazilian communities located all around the country, supporting projects ranging from family assistance to abused women or even recovery centers for drug addicts.

Rafael Schimidt, Country Manager at impactMarket in Brazil, was the person responsible for leading the implementation of the protocol in the country in the first place. Schimidt shares that one of the main challenges faced when implementing the first community lies in the promotion of a new solution that is based on a still unpopular technology for the targeted public. Indeed, people were unfamiliar with the subject of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, leading them to question the project’s veracity and reliability. Despite representing an essential aid to needy communities dramatically affected by the economic, political, and health crisis in Brazil, the phase of building relevance and networking was essential to the robust expansion of the country.

“People were faced with the choice of believing in a foreign company that promised to distribute basic income without charging anything in return, or keeping a closed mind and continuing to live in extreme poverty. It was at this moment that I decided to bring together all the people selected to participate in the project, around 30, and I told them: ‘Today you all have a big decision in your hands — accept the reality you are in right now or extend your hands for the future and embrace a great opportunity. One of the individuals present stood up and declared: ‘I don’t accept this situation. I want to change my life!’. And it was at that moment that the first impactMarket community in Brazil began”, recalls Schimidt.

After 2 months of impactMarket in Brazil, a new phase began: the engagement of local merchants into the ecosystem, with the intention to accept payments in cUSD (Celo Dollars) using the Valora application. The goal was to heat up the local economy while enabling beneficiaries to spend their unconditional basic income (UBI) without the need to cash out in local currency. “At the time, we had to convince merchants to accept cryptocurrencies as a form of payment, assets they didn’t even know about, rather than just local money,” says Schimidt. Quickly, this effort resulted in the adhesion of the first 3 merchants in the Fehsolna community, whose positive feedback among the beneficiaries led to an increase of merchants joining the ecosystem in a short period of time.

Soon after, in January 2021, the UBI’s impact on communities attracted the interest of entrepreneurs, who decided to unite and create impactMarket’s first self-financed community, the Jambeiro community, with an initial contribution of 576 cUSD made by a local councilor. As an inspiring example of solidarity and a sense of community, the region’s traders themselves started to finance communities with the aim to contribute to beneficiaries’ well-being, directly leading to a positive effect on local businesses. Brazil currently has more than 30 communities entirely financed by local businesses, partner companies, and philanthropists.

In line with the premise of promoting communities’ financial sustainability through stimulating the local economy, some communities started the very first “impactMarket Fair” initiative. This initiative was launched by many community managers hoping to stimulate the interaction between beneficiaries and local merchants, through the use of Valora and Celo dollars only, reducing the need for beneficiaries to cash out cUSD into local currency. So far, the initiative has been a huge success, involving more than 4800 beneficiaries from 6 different communities and leading to an increase in the circulation of cryptocurrencies in the communities.

However, the challenges faced in other communities go far beyond stimulating the use of cryptocurrencies. It is about bringing everything that makes it work; connectivity, accessibility, technology, and digital education. Povoado de Jaguara, located in the district of Feira de Santana, in Bahia, is one of them. “We believe we are making a difference when we see cases like the Povoado de Jaguara community, where people lived in a place without access to drinking water, cell phones, internet, and public transport service, and with the help of impactMarket and partners, all of this is now possible”, Rafael celebrates. Thanks to strategic partnerships, both public and private, it was possible to obtain cell phone donations for beneficiaries, install an antenna to provide internet, and receive the necessary funds to support the community.

impactMarket’s strategy in Brazil for the coming months aims to increase the good practices already seen in previous communities while enabling communities to become self-sustainable. The self-sustainability aspects will allow communities and beneficiaries to decrease their dependency on impactMarket over time, leading to the use of the protocol as a tool for decentralized resources, technological inclusion, and socio-economic empowerment.

Arguably, impactMarket’s successful expansion in Brazil is largely due to the engagement of different social actors, including community managers, the beneficiaries themselves, and public and private partners — from small entrepreneurs to large companies. If you wish to be part of the change and help communities in Brazil reach their goal, there are different ways to help. Learn more in our article “How to help impactMarket’s fight against poverty? We answer” and get inspired!”

impactMarket already supports communities in 23 countries. If you are curious about how to bring this benefit to your community, please contact us at hello@impactmarket.com.

Partner with us

impactMarket works with not-for-profit, international development agencies, charitable foundations, companies, and individuals, to grow and nurture an effective and sustainable network that creates more impact for underserved communities on a global scale. We bring together members, partners, and supporters with aligned goals to create change at speed and at scale.

If you are building a technology that will enable us to reach those without smartphones/internet, to cash out cryptocurrencies in the easiest and fastest way possible, if you are building a protocol that could help us increase our donation flow, redirect interest, and/ or benefits from your audience, or if you know a foundation, an organization that could be interested in our mission, please reach out to hello@impactmarket.com or on our discord server here.
We would love to hear from you.

Have an idea?

If there is one thing you need to know about us: we love suggestions. We believe everyone has wonderful ideas that should be shared and taken into consideration. We are, therefore, always happy to hear from the community, from donors to beneficiaries on how we could improve our product and reach. Thus, If you have an idea for a new feature or improvement you’d like to see in impactMarket in the future, we’d love to hear from you. You can post your features request here or ideas/suggestions on our discord channel here.

If you have any questions, you can reach out to us at impactmarket.com, docs.impactmarket.com, or directly by emailing us at hello@impactmarket.com.

You can also find us on Medium, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, GitHub, Youtube, Telegram, and Discord.

Dare to dream with us!

You can be part of the change and empower people all around the world. Your contribution goes to the UBI communities, and when donating cUSD to a specific community or through the impact Farming page or to a specific community, you get $PACT tokens as a reward for the impact you´ll have made. You can also stake your $PACT to get even more rewards.

impactMarket (The Human Empowerment Protocol)

impactMarket provides accessible financial solutions to empower underprivileged people all over the world, unlocking opportunities and human potential. Our inclusive protocol is transparent, reliable, and borderless. It operates as a DAO on top of the Celo network, using $PACT as its governance token while running autonomously through smart contracts.

impactLabs (the company)

impactLabs Lda, based in Portugal, was founded in Nov 2020 by Marco Barbosa, Bernardo Vieira, Afonso Barbosa, and eSolidar. The company is focused on building accessible decentralized systems to unleash human potential and disrupt access to finance while driving DeFi adoption.