LGBT Foundation Creates A Global LGBT+ Ecosystem With Blockchain-Based LGBT Token

MOTA
MOTA
Sep 5, 2018 · 7 min read

The LGBT Foundation has partnered with OST to launch a blockchain-based LGBT Token. Sean Howell, Co-Founder of Hornet and CEO of the LGBT Foundation walked us through the goals behind launching LGBT Token and the recent process for staking and minting on Mainnet.

The LGBT Foundation is a nonprofit organization with the mission to bring crypto to the global pink economy in order to leverage the underserved market. By harnessing the power and potential of blockchain technology and other technological innovations, the Foundation aims to foster greater acceptance of the LGBT community, drive positive social change for the benefit of its members, and protect vulnerable community members.

The LGBT Foundation is the first to recognize the potential of blockchain technology to protect and further advance the rights of the LGBT community across the globe. By tokenizing the Pink Dollar, the LGBT Foundation will be able to support three principal goals:

  1. Allocate resources to tackle repression, discrimination, and inequality;
  2. Enable members to verify and protect their identities;
  3. Demonstrate and exert the economic might of the LGBT community;

Hornet is a gay social network with 25 million users and will be the first launch partner as it has a shared mission and a large reach. Both the LGBT Foundation and Hornet have a shared goal of benefiting the entire LGBT community. Of Hornet’s 25 million users, 20k users log in everyday into the community platform which is an important part of hornet. It is similar to many open source projects in that Hornet has 20k users who contribute back to the community by beta testing, hunting for bugs, reporting spam, translating the app, or contributing articles. Hornet users will now be rewarded with LGBT tokens. This token has impact both in the Hornet app as well as outside of the app as businesses that want to support the LGBT community can accept the token as a form of payment.

Goals With Launching LGBT Token

As an economy, the LGBT community is the 4th largest economy, making it the size between Germany and Japan. The LGBT Foundation allows users to leverage the LGBT Token to build equality for all. The LGBT Token represents the spending power of the lGBT community which is a $4.6 trillion (USD) global market. As the pink dollar is tokenized and partners enter the platform, the foundation is able to allocate resources to NGO’s. LGBT Token holders have the ability to influence which organizations receive resources. Sean chose to work with OST on this project because OST was set up with open source ideals, meaning the community as a whole is a stakeholder.

Sean says “OST really went out of its way to welcome the LGBT community and the foundation to showcase the power of blockchain to advance equality.”

In addition, the LGBT Token brings blockchain to millions of users. The foundation is a non-profit that was set up as a community based project. Putting the LGBT Token in wallets of millions of users uplifts a huge number of users into the crypto space. Approximately 10 million users are on Coinbase, giving token wallets to Hornet’s 25 million users and educating them on the basics of crypto helps increase the use of blockchain in the LGBT community.

Planning and Testing

On September 4th, OST opened up OST KIT Mainnet Alpha 1 to partners, several months ahead of schedule. A small handful of OST partners have begun staking real OST tokens and minting Branded Tokens on mainnet, including the LGBT Foundation, to test OST KIT on Mainnet. OST KIT Mainnet Alpha 1 includes all of the features of OST KIT as of alpha 3 on testnet, brought over to Mainnet for the first time. The OST used in the OST KIT Mainnet Alpha 1 is real OST, not test OST. The LGBT Foundation tested OST’s Alpha 1 mainnet and has staked OST to create LGBT Token. The stake & mint transactions can be viewed on the OST VIEW block explorer.

The LGBT Foundation’s proof of concept video has just been released, showcasing the various use cases for LGBT token.

Live Q&A with YouTube Chat

Will users be able to purchase pink dollars within Hornet? Will users be able to tip friends and buy items?

Right now we are focused on launching with the community platform. That’s a great use case and as we build out the road map, I’m sure this is a feature and element that we’ll consider. Ideally, people will be able to purchase tokens and send them through the wallet that we’re launching within Hornet.

Was Jason an active member? How did the connection between you and OST happen?

This was a connection with co-founder Christof Wittig who grew up in Germany. OST is based in Germany. Jason Goldberg has an interesting history as he founded a company called Fab. Before that he had a company called Fabulis which had many of the same ideals of Hornet, meant to be a social network for the LGBT community. We’re lucky to have a partner with the history of OST and Jason.

Since this is in the very early stages of the technology, can you comment on how big you see LGBT Token becoming in the next 5 to 10 years? What excites you about LGBT Token’s long term potential?

I mentioned that the size of the LGBT economy is $4.2 trillion USD. So if we move a small percentage of that, even to crypto, that’s a big number. Everyone talks about this $4.2 trillion number and the pink dollar, but no one has a way to measure it and showcase it. Just putting visibility on to that creates a lot of mite. I’m super excited about the revenue we can generate to LGBT non-profits. If you look at the total LGBT funding, globally we’re talking something very small, about $200 million dollars. Something like the LGBT token can really make a big impact

What other companies besides Hornet might be next in the LGBT community?

One of our partners that we announced that is launching with us is called Revry. It is a top cable content distribution platform. They produce a lot of great content and they’ll likely be one of the first partners. We’ve already agreed to launch with them. We’re going to be rolling this out first with the community. Users can go and sign up for our community now and once the wallet is released within the app, users will have access to it. Then we will roll it out to all users, and then roll it out to our partners.

Which country will it be released to first?

We have offices all over the world, including the U.S., but we are registered in Hong Kong. This will be available in various countries.

When do you plan to roll out the token and earn/spend opportunities to Hornet and the LGBT ecosystem?

The beta testing for the Hornet users will begin in the coming weeks. Look out for announcements. If you’re a hornet user now, you can go to sign up to be a community contributor by going to hornet.com and using your login. These community platform users will be the first ones to have access to the token.

To learn more about the LGBT Foundation and LGBT Token, please visit https://lgbt-token.org.

As CEO Jason Goldberg mentioned on Twitter, OST will be releasing more details on Mainnet Alpha 1 next week. Jason will be joining us on next week’s OST LIVE to discuss Mainnet and updates on the project. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you won’t miss any episode in the future! We’re also available on anywhere you listen to podcasts including iTunes, TuneIn, and Spotify.

About the LGBT Foundation

The LGBT Foundation is an organization that aims to deliver equality for the global LGBT community through technology and non-profit uses of its tokens. By harnessing the power and potential of blockchain technology and other technological innovations, the Foundation aims to foster greater acceptance of the LGBT community, drive positive social change for the benefit of its members, and protect vulnerable community members. The aim is that the LGBT Foundation will evolve to become a self-governing body run by and for members of the LGBT community, and which directs its activities, resources and members to the benefit of the international LGBT-community. For more information, please visit: https://lgbt-token.org/

About Hornet Networks

Hornet is the world’s premier gay social network. Founded in 2011 with the mission to build the digital home for the gay community, Hornet has grown to 25 million total users by utilizing cutting-edge technology for its dating platform and producing original editorial content to connect a community around common interests. Hornet provides a superior user experience and is number one in the key markets of France, Russia, Brazil, Turkey and Taiwan, and is consistently expanding its sizable user base in the United States. For more information, please visit: https://hornet.com

About OST

OST blockchain infrastructure empowers new economies. OST is a public blockchain platform designed for the needs of businesses with millions of users. Launch your own Branded Tokens with OST technology and turn your business into a dynamic ecosystem. OST is built on the OpenST Protocol, a framework for building highly scalable blockchain token economies. OST has offices in Berlin, New York, Hong Kong, and Pune. For more information, please visit: https://ost.com.

ostdotcom

Seamlessly integrate crypto micro-transactions into any app. OST Platform is the first full-featured “no-code” blockchain platform — a set of unified dashboards, APIs, SDKs, and protocols that any business can use. Launching the Pepo app in autumn 2019 https://pepo.com/

MOTA

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MOTA

Host of This Week in Crypto | Subscribe: https://bit.ly/cryptoweekly

ostdotcom

ostdotcom

Seamlessly integrate crypto micro-transactions into any app. OST Platform is the first full-featured “no-code” blockchain platform — a set of unified dashboards, APIs, SDKs, and protocols that any business can use. Launching the Pepo app in autumn 2019 https://pepo.com/

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