Year in Review: impactMarket’s Journey in 2023
New products, new partnerships, new learnings, and achievements. What a year!
As we bid farewell to another remarkable year, the impactMarket team takes pride in reflecting on our extraordinary journey in 2023. What a ride it has been!
Originating from a successful Unconditional Basic Income (UBI) program that disbursed over $3 million to nearly 50 thousand beneficiaries globally, impactMarket evolved into a comprehensive web3 solutions hub to empower local communities. We launched new products, Microcredit and Learn and Earn, celebrated great mission-aligned partnerships, participated in several events worldwide, and shared about impactMarket across podcasts, articles, and more.
Amidst the challenges of the crypto bear market, we persevered, fueled by a vision to empower the financially underserved.
Find below some highlights from impactMarket in 2023:
Microcredit
We implemented pilots in Brazil, Uganda, Nigeria, and Ghana testing diverse formats and gauging their impact. Collaborating with Huma Finance strengthened our Microcredit presence in Uganda. In total, it was disbursed $154,000+ through 500+ loans to 425 borrowers who have already made almost 900 repayments.
Learn & Earn
In February, impactMarket launched the Learn & Earn platform, offering short educational content. Thousands of users engaged in courses on finance and web3, with partnerships with Talent Protocol and Halofi bringing some of the first courses to the platform. Notably, our Learn & Earn became the inaugural dApp featured on Opera’s MiniPay wallet, now accessible in Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana.
Unconditional Basic Income
The bear market drastically reduced the donations to our Unconditional Basic Income program, impacting the frequency and amount of the funds distributed to the supported communities. Aiming to overcome this situation, we launched our “Deposit and Donate” feature, enabling donors to deposit cUSD on impactMarket’s website and redirect the earned yield to support UBI, earning PACT rewards for their donations.
Our commitment to understanding the socio-economic impact of UBI was evident in the independent study “UBI, Blockchain & Refugees” conducted in Krisan Refugee Camp, Ghana, by Rohit Fenn, Avina Ajit, and Aditi Singh. This study delves into the economic and psychosocial aspects of UBI for beneficiaries, offering valuable insights. Download it here.
We partnered with Ammer Cards, Celo Foundation, and the NGO Agape Hands to implement a 3-month pilot in the community of Cochas Bajo, in the Peruvian Andes. 50 beneficiaries were selected to receive UBI and a personalized Ammer Card to facilitate them to spend their funds in local merchants. These two merchants received PoS devices from Ammer to accept crypto payments and Microcredit to invest in their small businesses. Stay tuned for more stories coming from this amazing pilot!
With GainForest, we expanded the applications of our UBI solution to support forest stewards. A few communities were created on impactMarket’s platform to facilitate the distribution of a Conservation Basic Income to reward their preselected and validated stewards on the ground.
Across the Ecosystem
There are other great partners with whom we joined forces in 2023. We collaborated with ImmortalX to support our UBI initiatives, with DappLooker to enhance our analytics capabilities for Microcredit, with Double to bring extra benefits for PACT holders, and with our market makers from DWF Labs.
Our team marked presence in events across the globe, from EthCC to DevConnect, and online in several webinars, podcasts, and livestreams.
We strengthened our connections in the Celo ecosystem and beyond and in 2024 we want to go even further.
What comes ahead in 2024
A dynamic and uncertain scenario requires people and organizations the ability to adapt, reinvest themselves, and constantly evolve. The bear market deeply impacted the blockchain ecosystem in 2023 and, among rumors of a bull run about to start, we reinforce our commitment to a mission worth building for. A mission toward Financial Inclusion that inspired us through hard times to keep creating solutions to empower the last mile.
This mission is not only ours as a project. It’s ours as a community. As people who believe blockchain has a huge potential to create a real positive impact in the world.
How do we envision the future ahead? Inclusive. Empowering collective action. Decentralized.
As a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization), we are taking a step forward in our decentralization journey inviting all of you who feel inspired by our mission. If you would like to become a DAO contributor, fill out this form. Soon we will share more information.
Join us in this movement towards Financial Inclusion!
impactMarket, The Human Empowerment Protocol
impactMarket provides accessible financial solutions to empower underprivileged people worldwide, such as Microcredit, Learn & Earn, Unconditional Basic Income (UBI), and the crypto wallet Libera.
You can find impactMarket also on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, GitHub, Youtube, Telegram, and Discord.
