Moeda featured on Brazilian government website
At the dawn of civilization, business was done based on bartering, i.e., the trading of goods. Created in the 7th century BC, money emerged as a way to facilitate trade. Nowadays, the most well-known embodiment of monetary value is the paper bill or note. But a bill doesn’t have a specific owner. There is no name tied to it. When that paper is handed over to someone, there are no guarantees on where it will end up. However, imagine the idea of being able to attach an identity to the note — or even a contract — in a way that ensures the owner knows exactly what path their money has traveled. Soon, a person in South America can invest in projects in Africa without any apprehension.
According to the latest World Bank estimates, there are about 2 billion underbanked people throughout the world. They suffer from a lack of access to credit or business loans, severely limiting their possibilities for economic growth. Pressured by unpredictable interest rates, predatory lending and an inability to establish credit, local underbanked producers are often unable to access the capital needed to expand their business and establish meaningful financial security.
With this in mind, 30-year old Brazilian native Taynaah Reis discovered a way to help using technology, connecting people who want to invest and those needing an investment. In 2017, the first successful Brazilian cryptocurrency was created with the purpose of addressing the United Nation’s (UN) 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Through its Seed Program, Moeda has made it easier to gain access to credit. Those who need it can thus grow and bring development to their communities. Using the transparency of blockchain technology (a type of distributed database that keeps a permanent and tamper-proof record of transactions), people around the world can quickly and transparently invest in business ventures, participating in sustainable growth. It’s a new relationship of trust in which people invest in people.
The CEO emphasizes that Moeda’s encouraging results are a dream come true. “Moeda currently has more than 3,000 investors, mostly Chinese. As such, people on the other side of the world can invest in the projects selected by our Moeda Seed Program. So, it’s really wonderful to see. It’s a personal achievement. I’ll say it again, it’s my life mission. Being able to live my dream to support the dreams of lots of other people. It’s a priceless achievement.”
The ventures selected, known as Seed Projects, also receive support in subjects like technical, business and sustainability through the Moeda Seed Program. This is the case of Cooperval, run by Divina, which received investments from about nine different countries.
A beer to change the future
The first Seed Project is taking place in rural Goiás, at a cooperative 50 kilometers from the city of Formosa: Cooperval, which draws together 170 families. For 10 years now, the women of the cooperative have been reclaiming the history of the Cerrado — the Brazilian savannah — through traditional recipes that they use to make breads, jellies and sweets from native fruits. They also produce vegetables and fruit pulp. The food they produce is supplied to municipal schools in the region through government programs.
Cooperval submitted a project to Moeda to fund the growth of production — they required machinery and equipment. But the technical team determined that the community was poorly prepared to pay back the financing. The ideal would be to increase the ability of these women to pay the investment. Hence, the Cooperval Craft Beer Seed Project was born.
The project focuses on the baru, a chestnut that has a similar flavor to a peanut and is one of the native fruits that the cooperative processes, which sells at US$ 13 a kilo. To boost this value, the idea came about to produce a craft beer with the fruit. The Moeda Seed Program came up with a business plan, partnered with a local brewery, hired sommeliers — beer experts — and became a co-brander of the “Dona Divina Baru Beer”. And the amount submitted by the investors in this project will make a loan of US$ 8,000 possible. The goal is to produce 1,500 bottles, with each bottle going for 8 dollars apiece. With the profit, the cooperative will be able to pay the financing with fees in December 2018 and investors will receive a 10% bonus in MDABRL (the Moeda token tied to the Real).
The revenue from the beer represents a boom on all fronts for Formosa. Cooperval will be able to buy machinery to step up the production of vegetables and to implement a dripping irrigation system that uses a small amount of water and very little electricity. They will also purchase equipment for producing the baru, enabling an increase in profits from the sale of fresh fruit. The cooperative will also be able to develop the production of baru seedlings and spreading its cultivation to more than 3,000 families of family farmers in the region. Verging on extinction, the baru can stop being an extractive activity and turn into an environmentally relevant commercial practice. Replanting the native culture ensures the sustainability of the production and the renovation of the soil.
Another crucial part of this and of all future investments by Moeda is the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals established by the UN. In particular, the Baru project applies Goal numbers 9, 10 and 12. In addition to increasing the profitability of cooperative families, this investment has a long-term impact on the community, creating the roots of a sustainable culture that is the basis for continual growth, food security and a benchmark for other impact entrepreneurs.
At the other end of the project are investors from throughout the world. They use MDAs (Moeda’s cryptocurrency) to invest in a fast and simple way. The entire transaction takes place on the Moeda platform and allows investors to keep track of each stage with the transparency provided by blockchain technology.
All this reflects Moeda’s position as being more than just a technological platform. Its mission is to humanize financing to distribute impact. Investors are ensured transparency in their investment while, simultaneously, offered transparency in personal relations — they can meet Divina, learn about Cooperval’s circumstances and know exactly what impact their support will provide. It’s a new relationship of trust that goes beyond the products available from traditional banking systems. Blockchain ends up being a vehicle for redefining a trusting relationship that plays a part in the monetary exchange process along with the involvement between the investor and impact entrepreneur.
The Cooperval Craft Beer Seed Project is expected to be concluded in December 2018. The date will be observed with an event in which Divina will make a payment on the initial contribution. At this time, Moeda will present the results and launch new investments.
15 days for the autonomy of rural women
The roles played by rural women are as considerable as their struggles and successes, and there’s no shortage of inspirational life stories. However, they have still not received the recognition they so rightly deserve. They still face prejudice, gender inequality, and other problems they have inherited from life. There’s still a long way to go for achieving equal rights and opportunities between men and women. In order to emphasize that gender equity and respect are universal values, the United Nations (UN) decreed 2018 as the Year of Rural Women.
Bearing this in mind, we introduced a range of issues on the portal in early October that are part of the Regional Campaign for the Full Autonomy of Rural and Indigenous Women of Latin America and the Caribbean — 2018. There will be 15 days of activism in support of rural workers who are, according to the most recent demographic census, responsible for the income of 42.2% of families residing in the countryside of Brazil.
