Aug 23, 2021
Introducing the Orca Impact Fund: Cast your vote (and earn an exclusive Collectible!)
TL;DR: Are you an ORCA tokenholder? Vote on the nonprofit that will receive our first donation at orca.so/impactfund/vote-1 to receive an exclusive PORPOISE Collectible!
A personal note
Hello! Grace “Ori” Kwan, founder of Orca, here.
When my cofounder Yutaro and I launched Orca back in February 2021, one thing that we agreed on was that we wanted our little protocol to have an overall positive impact on the world. (In crypto, that’s by no means guaranteed.)
Early in Orca’s lifetime, users in our Telegram would sometimes say things along the lines of: “You talk all the time about whales… but what about the saving the real whales?” They may have been joking, but we took these comments to heart. When we launched Aquafarms, our yield farming program, we saw an opportunity to embed our commitment to impact more deeply into the protocol: What if we donate 0.01% of all trading fees to charity — and encode it directly into the fee distribution?
Thus, the Orca Impact Fund was born.
Simply by trading on Orca, you’re helping save the ocean and fight climate change. (Even at this early stage, we’re donating over $500 per day!) However, we’d like to invite you, our community of ORCA tokenholders, to take part on a deeper level.
Introducing: Our first ever governance vote!
If you’d like to hear more backstory, check out OrcaPod Episode 2: Real-world impact through crypto, in which Yutaro interviews Ori about the origin of the Impact Fund!
A porpoise-driven governance vote
Between August 23 and August 31, each and every existing ORCA tokenholder will have the opportunity to cast a single vote for one of two nonprofits working to protect our oceans and fight climate change:
- Ocean Conservancy: The Ocean Conservancy creates science-based solutions to foster a healthy ocean and the wildlife and communities that depend on it. Orca’s donation would go towards alleviating ocean acidification, a phenomenon in which the ocean absorbs CO2, becoming increasingly acidic and harming the natural habitats of many species.
- The Ocean Foundation: The Ocean Foundation is dedicated to reversing the trend of destruction of ocean environments around the world. Our donation would help reverse the increase in Blue Carbon in our coastal and marine ecosystems, protecting the natural balance of our coastal habitats.
The winning nonprofit will receive our first donation, which will consist of the fees accumulated in the Impact Fund between August 11 and December 31, 2021.
Plus — in exchange for helping us be porpoise-driven, you’ll receive an exclusive PORPOISE Collectible. It’s been awhile since we released one of these NFT critters, so don’t miss your chance… there are more exciting perks on the way for #OrcaCollectible holders! 😉
How to vote
All ORCA token holders will have the opportunity to vote on their nonprofit of choice.
- Each token holder receives a single vote, regardless of the amount of ORCA they hold.
- Voting for either of the above nonprofits will be open from August 23rd — August 31st 11:59 UTC.
- A snapshot of all ORCA token holders was taken on Sunday, August 22, 2021 at 06:30 UTC. All wallets included in this snapshot are eligible to vote*.
- To vote, simply head to orca.so/impactfund/vote-1, connect your wallet, and select the nonprofit you’d like to support.
- That’s it! We’ll announce which nonprofit won at the end of the voting period.
- PORPOISE Collectibles will be distributed by Sep 7, 2021.
* Ledger users must use one of the other wallets supported by Orca (e.g., Phantom or Sollet) as they are currently only able to sign a transaction, not a message.
* If you are unable to use another wallet, please complete this form to participate and earn a PORPOISE Collectible!
How we’ll donate
Orca has partnered with Every.org to facilitate this donation. Every.org is a social network for giving; its mission is to make it easier for every organization to do good by providing the technology and open infrastructure to fundraise for charitable causes. Recently, they launched support for cryptocurrency donations, which will enable us to donate the fees in the Impact Fund with minimal fees.
A few thoughts on governance
Decentralized governance as a whole is still an experiment. This vote is not a representation of how future governance proposals will operate on Orca; it’s an initial small step toward a future in which ORCA token holders guide the future of the Orca protocol. As we design our governance system, we’ll apply learnings from both experiments like these and examples of governance throughout the wider DeFi ecosystem.
